With Bangladesh’s GDP projected to overtake that of Poland, Taiwan, and Vietnam, at least according to a report by World Economics, it is high time that a renewed dialogue on the informal economy was initiated.
When it comes to workers in the informal economy, legal protection and worker rights are still terribly absent, with workers often losing life and limb due to hazardous conditions and employee abuse in this precarious sector.
According to a Bangladesh Institute of Labour Studies (BILS) survey from last year, as many as 6,101 workers have died and 3,956 have been injured in workplace accidents between the years 2011 and 2020. The highest number, 1,200 workers, died in 2019, while there were 1,053 workplace-based deaths which took place in 2021.
The World Economics report states that the size of Bangladesh's informal economy is estimated to be 30.2% which represents approximately $324 billion in GDP per capita based on purchasing power parity levels.
This is clearly a sizable sector with innumerable people actively working, which is all the more reason why the lack of any regulations in the informal economy is so concerning. There is an urgent need for the government to formalize all the hard work contributing so much to our economy, not only for the recognition that they deserve but to also organize women workers -- who comprise the majority of the informal economy -- and raise awareness regarding their rights.
The informal sector makes up a larger share of poorer, more agricultural and less developed economies, but the importance of the sector cannot be denied plays an important role both in employment generation and in the production and distribution of goods and services in countries like Bangladesh.
Given our nation’s medium-term development goals, the push towards introducing regulations and legal protection of workers in the informal sector needs a shot in the arm. They are helping Bangladesh become more prosperous, the nation owes them that much at the very least.
