Video Did Not Kill The Radio Star

Recent manifestation of some laid off RMG workers at some pockets of Dhaka and neighbouring districts brought forth a debate that was already settled. It is all about whether automation kills jobs.

Bangladeshi RMG industry in recent years inclined towards automation that requires less operators or workers at various stages of a production process. Some factories reintroduced the laid off workers to other section while the rest continue to terminate them without paying dues. Many of these angry workers descended on the streets and protested for their dues.

I once caught myself in one of these unrests in Mirpur that literally stopped the vehicular movement for half a day.

Many here tried to blame automation for this lay off and unrest.

The RMG industry and Textiles sector itself shows how hollow the argument is. From handloom to powerloom to sophisticated machineries, bevy of equipments have been introduced to this strategically crucial sector since this sector started to fetch forex for the country. Have you seen any decline in recruitment? No. What changes did unfold before us? We started to produce woven shirts, sweaters, denim pants etc that we had not produced before. Previously we were only good at producing couple of knit items. Now our knit garments industry produces highly value added items. Moreover, productivity has also increased.

With adoption of new machinery, our RMG and Textiles industry now produces more technically challenging items that bring more revenues. As revenues from manufacturing traditional item do not cease to come, exporters invested more in production of value added items. For instance, many knit exporters invested heavily on knit items that require embroidery work. To produce these high value items, they invested in embroidery machines and to train operators so that the embroidered work reflects the finest quality of craftsmanship.

It is pretty obvious from this example that sophisticated machinery not only relieves the abundant labours from producing traditional items, it also reemploys some of them on production of more high value items.

One may argue that one or two initiatives cannot be presented as examples. But five years down the line more firms will follow the successful initiatives as automation overwhelms the present production process. Automation in RMG is not a job killing process, rather it is a stage reducing process. More jobs will be created at a later date.

Pertinent would be to cite the example of industrial revolution. Similar argument was floated back then. It was widely viewed as a process to kill jobs at agricultural sector. However, industrial revolution brought the rural peasants to cities and offered them jobs at new industries. A new relationship between recruiter and employee was developed through the instrument of job contract. The rural peasants earned more by working in the industry and mechanization also revolutionized the agricultural sector in general.More environment friendly and cost effective production process was developed and introduced. Innovation in the processing and preservation and introduction of supply chain management system also made agriculture a lucrative business in the post industrial phase.


So new ideas and technologies are not job killing process but open up new alleys of opportunities in general.

Another wrong perception about automation is that it will lower wages at a certain industry. It is perhaps not the case. Wages may vary across the industry, but introduction of new technology will not drive the wages to such a low level that workers refuse to work. Wages are based on a worker's decision to buy a bucket of goods and services that are quintessential to survive at a certain point of time.Prices of goods and services go up over the years due to inflation. This must reflect on bare minimum wages, below which a worker refuses to work. As long as inflation does its work, wages are supposed to increase.

Moreover, adoption of new technology often leads to higher productivity and more revenue. This higher productivity also plays a role to raise wages of employees of all levels.

If we take a close look at the informal sector, we will see wages of rickshaw pullers and construction workers rose significantly over the years.Please note the two sectors also witnessed tremendous boom in technology in recent years.Battery-run rickshaws augmented earnings of rickshaw pullers and increasing use of machinery did not lower the wages of construction worker.

Battery-run rickshaws literally increased the wages of whole rickshaw industry, including the tri-cycle rickshaws. Meanwhile, rising food prices and higher wages in other sectors did not cause the rickshaw fare to fall in spite of the fact that overwhelming number of rickshaws ply over the streets.

In construction industry of Dhaka, inflation coupled with use of machinery and higher wages in other sectors also raised the  wages in this industry.

In a nutshell, argument floated in favour of automation kills jobs sounds hollow at the end of the day. The Buggles back in late '70s composed a popular song on the wake of  arrival of VCR called " Video killed the radio star". In the course of time, title of the song was proved wrong. Radio Stars were temporarily went off the radars of people's memory. But internet and mobile phone, dotted with FM radio, resurrected those Radio Stars.Now we have more FM radio stations and radio jockeys. Sometimes we watch live some radio programmes on social media or TV and simultaneously listen to the programmes on Radio. Technology is the healer, not the killer.

Heed Post Flood Efforts

Swelling of major rivers due to incessant rains caused floods in 28 districts. Press reports citing health ministry suggest that flood perished 114 lives and made hundreds of thousands of people homeless between Jul10 and July 26. Initial damage is still being assessed. Government has definitely plans to come up with relief efforts to tackle with post flood challenges.

