Female Garment Workers in Bangladesh Facing Human Rights Violation; A Search to Find the Root Causes

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Md. Basirulla
Farhat Tasnim
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9426-0270
Md. Sultan Mahmud

Abstract

Among the most important productive sectors of Bangladesh is the garment industry. The total contribution of the garment industries to the national foreign exchange earnings is 83%. Though the garment sector has created substantial employment for female workers, female workers face numerous human rights violations at the workplace including sexual harassment, forced labor, maltreatment of supervisors, maternity leave problems, safety problem, and health problem etc. This qualitative study gathered data from male and female garment workers, as well as from senior managers and owners, and experts from NGOs and from universities. This study revealed social-cultural, economic, structural and organizational causes behind human rights violations of female garment workers. Some of the causes are deficiency of education, fear of losing employment through complaining, lack of awareness and government oversight, weakness of the National Human Rights Commission and human rights organizations, unwillingness of owners to face the issue, poverty, and entrenched patriarchy.

Article Details

Section
Articles (refereed)
Author Biographies

Md. Basirulla, Varendra University, Rajshahi, Bangladesh

Lecturer, Department of Political Science, Varendra University, Rajshahi, Bangladesh

 

Farhat Tasnim, University of Rajshahi, Rajshahi, Bangladesh

Professor in the Department of Political Science, University of Rajshahi, Rajshahi, Bangladesh

Md. Sultan Mahmud, University of Rajshahi, Rajshahi, Bangladesh

Professor, Department of Political Science, University of Rajshahi, Rajshahi, Bangladesh