Bangladesh Center for Workers’ Solidarity

Anjum has worked in the RMG sector for around 20 years. She started as a child worker at the age of 13 in the position of a helper. After 20 years, she is still working at the same factory as a machine operator. There was rampant abuse of workers at the factory where Anjum works – verbal and physical abuse, heavy workload, unpaid overtime, no paid leave, lack of maternity leave and benefits and meager bonus at Eid time. One day in 2007, Anjum witnessed a machine operator being beaten by a supervisor.

Surovi Akter is a garment worker who has been working in this industry since 2010. She came to this sector to escape a life of poverty where she was forced to leave school after grade 7 because her parents could not bear her educational expenses. Her husband divorced her because her parents could not pay the dowry demanded and now she is left with taking care of her 13-year-old son by herself. The conditions Surovi faced at her workplace were equally harrowing, which made it difficult for her to earn enough to make ends meet.