Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA)’s initiative of preparing a central database for workers is still on. Five years’ since the process began, the final version is yet to be be prepared, as many confusion over the number of garment workers as well as garment factories persists.
According to some industry sources, the total number of garment workers in Bangladesh is 4.4 million, while others believe the number is 3.5 million. In order to sort this out, the BGMEA decided to accumulate the data way back in 2012.
In the light of the two incidents that took place in Bangladesh — Rana Plaza and Tazreen, BGMEA announced the initiative to update information of all workers working in garment factories in Bangladesh. The association took up the project to collect updated information on garment workers and maintain a database, which would have all the requisite information on the workers. The initiative started had been put on hold for some time, to be restarted by the garment trade body only recently.
In this regard, BGMEA President Siddiqur Rahman said, “Now, we have restarted the process of making the central database of garment workers. I hope the process is completed very soon. We have put pressure on the member factories to provide information about their workers without further delay.”
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According to initial plans, the data were to be collected only from areas where the garment factories are more in number — like Mirpur, Ashulia, Gazipur, Savar, Maona and Narayanganj — where about 60 per cent of the country’s garment factories are located. But now, the association has decided to collect data encompassing garment workers from all over the country.
