Sajal Das, a survivor of last year’s Rana Plaza collapse, has been jobless for the last one month and all his savings have exhausted. He was forced to quit three jobs in the last six months for what the employers claimed was his failure to perform properly. More humiliating, he was not given the wage for the month when he quit the last job.
The 26-year-old still feels the pain of being physically challenged by the injuries he received in the disaster on April 24 last year. Now he cannot work for two hours at a stretch.
Two months back Sajal took a job at a factory belonging to Al-Muslim Group but he was able to deliver only 50% of the expected work. “The factory officials were not happy with my output. I had no option but to quit the job,” he said, adding that he had joined the work before being fully cured.
A worker at the New Wave Style on the sixth floor of the Rana Plaza building, Sajal was rescued from the debris five hours after the collapse. He was injured in the back and waist, and carried the trauma of the experience with him, always.
The doctors asked him to take enough rest and continue treatment. But he was forced to take a job as he could not afford the cost of medicines. Even the money he had got as assistance was almost spent.
A recent study report says one year after the incident, as many as 1,058 workers (73.7%) of the 1,436 surveyed have not returned to regular work.
The study says around 63.74% of the respondents mentioned physical ailment, 23.76% trauma and 7.54% mentioned the employers’ unwillingness as reasons behind not being in jobs or leaving jobs.
Findings of the survey conducted by ActionAid Bangladesh were revealed yesterday at a programme in the Brac Centre Inn of the capital.
There were five garment factories housed in the faultily-built building. At least 1,135 people, mostly female workers, were killed in the deadly incident and over 2,500 sustained injuries.
The report states that economic hardship is acute among the respondents. Still now, 66.6% are facing a lot of difficulties in meeting their daily needs while 2.4% are totally unable to meet the needs.
It reveals that the families of the deceased are facing more difficulties than the survivors’ families. While 67.7% of such respondents mentioned a lot of difficulties in meeting the daily needs, 26% are facing only some difficulties, 4.2% are not in a position to meet their daily needs at all and 2.2% do not have any difficulties.
“Everyone is talking about the financial support for the affected Rana Plaza workers. But there are still a large number of workers who are living with trauma who crucially require psychological counselling,” said ILO Bangladesh office Chief Srinavasa Reddy.
The team leader, A Amanur Rahman, said: “Around 9.1% respondents said their conditions are deteriorating as some injuries need longer treatment. Some owners do not want to recruit the workers due to their lower productivity in comparison with the other workers.”
Around 1,368 survivors received cash support from the ILO through bKash, 468 from the BGMEA and 504 from the government. Besides these, they got other assistance like psychological help and assistive devices, says the report.
Amanur said: “There is around Tk127 crore left in the Prime Minister’s Emergency Fund after the distribution of only Tk22 crore. Article 121 of the ILO Convention does not make compensation mandatory for international brands, which should be made mandatory. Also, proper implementation of the labour law is a must.”
He said: “We have identified over 200 children of the victims’ families. Some of them did not get compensation at all. So, the compensations need to be distributed as soon as possible.”
On the other hand, the family members of the deceased were exposed to life risks after getting compensation. The girls were forced into early marriages due to the lack of money, and the boys got involved in hazardous work and dropped out of schools.
Amnaur suggested that the compensation money should be kept with the Rana Plaza Trust Fund. Otherwise it will be hard to coordinate all the sources. “It will be easy to coordinate one source and distribute the money. The government should also provide security for the victims who got compensations to avoid life risks.”
Dr Mojtaba Kazazi, executive commissioner of the Rana Plaza Arrangement Coordination Committee, said: “The coordination committee led by the ILO has taken an initiative to open bank accounts for the affected families on a small scale to ensure that all the support is provided in a coordinated way.”
