They Produce Cheap Clothing For The Whole World. A Big Fire Left 50 Thousand People Homeless.

Bangladesh is located in the world-famous Ganges RIver Delta, north of the Qinghai Tibet Plateau, and more than 85% of the domestic land area is plain. The climate is humid and hot, rainy, the river course is thick and dense, the river transportation is developed, and the mineral resources are abundant.

At the same time, Bangladesh also has a long history of culture, which is one of the core hinterland of Hindu culture. Historically, the India Peacock Dynasty and Gupta dynasty ruled this area. In fourth Century BC, Buddhism spread on this land. In the middle and late Middle Ages, Islam entered India, and Bangladesh became the ruling land of Islam. In the modern colonial period, it was the first effective rule area in Britain, and became the link between India and the western world. It gave birth to the enlightenment and revival of nationalism in India, and it was the cradle of the independence of South Asian countries.

But what is sad is that Bangladesh is one of the least developed countries in the world. 147 thousand and 500 square kilometers of narrow land, but 170 million people live. Relying on an adequate and cheap labor force, Bangladesh's manufacturing industry is developing rapidly, and has begun to rank among the "world factories".

1 fires, 6 hours, 50 thousand homeless

According to Reuters, the Charan Tika (Chalantika) slum in Dhaka, capital of Bangladesh, had a fire in the evening of August 16th. The government dispatched 125 firefighters and spent more than 6 hours to extinguish the fire finally.

ErshadHossain, a fire department official, said the fire would be more than 15000 flat, causing 50 thousand people to be homeless. Fortunately, no deaths were reported.

It is reported that the cause of the fire is unknown and authorities have launched an investigation. The government says it will provide relief to thousands of people who are nowhere to live.

Most of them are "Tin Shed" with plastic roofs. That's why the fire spread so fast that they can burn 50 thousand people in just 6 hours.

According to the guardian, the main residents of this slum are low income garment factory workers, and no one was killed because most of them left home to celebrate Eid al Fitr with their families.

When it comes to garment factory workers, they are a common but special group in Bangladesh.

They say they are ordinary because more than 4 million people in Bangladesh are engaged in the clothing industry. Most of them are concentrated in the capital of Dhaka and Chittagong, which is a common practice in Bangladesh.

They are special because the garment industry is the pillar of the national economy in Bangladesh. In recent years, the garment industry in Bangladesh has developed rapidly and has become the world's second largest garment production base after China. The clothes and shoes produced by these humble clothing and textile workers account for more than 70% of the total export volume of Bangladesh.

According to Bangladesh official statistics, Bangladesh has more than 2000 textile factories and more than 4500 garment processing plants. According to Bangladesh clothing manufacturers and Exporters Association, as of the end of June 2018, in the first 12 months of the year, the output value of clothing exports was 30 billion 600 million US dollars, an annual increase of 8.8%, accounting for 83.5% of the total exports of the country. According to WTO data, Bangladesh's clothing exports accounted for 6.3% of the global market in 2016, second only to China.

The salary is only 665 yuan per month.

Despite the fact that Bangladesh's clothing workers have supported the export of the whole country with their own hard work and earned valuable foreign exchange for the country, they are the worst quality people in the world.

Now, the world's major retailers, including the four fast fashion brands Zara, Uniqlo (UNIQLO), H&M and Gap, all import large quantities of clothing from Bangladesh.

In addition to fast fashion brands, Europe and the United States retail giant WalMartInc. (WAL-MART), Macy's (Messi department store), JCPenneyCoInc (Penny department store), SearsHoldingsCorp (Sears group), PVHCorp. (PVH.N), Italy Benetton (Benetton), Spain Mango, British / Ireland Primark, Holland C&A, France Carrefour (Jia Lefu), Canada's no exception, all Bangladesh as an important supply chain market.

Li&FungLtd., the world's largest supply chain service provider, also used Bangladesh and Vietnam as a purchasing base. Bangladesh's procurement business is almost entirely made of garments, with only a low single digit grocery purchase.

