| dc.description.abstract | The COVID-19 pandemic has affected the global supply chain to a great extent.
Along with many countries, Bangladesh is also suffering with consequences of this
disruption. The biggest industry of the country, the garment industry, is considered
the most impacted as it is the second largest exporter industry in the world. The
higher share of the impacts has been applied upon the garment workers and
especially upon the low scale factory workers. However, the media portrayal of
their survival in these crucial days has not been strong. In this paper, I plan to
portray a clear image of the severe impacts on low scale garment workers during
the pandemic and highlight how much help they received throughout the journey.
Using the snowball sampling process I have interviewed 112 low factory garment
workers (28 male & 84 female) and the primary and secondary data are designed
with a mix of qualitative and quantitative methodology. The findings suggest that
the low scale factory workers have been exploited financially, physically, and
mentally in the COVID-19 pandemic. After the frequent lockdowns, on average
per hour working wages have been extremely low. While a significant number of
workers have suffered immensely, the female workers (especially pregnant and
elderly women) were the most vulnerable targets. Unsafe work environment,
forced labor, increased harassment in the workplace are the indicators of workers'
growing vulnerability during the pandemic. The positions of the state and
stakeholders do not portray a clear picture; there are attempts like stimulus
packages offered by the Bangladesh government, but not as successful as planned.
Even though the stakeholders were expected to handle the situation with utmost
gratitude, their actions did not seem fair to the workers. This paper finds out the
root causes and concludes that without proper policy dialogue and an advanced
research & development sector, obtaining stability and rights is not certain for the
vulnerable workers. | en_US |
