Abu Hanif is a 60-year-old man working in a knit composite factory at Rupganj in Narayanganj, who oversees a family of five with the meagre income which he gets from his job at the factory. The last few days have been tough for him, as the government officials have severed the gas connection to his factory because of a payment overdue. Since then, production at the factory has completely stopped, making salary disbursement almost impossible for the authorities as they couldn’t generate any income.
Thus, Abu Hanif had to rely on his savings to feed himself and his family members, something that people from the lower middle income bracket succumbs to whenever in crisis. But this can’t go on for long, as Abu Hanif’s savings will dry up soon, a thought that has been wreaking havoc in Hanif’s mind as his attempts to find a new job have been futile due to his old age. After all, no one wants to hire an old man for the heavy, mechanical work that Hanif does at the knit composite factory.
The Question is- what will Abu Hanif do now? With no possibility of salary disbursement from his current employer and no chances of getting employed at some other factory along with a dwindling amount of savings, the only thing that Abu Hanif can do now is to beg or pull a rickshaw on city streets, becoming one of those floating people we often find on our way around this city we lovingly call ‘My Dhaka’.
Abu Hanif is not the only one facing factory closures and shutdowns. Rather, thousands of other people like Hanif have become penniless as the factories where they used to work have put up notices in front of the entry gates telling the workers to search for alternatives as the authorities can’t pay these workers anymore.
From Beximco Textiles to Keya Group’s Textiles Unit- you name it. Since the fall of Sheikh Hasina and her Awami League government on 5 August last year, industries owned by her close associates have been facing severe crises, including cancellation of work orders, difficulties in opening up letters of credit, paying up loans taken from the banks, sourcing raw materials for production of goods, and embezzlement of money in the guise of export income.
The latest incident happened on 26 February, when Beximco officials in a meeting decided to close all of their factories and terminate all the employees working there, citing funding crunch. Earlier in January, Keya Group decided to let go their employees in their textile section from May, making around 8,000 workers jobless. Another incident occurred right after the news of Sheikh Hasina’s fleeing reached the ears of the public, when some unidentified people set Gazi Group’s tyre factory in Rupganj ablaze, destroying assets worth crores and killing the jobs of a few thousand.
The reason behind such a sorry state of the country’s industrial sector is the withdrawal of support by the government now ruling the country. By not supporting the industries affiliated with the ousted Awami League economically and not bringing the perpetrators of sabotage at factories like Gazi Tyre to justice, the interim government is making the lives of the ordinary workers working in these factories miserable.
The government should understand that there is a difference between people like Salman F Rahman, Golam Dastgir Gazi and the thousands of those who enter the factory compounds in the morning and get out from there at night, in exchange of a paltry sum just enough to keep them alive.
The government should understand that there is a difference between people like Salman F Rahman, Golam Dastgir Gazi and the thousands of those who enter the factory compounds in the morning and get out from there at night, in exchange of a paltry sum just enough to keep them alive.
People like Salman and Dastgir might have made millions through various irregularities, but the people upon whose toil these men had made their fortunes are in no way responsible for their misdeeds. If the government has concrete proof of financial irregularities against the top leadership of the country’s industrial sector, they can take proper legal actions against them. But the government can’t punish the ordinary workers by snatching their sources of income through letting the ailing factories go to the brink of a free fall.
Our industrial sector is still pretty small compared to our competitors. The only industry upon which the country’s economy has been built has been the ready-made garments industry, and the textiles industry is more than just necessary for the retention of the RMG sector as the supplier of raw materials. Due to the small size, it won’t be possible to employ the thousands who are becoming jobless due to the factory closures. While only a few of these unemployed workers will get a new job, most of them will become destitute, and a day will come when you’ll find them riding the rickshaw which you are on or selling tobacco and betel leaves at makeshift stalls at various corners of the city.
The government needs to understand this, and take immediate steps to address the situation. The government can go on with the trial of people like Salman and Dastgir, and if proven guilty, must punish them for their wrongdoings. But, the government’s wrath must not fall upon the ordinary factory workers. The government must rehabilitate them, either by providing them new jobs at some other factories or in some other industries, or they can talk to our friendly nations and make an arrangement for these unemployed people to migrate to those countries, which will earn the country important foreign exchanges as a plus.
There is no point in turning a blind eye while thousands of lives are being destroyed due to the evil legacy left behind by a past dynasty. The government has to be pro-people, and ensure that their lack of complicity don’t turn the people against them.
After all, it’s the people from every strata of society who had removed the past regime, and they will do it again if they are being denied of the government’s good grace.
Muhammad A. Bashed is the Operational Editor at Muktipotro
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