Less than year on from tragedy, most have had no choice but to return to industry despite ill-health and dread of another collapse
Pervin Banu walks to work every morning scared. A survivor of the collapse of a factory making cheap clothes for western firms on the outskirts of the Bangladeshi capital, Dhaka, almost 11 months ago, the 22 year-old once more spends her days at a sewing machine. Now, in another factory, she turns out trousers for export.
"If there were any other alternative I would choose that. You don't want to go back for a second time after returning once from a death trap," Banu said.
Her route takes her past the huge pit, now filled with refuse and brackish water where the building she worked in once stood. A heavy cement memorial has been constructed by unions. Police officers guard against looters, street children, the curious, the media and the bereaved. Yards away, the buses, trucks and battered cars stream past, choking the road that leads from the suburb of Savar to the centre of Dhaka. Thronging the pavement every morning and evening, are the tens of thousands of workers, a fraction of the four million in Bangladesh, who are employed directly or indirectly by the garment industry.
Despite the disaster, the industry is thriving.
"The government projects apparel export volume to rise to about $24bn [£14.4bn] this year. I think we can achieve this … The Rana Plaza has been a turning point for us. It was a wake-up call for everybody," said Shahidullah Azim, vice-president of Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) .
For the survivors though it is difficult to be so confident about the future. Every time she walks past the site of the tragedy, Banu remembers her colleagues. She worked on the seventh floor of the illegally constructed building, known as the Rana Plaza Complex, for a company called New Wave Style, which employed more than 1,100 people. Though more escaped than those working on the lower floors, many of her colleagues died in the collapse which occurred the day after an engineer had warned about cracks in the buildings loadbearing pillars. So far 1,133 people have been confirmed dead in the world's worst industrial disaster for a generation. The owner of the building, Sohel Rana, remains in prison.
"When we got to work [that day], we were already scared. The production manager said: 'There is nothing to worry about.' When the building collapsed, I tried running away but slipped under a sewing machine. I was stuck there for nine hours. I got hit on my head and lost a lot of blood," Banu said.
It was an illegal extension forming the eighth story of the Rana Plaza that led to the structure's collapse, engineers have concluded. Banu's current workplace is on the 5th floor of a seven-storied building. The construction of four further stories are being planned.
"If there is even a small sound, I get panicked," Banu said.
Hundreds, possibly thousands, of survivors of the disaster have returned to working in garment factories despite their fears. Many complain of panic attacks, headaches, nightmares. Few have any choice. Most of the workers in Rana Plaza were young women from rural backgrounds with no possibility of finding work, or sometimes even enough food, near their home villages.
With overtime, and following salary hikes in the last year, a sewing operator can now make up to 8,000 taka (£62). Many have received 45000 taka (£350) in compensation from western brands since the disaster. The workers expect further payouts when the complex formula for compensation is finally agreed by firms, retailers and the government.
Soaring rents, basic food prices and school fees mean there is little alternative to a return to the only work most workers have ever known. Safer than construction work, better paid than domestic labour, the garment factories are the only effective option.
They are also recruiting. In the first seven months of the financial year beginning 1 July, Bangladesh's garments exports rose by almost 18% to $14.2bn. Though orders fell by almost half as political unrest hit the country in the months before an election in January, an uneasy calm has held since the polls.
Rubana Huq, a major garment exporter, insisted there has been an increase in the level of safety awareness among entrepreneurs.
"The industry can't afford another Rana Plaza and, therefore, manufacturers have started paying much more attention to the safety concerns," she said.
It is now hoped that separate agreements involving retailers, factory owners, global unions and the Bangladesh government will, through rigorous inspections and other measures, prevent further tragedies.
But for Yasmin Khatun, the physical and psychological scars of the disaster are still raw. Her spine was damaged in the collapse and she spent six weeks immobilised in hospital before embarking on intensive physiotherapy, which has only been partially successful. But with a five-year-old daughter to support she has no choice but to return to work, as a garment worker.
"On days I work and then take medicines to heal wounds. The wounds have not healed completely, so the pain comes back on days there is work stress," Khatun, 24, said.
She is fatalistic about the future. "Even today some people scare me saying that this factory [where I now work] too has cracks," she said. "If it is my destiny, I will die there." Reported by guardian.co.uk 11 hours ago.
