The proportion of female garment workers in the Bangladesh readymade garment (RMG) sector has fallen lately.
This is as per a survey carried out by the Asian Center for Development (ACD), which underlined the proportion of female workers has dwindled from 65 per cent in 2015 to 59 per cent in 2020.
Adaption of new technology and machinery and structural changes of RMG industries to knitwear from woven factories, had squeezed the opportunities of the women workers, the survey maintained even as it went on to add that increase in wages was attracting male workers with higher levels of education to seek jobs in this sector.
The study, however, showed the number of both female and male workers had increased in the garment industry.
Our estimate shows the number of female workers has grown between 2 and 4 per cent each year, while the number of male workers has grown by 7 to 10 per cent during the same period, underlined the report, adding, with changes in technology, garment factories were looking for more skilled workers, which emerged as a great opportunity for the male workers even as the ACD, in 2015, said in its survey that there were 65 per cent female workers in Bangladesh’s apparel sector.