Collapse Of Bangladesh’s Garment Industry During Coronavirus Leaves Its Workers More Vulnerable Than Ever

Rebecca Suhrawardi  ContributorOpinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own.

March 30, 2020

Millions of garment factory workers in Bangladesh have been released from work in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, leaving them without income and without choice but to return to cramped homes in slums or villages, without resources to fight the pandemic or even with the basic ability to sustain their lives.

The garment and textile business is the number one industry in Bangladesh, accounting for 80% of the country’s exports. They are the 2nd largest individual country for apparel manufacturing in the world behind China and is where brands like H&M, Target and Marks and Spencer produce much of their goods. 

This dangerous cocktail of out-of-work, low-wage workers living in cramped slums without basic sanitation or the ability to isolate, coupled with the lack of income due to being laid off from the factories have the potential to leave the workers in a state of abject poverty and with the threat of an outbreak in this already vulnerable community. A situation which could also prove to be a ticking-time bomb for the country as a whole.

“When you talk about isolation in a densely populated country, it’s a joke,” says labor activist Kalpona Akter. Akter is the Executive Director of the Bangladesh Centre for Worker Solidarity (BCWS) and is a former child laborer that fights against the exploitation of garment factory workers.

The article appeared in Forbes magazine on 30 March 2020