The Nobel laureate Dr Muhammad Yunus on Monday said that the wages of the garments workers should be at such a level so that they can live as human beings not as slaves.
“We want to show the world that we are living as human not as slaves,” he said addressing as chief guest at a national dialogue on Savar building collapse tragedy at a city hotel on Monday.
“We want to save garments, workers and Bangladesh.” These three things should be saved altogether and build a congenial nation, he pointed out.
Power and Participation Research Centre organised the dialogue presided over by Hossian Zillur Rahman, its chairman an advisor to a caretaker government. Prof MA Taslim, chairman of Dhaka University Economic Department presented a key note paper at the dialogue.
US ambassador Dan W Mozena, Prof Rehman Sobhan, Golam Kader, Mahbubur Rahman, Jamilur Reza Chowdhury, Mahmudul Haque, Shirin Akhter, Wazedul Islam Khan, BGMEA president Atiqul islam, former BGMEA presidents Mohiuddin, chairman of Enam Medical College at Savar Enamur Rahman took part in the discussion. Muhammad Yunus said “We feel proud that Bangladesh is the second largest exporters of garments item.” He observed that the 40 lakhs female workers in the garments sector had laid the foundation of modern Bangladesh. “So, we should not forget them.”
The foundation should be strengthened further for building future Bangladesh, Yunus pointed out. They should be given proper salaries and scope to become modern human beings, he adds.
Yunus said that bodies were still being rescued from the Rana plaza at Savar when the discussion was taking place. According to him, this is such an incident which no body can forget. The incident occurred in front of our eyes and it can not be omitted from the pages of history, he observed.
“Should we accept that such incidence would occur one after another ?” he asked.
“We should hate our consciousness if we fail to stop recurrence of such incidence in future.”
“We all are responsible for Savar tragedy and we have to go ahead after getting lessons from this accidents.” Yunus called upon all to go ahead from their respective positions without sitting idle and blaming others.
He also suggested all to criticise themselves and accept the respective faults in this regard avoiding criticising others. Yuus said every one should be cautious that such incident does not happen in future.
“The latest tragedy could put GSP (Generalised System of Preferences) for Bangladeshi products at risk and at the same time European Union is reconsidering whether they would buy cloth from us. This is not a good sign for the industry,” he said.
Professor Rehman Sobhan, chairman of the CDP, said the civil society have a key role to play to oversee whether rehabilitation process of the Rana Plaza, treatment of its victims, working standard inside the units are going on rightly.
US Ambassador in Bangladesh Dan W Mozena said many workers in the America are worried over the situation currently prevails in the RMG sector here.
“Do something real and sustainable,” he said, adding that the Bangladeshi government and owners should seriously look into the matters like workers rights to organise themselves, fire safety measures and factory inspection by well-trained inspectors.
Executive Director of CPD Professor Mustafizur Rahman said the country had raised wages of workers by 4 per cent to Tk 1662 in 2006 when the national income increased by 74 per cent from 1996.
“In the latest wage structure of 2010, the monthly wage went up to Tk 3000, which was also much lower then the national income,” he said.
Professor Jamilur Reza Chowdhury, Vice-Chancellor of Asia-Pacific University, said the country has enough laws, policies and regulations but implementation of these was very poor.
International Chamber of Commerce , Bangladesh ((ICC-B) President Mahbubur Rahman said the people of the country has started forgetting hot issues like Hall-Mark loan scam and Destiny.
“I’m afraid that people could forget the tragedy unless no action is taken. Don’t blame the government alone for the incident and compensate the Rana Plaza victims without any further delay,” he added.
Former adviser of caretaker government Maj Gen (retd) Ghulam Quader said owners of the faulty factories should immediately go for retrofitting of their units to avert such disaster.
-With The Independent input
