Beyond the Façade of Fashion

A Closer Look at the Sweatshops of Bangladesh

Context Staff

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4 min readNov 29, 2018

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https://worldpolicy.org/2013/09/12/bangladesh-a-labor-paradox/

On the morning of 24th April 2013, Rana Plaza, situated within a suburb in Dhaka, collapsed, injuring about 2500 factory workers, and burying almost 1200 more under its rubble. This devastating tragedy, often referred to as the biggest industrial accident in the global garments industry, thrust Bangladesh’s manufacturing sector into the spotlight. The top players were subjected to public scrutiny and sickening stories of exploitation surfaced from within the walls of the factories. The ruins of Rana Plaza became symbolic of the harsher reality of the apparel supply chain, especially the one deep-rooted within the country’s economy.

When Bangladesh attained the status of an independent nation in 1971, the ready-made garments industry was virtually non-existent. Within a decade of its inception, and with the blessings of South Korean manufacturers, this sector dominated the export arena. This successful trajectory, sketched in 1978, aided by a total of 7 industrial policies, is now responsible for over 75% of Bangladesh’s earnings.

As the industry exploded, Bangladesh witnessed the highest job creation rate and there were countless takers. Unsurprisingly, out of the 4 million workers, a staggering majority are women. For the first time in the history of the rather-conservative nation, women were provided with extensive employment options. The arrival of garment factories expanded their horizons- they influenced marriage and childbearing decisions for the average Bangladeshi woman. Additionally, owing to the fact that manufacturing jobs require basic literacy and numeracy, they opened doors to primary schooling.

What could go wrong?

The inevitable that follows the abundance of large-scale cheap labor occurred, and no one can pinpoint exactly when and where the exploitation began.

The garment factories can be classified into two; direct suppliers and indirect ones, which are also termed as ‘sweatshops’. Appropriately named, the latter are unregulated and unregistered workshops. Workers, deprived of sleep, have to work six to six and a half days per week, sometimes up to 72 hours at a stretch; child labor is prevalent, and although most factory managers maintain that their workers are at least 18 years of age, there are children as young as 14 breaking their backs to support their families; minimum wage wars are ongoing, and the laborers have allegedly not received a pay raise since 2013. Those who dare to complain are abused by the sadistic factory owners.

It took the loss of two thousand lives for top apparel retailers and brands, spearheaded by H&M, to come together and sign a five-year legally binding agreement- the Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh (Accord). The North American retailers including Gap Inc., Walmart, and Target, created a different five-year safety plan called the Alliance for Bangladesh Worker Safety (Alliance).

Superficially, this seemed like progress, but not much has changed.

According to an article published by prominent reform advocates of the NYU Stern Center for Business and Human Rights in 2015, working for direct suppliers is better than slaving your years away in sweatshops. The article further stated that the two safety programs encompass only 27% of factories, out of the alleged 7,000 factories in Bangladesh. Almost 3 million sweatshop workers are not protected by them. Moreover, out of the 3,425 inspections conducted by the Accord, the Alliance, and the International Labor Organisation (ILO), only 8 factories passed the final inspection.

Furthermore, the future is bleak; when the agreements expire in 2018, it seems highly probable that fashion brands will quietly pull out and outsource manufacturing to cheaper sites. What commenced as five-year plans proposed by global brands, retailers, trade unions as well as activists, are now highlighting the shortcomings of such temporary commitments. The more the need for strict monitoring in Bangladesh, the more the incentives for fashion titans to relocate their operations to countries that are too poor to even dream of such mandates. Once they establish and grow their base, Bangladesh’s dark chapter will be long buried, replaced by a vicious cycle of patterns that emerge and re-emerge in the history of the garments industry.

What is next for the nation?

If apparel giants look elsewhere for favorable conditions- which they are currently doing by expanding to Myanmar and Ethiopia — Bangladesh stands to lose a lot. Even if they lost a portion of their USD 30 billion exports, the effects on the economy would be devastating.

The appalling conditions of the sweatshops in Bangladesh have started a global conversation and it is agreed that fashion juggernauts need to set a tone for indirect suppliers so that they are compelled to match up to the standards which the formal factories follow. Those at the top of the hierarchy should keep a close eye on the entire chain, enforcing regulations that award basic rights to workers, and prevent factory owners from busting unions. Instead of attacking peaceful protestors with rubber bullets, the government needs to comply with the demands for fair wages — with the current wage set a little below USD 100 per month, the workers are digging their own graves. And lastly, it is high time that the administration realizes that although the garment sector uplifted millions of Bangladeshis out of poor lifestyles, it failed to take their standard of living any higher.

Sources:

Written by Vibhavari Desai.

Beyond the Façade of Fashion

A Closer Look at the Sweatshops of Bangladesh

Written by Context Staff