Fourty-three labour organisations working on garment workers' rights have placed a six-point charter of demands before candidates contesting the Dhaka-19 (Savar–Ashulia) constituency, calling for improved security, better living standards and the resolution of long-standing problems faced by garment workers in the industrial belt on Wednesday.
The demands were unveiled at a press conference at the Savar Press Club, organised by the Dhaka-19 Workers' Demand Realisation Committee, which coordinates the 43 organisations. The charter was presented by Khairul Mamun Mintu, legal affairs secretary of the Bangladesh Garment and Sweater Workers Trade Union Centre and coordinator of the committee.
The key demands include:
Construction of workers’ colonies, government schools and colleges, day-care centres, playgrounds, and a 500-bed government hospital with a burn unit.
Immediate implementation of an effective drainage system to tackle chronic waterlogging.
Installation of streetlights and CCTV cameras, along with adequate passenger shelters, for worker safety.
Strict action against criminal activities, including jhut-related violence, drug trafficking, mugging, and extortion.
Factory-based rationing, fair price shops, family cards for workers, and enforcement of the House Rent Control Act.
Presentation and implementation of recommendations from the Labour Reform Commission and SCOPE’s nine-point demands.
Mintu emphasised that despite repeated appeals, key promises, including the construction of a modern hospital, remain unfulfilled. He highlighted the area’s continuing vulnerability to jhut-related violence, drug abuse, attacks on industrial establishments, and unsafe commuting conditions.
He recalled tragic incidents over the past two decades, including the Spectrum Garments building collapse, the Ha-Meem and Tazreen Fashions fires, and the Rana Plaza disaster, which claimed 1,500–2,000 lives and left 20,000–25,000 workers injured.
Mintu added that current wages are barely enough for workers’ families, and rising rents and commodity prices limit access to medical care, nutrition, and education. He also stressed the lack of government healthcare facilities, schools, colleges, day-care centres, and playgrounds in the densely populated area, leaving workers’ children with an insecure future.
