Business Desk :
Shefali Akter has been working in Gazipur’s Fakhruddin Textiles as an operator for around five years. Prior to the coronavirus pandemic that hit Bangladesh in 2020, she used to draw her salary from a bank account.
Now Shefali gets her salary to her mobile financial service (MFS) account as the textile maker, after getting government stimulus to cushion Covid-19 fallout, switched to mobile banking.
“I was worried about whether I would get the salary or not as the factory was closed due to the coronavirus lockdown. Later, the authorities assured the workers that they will get a portion of their wages through their mobile phones,” said the ready-made garment (RMG) worker.
Like her, workers of 1,979 export-oriented garment factories are now receiving payments through mobile banking platforms, according to the Bangladesh Bank data.
The payment switchover has established women’s full control over their income, and also provided the apparel-makers with hassle-free worker payments. A government policy played a vital role in bringing in the changes, which an apparel top boss termed “a social revolution”.
Last year, the government initially announced a Tk5,000 crore stimulus for the export-oriented industries, which was mostly availed by the RMG sector.
The stimulus fund was later expanded twice to Tk10,500 crore, and apparel makers took low-cost loans from the amount for staff salaries and payments.
The government facility for the apparel sector had a string attached to it which stipulated the worker payments through the MFS accounts.
According to the central bank data, the total number of workers and employees who got salaries from the stimulus is around 25.03 lakh. Of them, around 13.03 lakh were female and nearly 12 lakh were male.
