Another Industrial Disaster : Decoding The Incongruities

Unwanted death of workers continues unabated,
In our society, child labor is deeply rooted.
Feudalism,hooliganism are no longer despised,
Wellbeing of workers is even compromised.

Another industrial disaster once again shook Bangladesh on the eve of Eid,killing 52 workers on the outskirts of Dhaka,Narayanganj. ¹This week initial probe report came out with the findings. I decided not to share it here as only one leading daily published it, but it could not be corroborated as other outlets have not carried out the story yet.

The juice factory in question is used to store and produce consumer products like beverages and snacks. In that cramped factory premises many women and children were working on that fateful day. Prior to that, mysterious explosion in a shopping mall in the middle of a residential cum commercial area killed 15 people in a busy part of Dhaka, including the security guard living in the basement. Official probe report blamed gas leakage from an abandoned gas connection, severed due to pending dues 5 years ago.²No independent verification is there as independent forensic investigation is not allowed. Nor is it encouraged.

Shock and puzzle displayed on the press might remind one such incident is incongruous in Bangladesh’s industrial environment. But flourishing of crony capitalism, feudal mindset ,deception and trampling over other’s legitimate rights set the context for such tragedies. It is there in subtle and less crude form ,we get puzzled and shocked only when tragedies struck. Prelude to catastrophe is pretty much written in our society.

Even a decade ago ,this feudalism and flexing of muscle is less conspicuous. But now it is so shockingly omnipresent in vernacular activities, I think little element of puzzle is there. For one of the obvious victims of such attitude is the commitment to observe standards and rules that ensure rights of workers and consumers.

The workers were about to get their due salaries and bonuses. Many took up the job as COVID rendered them jobless and school drop-out.

Two issues popped out from this latest bout of disaster: child labor and worker's safety.

Much of the shock emanates from the death of school dropouts. But child labor is shockingly present in our country. Most of the conductors of misfit buses plying over the streets of Dhaka are kids,most of the workers in brick kilns in Cumilla are children who are sold out for six months as their families do not have enough income earning opportunities in Satkhira or in Lal Monirhat. One can even find them in ironsmith's sweat shops, cigarette vendor’s kiosk, pornography selling jobs or even sex working in the brothels of Bangladesh. I even saw conducts of a highly educated family towards their child servant, writ large on her back. When a society lowers its threshold of tolerance for cruelty towards children, there is little reason to get puzzled in reading the news of death of stranded child worker in a burning factory.

Many took the occasion to blame indefinite closure of schools (500 days according to some news report) for the rising number of child worker. Indefinite closure is surely harming educational attainment of children. But naïve is the argument that it is the reason behind increasing incidence of child labor. If a family is willing to send children to work and a recruiter is more than happy to recruit them and a society turns a blind eye to child labor, why do we blame indefinite closure of schools?

Another issue resurfaced amid this disaster is the worker’s condition at workplace. The matter has gone into oblivion since the Rana Plaza disaster. In terms of ensuring safety at factory premises, significant improvement has been made riding on the commitment of international buyers and domestic exporters. However, overall wellbeing of the workers remains stagnant and in some cases even deteriorated. I heard a BBC report that divulged that many female workers enroll their children to Lillah Boarding ( accommodation plus food are free there) of Dhaka based Madrasas as many factories do not have day care facilities. So worker’s children do not climb up the social ladder due to lack of access to mainstream education.

In a country where respect for individual is diminishing and grabbing of someone else’s resources gaining acceptance, taking care of workers and their children appears to be a utopian dream. In addition, professionalism, which could be found a decade ago, sounds like a word of bygone era or a flaunting statement by those who did not practice it in the past and have no intention to do so in the present or future.

In a country where landing in any job is like getting the moon on one's hand, people seldom care about workers’ rights. Who does really care if few of them died in industrial disaster?

In this part of the world, politics is mingled with business ( owner of the juice factory is a former member of parliament) and overflowing clandestine wealth often contaminates the mainstream business. Furthermore, many get away with previous disaster and negligence to workers.

However, despite the anti-worker environment prevails in some factories, Bangladesh did not prevent the press from reporting on industrial disaster and workers' unrest unlike other countries of the region. For this reason, there has been widespread reporting on industrial disaster, which may be suppressed in other rival countries. Bangladesh’s attitude should be rewarded in this case.

No gainsaying that environment for doing business in Bangladesh has deteriorated over the years. At the one hand, business malpractices creep up; on the other hand, child labor and rent-seeking mentality are deeply woven in our society. If the issues remain unaddressed, then industrialization of Bangladesh may be plagued by such tragedies.

Notes and References:

1. “Massive Blaze At Narayanganj Factory Claims 52 Lives”,Dhaka Tribune report,July 09,2021.Link here
2. “Gas Leak Caused Mogh Bazar Blast,Probe Finds”,bdnews24 report,July 15,2021.Link here