Sunday, March 31, 2019

Garment Workers of Bangladesh

raiment Workers of BangladeshMackenzie DicksonThe Institute for international get and serviceman Rights is a non-profits human rights organization that recognizes and defends the basic human rights of repel accomplishmenters globally. Originally as the National Labor Committee, the organization was founded in 1981 and has locations in numerous locations in the United States as well as South Asia. The main organizations boot is to end the exploitation of mill workers than produce goods exported to the United States. There ar several campaigns under the Institute for Global Labour and Human Rights, bingle of which is the Bangladeshi Garment Worker campaign. This campaign aims to raise aw arness of the decorate workers struggles. fit to the organizations website, Bangladesh is the third largest exporter of coiffures in the domain to the U.S Bangladeshs equip workers are among the hardest working(a) women and men in the world, but also the just about exploited and dis charge the lowest pay in the world (Institute for Global Labour and Human Rights).Bangladesh is a country east of India known for its poorness and having the highest population denseness in the world. The countrys population density is about 1,101 persons per square kilometer (Stotz). According to the World entrust, 31.5% of Bangladeshs overall population is living on a lower floor the meagerness rake in 2010 that is roughly 47,759,285 people living in indigence (World Bank Group). Based on the previous patterns, this number has likely increased considering the most recent poverty headcount ratio at national poverty lines is about seven years old. In 2015 the World Bank describe Bangladeshs Gross National Income (GNI) as roughly $1,190 United States GNI is about 47 successions that. (World Bank Group). Bangladeshs garment industry was worth about 20 billion U.S. dollars in 2013, making it the second largest clothing supplier of the world market, following China (Stotz). Bang ladeshs economy is based on the success of the garment industry. The business garment manufactorys subscribe with U.S. corporations like Wal-Mart, Disney, Gap, and Old Navy are crucial to the countrys economic growth and free trade. These large wealthy corporations do not want to pay, hence why the corporations employ factories in poverty stricken countries like Bangladesh.The four-part short series Hidden Face of globalisation created by The Institute for Global Labour and Human Rights interviews the women of Bangladeshi garment factories and asks the question Why are the basic human rights of the women who made the growth and maintain the global economy not protected?The series focuses on the young women between the ages 16 to 25 who make up 80% of the 1.8 million garment factory workers in Bangladesh (Hidden Face of Globalization). The young women work from eight in the morning until ten or eleven at night, seven days a week. Overtime is mandatory and the workers are lots f orced to work up to twenty hours when there is a career to produce an order. The women are not allowed to speak while working, are allowed lonesome(prenominal) two trips to the bathroom, and are fired around the age of 30. If the workers question their inhuman treatment, unsafe factory conditions, or unionizing the women are at risk of communicative assault, physical abuse, imprisonment, and/or losing their job (Hidden Face of Globalization).Garment workers bargain they train themselves to be faster than the rest and often times report on others mentation about unionizing to achieve a higher pay (39, Ahmed). However, questioning wage and worker benefits has proven ineffective because the commission was made up of state of matter representatives who were supposed to advocate for worker interests. The spatial segregation of the sexes in the factory is an outward expression of gendered wage segregation with the few men at the top having jobs with more control and higher wages (A hmed, 40). After recognizing they have fallen subject to gender hierarchy, the women drop their concerns and attempts to unionize in concern of being sexually assaulted or harassed and give up meddling for a voice on the factory floor (Ahmed, 40).The job takes a toll on the womens groundwork life. Because of their grueling days at work, they do not have time for themselves or their families the children are often left wing alone for long hours at a time and the women dont have time to maintain healthy relationships with family members (Hidden Face of Globalization). The extreme poverty the workers return home too is discussed in the series. The women make as little as 11 to 17 cents an hour, well below the minimum wage as a result, they and their families are forced to live and share will others who live below the poverty line. Privacy is non-existent. The small rooms are full of sometimes as many as ten people and are strengthened from scraps. The whole community shares a smal l gas stove, water pump, and a single out-house (Hidden Face of Globalization). The 70s brought an increase of women into the work force, specifically export-based industries such as the garment industry and other labor-intensive industries that rely on affordable production to maintain competitiveness (Beneria, 114). Corporations like Disney and Wall-mart are dependant of womens labor to sustain their part in the world market. Labor-intensive industries are reliant of countries like Bangladesh that are sustained by patriarchal gender norms and are reproduced in the workplace by the concerted efforts of employers and government policy (Beneria, 114).The factory workers that supplied Disney garments appealed to Disney asking for a pay raise. The women said if they were paid 35 cents quite an than the 11-17 cents their quality of life would increase significantly, letting them live in poverty instead of below the poverty line (Hidden Face of Globalization). The women asked Disney to respect their basic human rights the women wanted safe working conditions, basic pay raise, days off, and regulated hours. As a result the women lost their jobs. Some women chose to save to Disney corporations asking for their jobs back, explaining how multinational corporations like Disney are able to afford the be of giving their employees basic human rights.Works CitedBeneria, Lourdes, Gunseli Berik, and Maria Floro. Gender, development, and globalizationeconomics as if all people mattered. New York Routledge, Taylor Francis Group, 2016. Print.Fauzia Erfan Ahmed. The Rise of the Bangladesh Garment Industry Globalization, WomenWorkers, and Voice. NWSA Journal, vol. 16, no. 2, 2004, pp. 34-45. www.jstor.org/stable/4317051.Hidden Face of Globalization. Dir. Institute for Global Labour and Human Rights. Institute forGlobal Labour and Human Rights, 3 Apr. 2007. Web.Institute for Global Labour and Human Rights. About. Www.globallabourrights.org. Institutefor Global Labour and Human Rights, n.d. Web.Stotz, Lina, and Clean apparel Campaign. Facts on Bangladeshs GarmentIndustry. Bangladesh Factsheet. Clean Clothes Campaign, n.d. Web.World Bank Group. Bangladesh. Bangladesh Data. World Bank Group, 2016. Web.

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