Challenges span from creating jobs/cash benefits till the next harvest period to provide agricultural credit to farmers affected by flood. This is no easy task and Bangladesh did this kind of job quite well in the past. Flood literally affected the whole Bangladesh as the 28 districts scattered through all the divisions including the districts of CHTs. But Barishal, Rangpur, Mymensingh and Rajshahi divisions where agriculture plays a key role in the livelihoods of rural people also sustained damages to crops.

I recently come across “Report on Agricultural and Rural Statistics 2018(RARS 2018)”published by Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics(BBS). According to RARS 2018, agriculture accounts for 53.90 % of annual household income in Rangpur division, only division where agricultural sources dominate over non agricultural sources in determining the annual household income.In Dhaka, non agriculture constitutes 71.19% of annual household income. After Rangpur, agricultural activities are also reported to play a significant role in deciding annual household income in Mymensingh(47.98%), Khulna(46.99%) and Rajshahi (44.88%) divisions. Worst flood-hit districts like Niphamari, Lalmonirhat, Kurigram,Jamalpur, Sherpur and Netrokona lie in Rangpur and Mymensingh divisions. Taking a closer look at the monthly income reveals that monthly household income is lowest in Mymensingh (Tk 14009.83) divison, followed by Rangpur(Tk 14304.42) division. Meanwhile the highest monthly household income is registered in Chattogram(Tk19306.92), followed by Dhaka(Tk 19180.50).It is worthwhile to mention that in the informal sector of Dhaka, a Rickshaw puller and a construction helper draw a monthly salary between Tk 10,170 and Tk 11, 151 throughout the year.

Agricultural activity does not last throughout the year and non agricultural activity does not bring in everyone on board, so there is always the left outs. Wages without food for agricultural labor in all the divisions are pretty high. It somehow buttresses the claim that during the harvesting season even Tk 500/ day does not fetch a worker. However, working days per week are below 5.5 days in the rural areas. Please note that wages without food per day are Tk 360 in Rangpur division, Tk 355 in Rajshahi division and Tk 419 in Mymensigh division. Average working days per week are 4.95 days in Rangpur, 5.01 days in Rajshahi and 4.87 days in Mymensingh. Meanwhile a rickshaw puller gets on average wages of Tk 371 per day in all the working days in Dhaka. Consequently,, income gap and lack of opportunities during the post harvest season lead the rural workers to big cities like Dhaka. It is anticipated that this influx will be more severe in coming months unless well designed post flood relief efforts are taken in flood hit areas particularly in Rangpur and Mymensingh divisions.

Unnayan Onneshan, a not for profit organization, did a field survey among the slum dwellers engaged in informal sector in Agargaon and adjacent areas for a study titled “Accumulation And Alienation: State Of Labor Force in Bangladesh 2013”. In that survey, majority of the respondents (62.7%) said they took up jobs in informal sector due to job crisis in formal sector.

The RARS 2018 tells us that investment cost for transport vehicles and equipment is the highest in Rangpur division. RARS survey also reveals that NGOs appear to be major source of agricultural credit followed by banks. The recent flood without doubt compounded the debt problem of the farmers in the flood hit areas. Affected farmers deserve government’s assistance to attenuate their credit burden through cash benefits or access to interest free credit. The BBS survey highlights that both Aus and Aman crop registered post harvest losses of 8.93% and of 7.70% respectively out of total production in 2018. And the losses are mostly attributed to price volatility in the sales and to reasons associated with processing transportation and storage.

Clearly, pre flood post harvest losses have already pushed the farmers who are now poised to deal with post flood situation to a vulnerable position. Flood damages only augment their worries. In addition BBS rural data shows heavy reliance of rural households on rearing livestock and poultry. The reliance is heavy in flood hit divisions like Rangpur. It is evident that flood will cause significant damage to livestock and poultry. Media report suggests that in many areas cattle and cows are being sold at prices far below than the market prices , causing severe losses to livestock rearing families. Prices of feed and fodder may also go up in the post flood period if proper supply is not ensured.

In the wake of this severe Monsoon calamity, government strategies should focus on two tasks: 1. rejuvenate agricultural activities by providing agricultural credit at concessional rate and agricultural inputs at subsidized cost so that the farmers in flood hit areas can get back to the pre flood situation as soon as possible; 2. initiate programs in collaboration with NGOs to boost non agricultural income generating opportunities in flood hit areas so that rural workforce does not need to worry about lack of job opportunities and rural-urban migration flow does not turn worse.