Participants at a conference on Sunday stressed the need for strengthening health facilities and creating proper awareness in RMG (readymade garment) units to reduce risk of diseases. They said the women workers in many cases were unwilling to go for health care services which is largely responsible for them to lag behind. They said proper knowledge, inadequate treatment facility and service-providing agency and uncongenial working environment are responsible for health problems of the garment workers, particularly women. The speakers said so while participating at the conference on healthcare delivery system for RMG workers, attended by State Minister for Women and Children Affairs Meher Afroz Chumki. The State sought healthcare facilities for women garments workers for increased productivity for the RMG sector, which earns the highest foreign currency for the country. “More than 80 percent RMG workers are female and most of them come from low income families and are illiterate but their competence have enabled the industry to compete with the world market,” she told the conference. She added: “If these workers remain healthy they can contribute more and therefore it is our moral and social responsibility to keep them healthy.” BROWN University, Global Health initiative, USA and Child Health Awareness Foundation, Bangladesh organized the conference titled Healthcare Delivery System for the Garment Factory Workers: Challenges and Solutions at the CIRDAP. Additional Director General and Director of Management Information System (MIS) of Directorate General of Health Services Professor Dr Abul Kalam Azad, Former Foreign Minister Dr Dipu Moni, US Ambassador to Bangladesh Marica Bernicat also spoke with Professor of Brown University Dr Ruhul Abid in the chair. “The owners of the factories are quite aware of the health issues . . . but sometimes workers also hide their diseases due to fear of loss of job,” Azad said. Bernicat thanked the Ministry of Information and Communication Technology for taking initiative to make a mobile application programmes for the garments workers. “I hope this conference will be an eye opening conference…I also want to thank the ICT ministry for taking initiative to create mobiles apps for the RMG workers,” the envoy said. The objective of the conference was to keep all stakeholders informed the health scenario in factories as well as to provide updates on what measures will functioning for the betterment of current condition.
