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Researcher : Md. Akter Hossain
Project Status : Completed
The RMG industry in Bangladesh is playing an important
role in the economic empowerment of the workers it employed,
the vast majority of whom are women. More than 90% of
the RMG workers are the migrants from the rural areas
and the bulk of them (three-quarter) come from the landless
families. As apprehended, if the RMG sector faces some
debacle due to market access constraints resulting from
MFA (Multi Fibre Arrangement) phase-out, it will loose
its potentiality to a greater extent. Two disastrous
outcome will be (i) degradation of empowerment process,
and (ii) aggravation of macro-level poverty scenario.
The major objectives of the study are : (i) to address
the empowerment (existing) and disempowerment (imminent)
process of female RMG workers and make recommendations
to sustain the empowerment of women workers; and (ii)
to identify the area of focus of the RMG industry for
the Government as well as worker-favourable condition
(for fostering empowerment process). The study used
mainly qualitative research methodologies, along with
a quantitative exploration. The study findings explored
the facts that the RMG women workers have almost no
opportunity (in case of any set back) to (i) engage
themselves in alternate employment, nor have they any
skill to migrate to other sectors, and (ii) return to
their rural homes. RMG women workers also expressed
that they will undertake desperate attempts to identify
alternate employment in case of any set back. And this
will also further aggravate the prevailing social unrest
situation of Bangladesh.
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