24 April marks the tragic Rana Plaza incident; it was on 24 April 2013 that the eight-storied Rana Plaza building housing five garment factories in Savar collapsed, killing 1,135 people besides leaving over 2,500 injured.
But even after eight years of the tragedy, around 57 per cent of those who survived this incident are found to have remained jobless owing to the mental trauma and physical weakness even as the remaining 43 per cent is engaged in various types of wage-earning jobs and self-employment.
This was underlined in a survey carried out by ActionAid Bangladesh.
Titled ‘Covid-19: Challenges for the Rana Plaza Tragedy Survivors’, the findings of the survey were disclosed by ActionAid Bangladesh on 22 April (Thursday) virtually, as per which the physical health condition of 14 per cent of the survivors was getting worse as most of them were still having various issues like headache, pain in hands, legs and back even as 12.5 per cent of the survivors was suffering from trauma, 58.5 per cent was found to be more or less stable and 27.5 per cent completely stable in 2020.
Further, the survey conducted amongst 200 survivors of the Rana Plaza tragedy also found that around 92 per cent of the survivors did not get any support from the Government during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