Pervin Banu walks to work every morning scared. A survivor of the collapse of a factory making cheap clothes for western firms on the outskirts of the Bangladeshi capital, Dhaka, almost 11 months ago, the 22 year-old once more spends her days at a sewing machine. Now, in another factory, she turns out trousers for export.
"If there were any other alternative I would choose that. You don't want to go back for a second time after returning once from a death trap," Banu said.
Her route takes her past the huge pit, now filled with refuse and brackish water where the building she worked in once stood. A heavy cement memorial has been constructed by unions. Police officers guard against looters, street children, the curious, the media and the bereaved. Yards away, the buses, trucks and battered cars stream past, choking the road that leads from the suburb of Savar to the centre of Dhaka. Thronging the pavement every morning and evening, are the tens of thousands of workers, a fraction of the four million in Bangladesh, who are employed directly or indirectly by the garment industry.
Despite the disaster, the industry is thriving.
"The government projects apparel export volume to rise to about $24bn [£14.4bn] this year. I think we can achieve this … The Rana Plaza has been a turning point for us. It was a wake-up call for everybody," said Shahidullah Azim, vice-president of Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) .
For the survivors though it is difficult to be so confident about the future. Every time she walks past the site of the tragedy, Banu remembers her colleagues. She worked on the seventh floor of the illegally constructed building, known as the Rana Plaza Complex, for a company called New Wave Style, which employed more than 1,100 people. Though more escaped than those working on the lower floors, many of her colleagues died in the collapse which occurred the day after an engineer had warned about cracks in the buildings loadbearing pillars. So far 1,133 people have been confirmed dead in the world's worst industrial disaster for a generation. The owner of the building, Sohel Rana, remains in prison.
"When we got to work [that day], we were already scared. The production manager said: 'There is nothing to worry about.' When the building collapsed, I tried running away but slipped under a sewing machine. I was stuck there for nine hours. I got hit on my head and lost a lot of blood," Banu said.
It was an illegal extension forming the eighth story of the Rana Plaza that led to the structure's collapse, engineers have concluded. Banu's current workplace is on the 5th floor of a seven-storied building. The construction of four further stories are being planned.
"If there is even a small sound, I get panicked," Banu said.
Hundreds, possibly thousands, of survivors of the disaster have returned to working in garment factories despite their fears. Many complain of panic attacks, headaches, nightmares. Few have any choice. Most of the workers in Rana Plaza were young women from rural backgrounds with no possibility of finding work, or sometimes even enough food, near their home villages.
With overtime, and following salary hikes in the last year, a sewing operator can now make up to 8,000 taka (£62). Many have received 45000 taka (£350) in compensation from western brands since the disaster. The workers expect further payouts when the complex formula for compensation is finally agreed by firms, retailers and the government.
Soaring rents, basic food prices and school fees mean there is little alternative to a return to the only work most workers have ever known. Safer than construction work, better paid than domestic labour, the garment factories are the only effective option.
They are also recruiting. In the first seven months of the financial year beginning 1 July, Bangladesh's garments exports rose by almost 18% to $14.2bn. Though orders fell by almost half as political unrest hit the country in the months before an election in January, an uneasy calm has held since the polls.
Rubana Huq, a major garment exporter, insisted there has been an increase in the level of safety awareness among entrepreneurs.
"The industry can't afford another Rana Plaza and, therefore, manufacturers have started paying much more attention to the safety concerns," she said.
It is now hoped that separate agreements involving retailers, factory owners, global unions and the Bangladesh government will, through rigorous inspections and other measures, prevent further tragedies.
But for Yasmin Khatun, the physical and psychological scars of the disaster are still raw. Her spine was damaged in the collapse and she spent six weeks immobilised in hospital before embarking on intensive physiotherapy, which has only been partially successful. But with a five-year-old daughter to support she has no choice but to return to work, as a garment worker.
"On days I work and then take medicines to heal wounds. The wounds have not healed completely, so the pain comes back on days there is work stress," Khatun, 24, said.
She is fatalistic about the future. "Even today some people scare me saying that this factory [where I now work] too has cracks," she said. "If it is my destiny, I will die there." Reported by guardian.co.uk 11 hours ago.