Notwithstanding the various challenges, Bangladesh apparel sector has expanded since the infamous Rana Plaza disaster.
This was revealed in a report which stated the factories’ size and the numbers of workers have increased since then.
Titled ‘Socio-economic Profile of Garment Workers of Bangladesh’, the report of the study conducted by the Asian Centre for Development (ACD) has estimated that around 4.22 million workers were employed by the readymade garment sector of the country in 2020 even as it added that over the period from 2015 to 2020, the annual increase of workers averaged at 1.07 per cent while also maintaining that many factories were also closed down during this period.
The Executive Director of ACD, Dr. AK Enamul Huq, revealed the survey findings — according to the ACD’s first report published in 2015, the number of RMG workers was 4.0 million — conducted on 320 garment factories at a virtual programme held recently even as the report underlined that that the ratio of male-female workers changed from 35:65 in 2015 to 41:59 in 2020, which indicated towards faster increase of male workers compared to the females during this period.
