A year has passed after the tragic fire at garment factory of Tazreen Fashions at Ashulia and life has become tough for the survivors.
As soon as this correspondent reached Nischintopur village – where the factory is situated – on Saturday, many survivors rushed towards him.
All of them had sad stories of their own hardships to tell. They felt hopeful that this might be an opening for getting help – financial or any kind of help for that matter would suffice.
This correspondent was shot back with one question multiple times: “What will be the use of interviewing us again? Over the last one year, we have given names and interviews to many organisations literally every month; but we have got nothing except vague assurances.”
“We have nothing left for us. It would have been easier for us if we had died in that fire,” Mohammad Zikrul Islam, once a swing helper of the factory, said.
He said: “Over the last year, I have given interviews to more than 20 organisations; but got nothing; not even the Tk100,000 that some of the survivors got.”
“I was not in the hospital, is that my fault? Survivors, who were at the hospital received Tk100,000, and we, who did not need to be admitted for treatment, became useless”.
Zikrul, who jumped off from the third floor of the factory and injured himself, asked this reporter: “We have not been able to pay house rents for many months now. Shop owners would not sell anything to us because we cannot pay them. Is that what you call living?”
In November last year, more than 100 people were killed and scores injured in one of the devastating factory fires in history. Tazreen fashions used to make clothing for a group of international brands including C&A and Walmart.
Shahnaz Begum, who lost her right eye in the fire, is one survivor who now thinks that she is a burden to her family.
She was a finishing hand-men at the factory. When the fire broke out, Shahnaz jumped off and was hit by a pile rods. One of her legs still contains a rod and she is carrying several other injuries on body parts including the kidney and the backbone.
“We were seven-member family. I used to earn Tk4,210 per month and my husband earn as much as he can by selling Jhal-Muri [a street food]. After the accident, I cannot work anymore and most of my husband’s time and money is spent for treatment. My children have still not grown enough to go out and work. Virtually, we do not have a bread earner at the moment,” said Shahnaz with pouring eyes.
Then there are the problems associated with the trauma that some of the survivors are having to deal with.
Many survivors, who are physically strong enough and managed to get jobs in some of the other factories in the area, are having to deal with the post-disaster trauma every now and then. Some of them had been sacked by their new employers because the problems related with the trauma had not been letting them work properly.
Khurshid Alam, vice-president of the Ashulia unit of Garments Sramik Kalyan Oikkya Parisad, told Dhaka Tribune that around 20% of the victims went to different factories, but a large number of them returned home because they had failed to deal with the trauma.
“Many were sacked by the employers because they cannot tolerate high sound or work if anyone behaves rough. But, a garment workers life without being abused by the management, is unimaginable,” said Alam, a social worker.
Romesha, one of the survivors, joined a nearby factory in just a few months after the tragic fire. But only a few days later, she was forced to leave the job because she could not get the terrible images of the fire out of her head. “Sometime in the middle of work, I would see a fire around me.”
“I cannot sleep. A fear of life always lurks inside. That is the reward that Tazreen has given me.”
