His name is Yunus Ali Sardar. He is 40 years old and has 3 children. He came to work as a day labourer in Savar from Faridpur. On 24 April 2013, he rushed into the collapsing Rana Plaza factory building to rescue his nephew who was a worker there. Although he managed to save his nephew, Yunus lost both of his legs in the rescue process.
More than six months after the incident, Yunus still spends his days in bed in a state of near catatonia at the Centre for the Rehabilitation of the Paralysed (CRP) in Savar. His eldest daughter quit school to come spend time with him and care for him. When asked about his trauma or his future plans, Yunus speaks haltingly, barely audible. He says that he wants to go back to his village and with the money he received as compensation he wants to open up a small shop. Of all the Rana Plaza patients I spoke to at the CRP, Yunus’ case was the most heartbreaking and a stark reminder of the ongoing cost of the disaster on the victims’ lives.
Established in 1979, the CRP provides medical care, physiotherapy, occupational therapy, speech and language therapy, prosthetics and orthotics services to the disabled. It also runs academic courses and trainings on various aspects of treating and rehabilitating the disabled. To date, the centre has treated 333 people related to the Rana Plaza disaster-168 as in-patients (admitted to the facility) and 165 as outpatients. The injuries suffered by the victims are various, ranging from fractures, traumatic pain, spinal cord injuries, to amputations. The treatment provided to the victims includes surgeries, physiotherapy, orthotics and prosthetics (installing artificial hands and legs) and counseling.
However, that’s not where the work of the CRP ends. After recovery the patients are moved to a half-way village on the grounds of the centre where the conditions of the typical home/community environment of the patients is simulated. At the half-way village the patients learn about the challenges of reintegrating back into their normal lives (for example, coping with reduced mobility) and how to overcome these challenges.
An essential part of reintegration is to find sustainable livelihoods for the disabled. In a country such as Bangladesh where even the able-bodied poor face enormous difficulties in securing a decent income, the challenges facing the disabled are daunting, to say the least. The CRP provides various types of vocational trainings to its patients and among the Rana Plaza victims. Seventy-six have received/are receiving trainings at the centre: 35 in dress making and tailoring, 13 in general electronics, 20 in shop management and 8 in operating computers for office work.
However, providing training is only one part of the solution and arguably not even the most difficult part. In my conversation with Ms. Bettina Schmidt of CBM International, a strategic partner to the CRP, she stressed that the biggest obstacle facing the disabled is a mental one. First, the disabled need to believe in themselves and that it is possible for them to have a productive life going forward. The structural challenges that the disabled face - for example, lack of accessibility in work places or public buildings - can be overcome with help from the community and some creativity. However, the willingness to reengage with their daily lives, communities and employment needs to be there.
None of the Rana Plaza patients that I spoke to at the CRP were willing to return to the RMG sector for future employment, although training and job placement opportunities are available to them. This is problematic since employment in the RMG sector provides the most viable and sustainable source f income for the patients and a far less risky proposition than investing their compensation money on opening small convenience shops in their villages. The CRP is assisting the patients through counseling in order to boost their self-confidence and willingness to reengage with working life.
CRP and its partners are also working with potential employers to change their perspective about disabled workers. The centre works with a range of employers to create opportunities for job placement for its patients. In this endeavor it receives valuable support from CBM international and the German development agency GIZ, who are working on capacity building of employers to create more acceptance of disabled workers and also to improve workplace environments to make them friendlier to the disabled. A crucial component of this campaign is to convince employers that disabled workers are not “charity cases” but rather highly skilled employees who can add value to the organisations. In the wake of Rana Plaza, the CRP and its partners have been working closely with the BGMEA to create opportunities for disabled workers to return to the RMG sector.
Working in partnership with international organisations is an important reason for the success of CRP. For example, after the Rana Plaza disaster it worked with the German Red Cross and the International Red Cross, with monetary support from the German government, to coordinate the physical rehabilitation of those affected by the tragedy. The German government has earmarked an additional 2.5 million Euros for improvement of social and environmental standards in the RMG sector, which includes funds to upgrade and improve training facilities at the CRP. The centre also has long-standing collaborations with universities and organisations in Canada, Sweden, Germany and the UK.
Many of the forward thinking initiatives at the CRP are proof of the benefits of combining international know-how with local ingenuity. For example, a prosthetics workshop at the centre uses modern technology and locally available materials to produces a wide range of devices (from simple arch supports to more complicated prostheses) for the disabled that are of good quality and far cheaper than imported devices.
Another excellent initiative recycles all the paper used at the facility to produce toys and simple household items (such as bookshelves). The beautiful, brightly coloured toys can be seen in use at the various children’s playrooms at the centre. They are also sold in the market to generate revenue for the CRP. The various workshops and other income generating activities at the centre, such as the metal and wood workshop and plant nursery, among others, also create employment opportunities for the disabled, some of whom are former patients.
At the end of my visit as I made my way out through the large, scenic grounds of the centre where the patients convalesce, I met two young women in wheelchairs, both casualties of Rana Plaza. Rehana is 20 years old; she had been working at a factory at Rana Plaza until the day the roof collapsed and she lost both of her legs. Shilpi is 22 years old, the mother of a toddler. One of her legs had to be amputated after the incident and the she has lost most feeling in the other. However, on this bright sunny day in this beautiful garden path, both women seemed almost stoic about what happened to them and optimistic about their future. They are a stark contrast to Yunus, who I met at the beginning of my visit. Rehana is childless and unmarried but hopes that both will be possible for her someday. Both women express their desire to open up their own businesses once they leave the CRP. I could not help but wonder whether their courage will be enough to sustain them in the reality of life outside this idyllic compound.
In the context of Bangladesh the existence of a place like the CRP is nothing short of miraculous. In contrast to most of the country, the disabled here aren’t patronised, rather, they are given the help that they need, according to their individual needs and more importantly, instilled with the confidence that they can have a productive life again in spite of their injuries. The disabled, and we as a society, owe much to the heroic work being done by the men and women at the CRP and their partners.
However, the enormity of the effort that it takes to rebuild these broken lives also raises the bigger question of how and why these lives were treated with such callousness in the first place. How can we allow the continuation of the status quo where losing their limbs or use of their bodies is a common occurrence for the working poor? If there is any silver lining to the Rana Plaza catastrophe, then hopefully it is that we, as a country, will now be forced to find good answers to these questions.