Why are female workers disappearing from our RMG factories?

In the 1990s, the percentage of female workers in Bangladesh's Ready-Made Garment (RMG) was almost 90 percent. However, in the last 10 years or so, the figure has dropped down to less than 60 percent. 

Over the last three decades, the export-oriented RMG sector, alongside the NGO movement, has played a pivotal role in increasing female employment, and as a result, ensuring female empowerment in the country. 

This sudden drop is not only a worry in terms of female participation in the workforce, but also specifically for the RMG sector. The industry was built on the back of female workers, who, unfair as it was, gave the country a competitive edge over rivals because of lower wages and a disinclination to unionise.  

So what is driving this gradual decline? Industry insiders point to a number of factors. 

The gradual decline has been driven by a lack of upward mobility in the workplace for women. While the women toil through despite gruelling work hours and insufficient wages and benefits, it is the men who end up getting promoted. In 2019, a survey undertaken by International Labour Organisation (ILO) and UN Women revealed 95 percent of the line supervisor jobs were held by men.  

Promila Kanya. illustration: TBS

As men move up the career ladder, the women, after a certain age, find that their bodies have become exhausted and they can no longer continue working. The working hours at RMG factories tend to be excruciatingly long with little break for bathroom visits. Hunched in front of the machines for months and years takes its toll on the workers' overall health.

As the global market becomes more competitive, the RMG sector has been embracing technological adoption at an impressive pace over the last few years. Unfortunately, most of the female workers are poorly educated and technological adaptation in RMG factories means workers now need to have an SSC degree or higher.  

A joint study by ILO and International Finance Corporation in 2018 stated female RMG workers do not receive sufficient training and factory managements have no specific plans to upskill them either. The study further mentioned that when it came to learning new machine operations, male workers were prioritised over women. 

And then you have the Covid-19 lockdowns and restrictions over the last two years when a lot of factories were temporarily shot down. Most workers went back to their village homes and many of them stayed back and have not joined the factories. 

According to a research report titled 'The impact of Covid-19 on women workers in the Bangladesh garment industry' by The University of Aberdeen and the Modern Slavery and Human Rights Policy and Evidence Centre (Modern Slavery PEC), UK released in January 2022, there was an increase in sexual and verbal abuse of female workers during the pandemic. 

Moreover, their struggle to ensure economic, food and housing security for their families intensified during this period.

All of this has left the RMG sector facing a shortage of labour, both male and female. 

Secretary of Bangladesh Garment Workers Trade Union Centre, Joly Talukder, points out that the number of female workers has not decreased in other sectors.

She believes the labour-intensive nature of RMG factories is one of the core reasons why women are dropping out. "Working in an RMG factory is exhausting. So much so that after 35 or 40 years of age, women cannot keep working. They also develop many physical problems from working long hours." 

She added how despite the toil, the female workers remain underpaid for years. The situation never seems to be in their favour. "A garment worker has to wake up at dawn to cook and clean for her entire family. After coming back home late in the evening, she again has to do household chores."

According to Joly, although many female workers have not joined the factories, they have not remained unemployed. They may not have joined the big factories, but they have joined smaller factories or gotten involved in tailoring, etc.  

"They still have to run their household and feed their children, so they are not sitting idle," she said, adding, "I personally know 100 to 200 women who are now working in small factories near their houses." 

I spoke to the Chief Operating Officer of Majumder Garments Limited, Syed M Sajjad, for his perspective on this. 

"Many female workers became mothers during the lockdown, which is why they have not been able to join work. Families were also living off savings. But now, assuming the children have grown up a little and savings have run out, they might come back," he said.  

"In general, we are having a crunch in labour in our factories. We have 15 percent to 20 percent lower workers," he said. 

He believes female workers tend to be more sincere and quality conscious, which is why they have always been the first choice for employment by factory owners. "We also want more women to join our factories in higher positions like supervisors, quality control managers, welfare officers and so on."

However, if such a situation arises, when male workers outnumber female workers, the RMG owners will have to undertake measures to motivate female workers to come back. 

"Instead of them coming to the factories, we could relocate the factories near their villages. We could also work on incentives such as scholarships for their children, etc," suggested Syed M Sajjad. 

However, he added this might be challenging since the top-level management tends to be metropolitan based, and might not want to shift. Nevertheless, he hopes female workers come back. 

Joly Talukder believes the government and the factory owners are yet to take steps to ensure female workers have better, safer working conditions in the RMG factories and get higher wages. "The workers suffer because the RMG factory owners do not care enough, clearly. Exports increase, profits increase, but the workers' lives remain the same," she said.  

She added how stronger roles played by trade unions can help change things for the better. But that has not happened yet.  

"The authorities pay no heed unless we go on protest. Why is that?" she asked.