Garments Industry

The garment industry of Bangladesh has been the main export division and a major source of foreign currency for the last 25 years. Presently, the country earns about $5 billion worth of products every year by exporting garment products. The industry creates employment to about 3.5 million workers of whom 90% are women. Two non-market elements have performed a important function in confirming garment industry's regular improvement; these elements are (a) quotas under Multi- Fibre Arrangement1 (MFA) (b) special market entry to the European markets. The whole system is strongly related with the trend of moving of production.
The cause of the transfer can be explained by the salary structure in the garment industry, in whole world. Apparel labour charge per hour in USA is $10 but it is only $0.30 in Bangladesh. This difference makes the world apparel exports from $3 billion in 1965, with developing nations making up 14 percent of the total, to $119 billion in 1991, with developing nations contributing 60 percent. In 1991 total workers in the ready-made garment industry of Bangladesh was 582,000 and now it grew up to 1,404,000 in 1998.
It is necessary to identify the outcomes of the process of moving production from high pay to low pay nations for both developing and developed nations. It is another fact that most of the Third World nations are now on the way to industrialization. In this system, workers are working under unfavorable working environment - minimal wages, unhealthy place of work, no job guarantee, forced labour etc.
Researches reveal that 90 percent of the garment employees felled into illness or disease during the month before the interviews. Headache, fever, chest, stomach, eye and ear pain, cough and cold, dysentery, urinary tract infection were more common diseases. The garment factories awarded bonus of different diseases to the employees for working.
Above analysis of working atmosphere of garment sector, it can state that the working environment of most of the Third World nations, particularly Bangladesh remind us of earlier development of garment sectors.
There are two alternatives to tackle the challenge of the competitive world introduced by the continuous pressure of global garment chain. One can continue to exist in the competition by adopting time-honored work systems or immoral practice. But it is unsure how long they can carry on existing. In relationship with the garment industry of Bangladesh, we can say that this is the time to follow a competitive policy, which improve quality.