In 2018, according to the Daily Star of Bangladesh, the International Labour Organization report shows that 90% of the country's jobs are informal employment, and informal employment is not only widespread in agriculture, but also in non-agricultural areas, such as construction, wholesale and retail trade, accommodation and catering.

This led to very insecure treatment for Bangladesh clothing workers. According to the Spanish national newspaper, these workers worked 54 hours a week and were also threatened by the collapse or fire of factories.

A manager named Moni said: "the manager only stares at the workload per hour. Everyone knows nobody can do it, but the result is the same. In order to complete the work share of each person, we must add two or three hours a day, and there is no overtime pay. "

In 2013, most of them received only 3000 TAC cards (less than 30 euros, or 300 yuan) per month. By 2018, this figure had risen to only 5300 Taka (about 63 US dollars, about 428 yuan). Until January this year, with the constant protests from workers, the Bangladesh government raised the minimum monthly wage of clothing workers to 8000 Taka (about 95 US dollars and 665 yuan), but it still does not meet the average annual income of US $1750. Workers want to raise their minimum monthly salary to 16000 Tucca (about 191 yuan, 1337 yuan).

Due to the lack of relevant laws and regulations, many workers' wages even fail to meet the minimum standards prescribed by the government.

The wages of child labor are lower, or even 2 yuan per day, but they must endure 50-60 hours a week as adults do. According to World Wide Web, a 9 year old boy was brutally murdered in a large spinning mill in 2016. The police who went to the factory investigation said they found that 1/4 of the workers outside Dhaka were children.

Because of low income, many garment workers simply can't afford to buy a house. And because of the narrow population, Bangladesh's housing prices are quite high. In 2018, in the rich area of Dhaka, the housing price was 1 square meters as high as 100 thousand Taka (about 9000 yuan), and the workers had to live in temporary shed built by iron plate and plasterboard.

Bangladesh garment factory

The National Anthem of Bangladesh is called "the golden Bengal". The author is Tagore, the shining pearl in the history of Bangladesh (Tagore is a Bengali people). But Tagore would never have thought that the once brilliant golden Bengal had already dimmed. In recent years, every time Bangladesh comes into sight, it brings red blood light.

According to Xinhua news agency, incomplete statistics:

In 2007, the tragedy of the building collapsed in the town of Salva, Bangladesh, causing 64 garment factory workers to die.

In December 15, 2010, a fire broke out at a garment factory near Dhaka, Bangladesh, killing at least 20 people and injuring many people.

On the evening of November 25, 2012, a fire broke out at the village of Dhaka in the northwestern suburb of Bangladesh, killing 121 people.

In the past 1 years, around 9 a.m. local time on April 24, 2013, the most tragic scene in the history of human clothing industry took place in Bangladesh. At that time, a 8 storey garment factory building in Dassault was killed and 1137 people died.

In September 10, 2016, a boiler and explosion occurred near a garment accessories factory near Dhaka, killing 18 people and injuring dozens of people.

In July 3, 2017, a boiler exploded and caused a fire in a garment factory outside Dhaka. 10 people were killed and 35 injured.

Faced with this situation, workers in Bangladesh can only "grin" because in the 170 million population of Bangladesh, employers will never worry about failing to recruit workers.

In Bangladesh, factory owners are usually entitled to power. In the April 2013 crash, local engineering officials said that the reason for the collapse of the building was probably illegal construction. The authorities allowed only owners to build five storey buildings, but he built three additional layers of illegal construction and no load bearing walls.

The building had cracks on the day before the collapse, and the authorities and Bangladesh clothing manufacturing and Export Commission requested a shutdown. But the owners of the clothes factories in the building ignored the warning and kept the workers working. Bangladesh's interior minister Alamgir said: "the construction of the building violated the building regulations of Bangladesh. The perpetrators will be punished. "