Nearly 200 children of readymade garment workers are going to receive education assistance from the RMG sector central fund next month, according to labour ministry officials.Sources said a decision was made in a meeting held on Thursday and presided over by state minister for labour Md Mujibul Haque at secretariat in the capital.The meeting disbursed assistance for treatment of sick RMG workers and education of workers’ children from the fund in the month of October.Prime minister Sheikh Hasina is scheduled to inaugurate the disbursement of the first-ever central fund for treatment of sick RMG workers and education of workers’ children.One of the officials said that in the month of May this year the government decided to offer the assistance from the fund RMG sector Central Welfare Fund.Workers’ Welfare Foundation under the labour ministry had sent a letter to Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association seeking application from workers for the assistance.‘We have received a huge number of applications from the workers and all the valid applicants will get the assistance in phases. In the first phase, we are going to provide education assistance for some 200 children of workers and treatment assistance for more or less 125 workers,’ BWWF director general AMM Anisul Awal told New Age on Saturday.He said that the workers children who passed SSC with grade point average 4.5-5 would get Tk 20,000 each.Anisul said that the amount for the treatment would vary based on the sickness of the workers.The beneficiaries, he informed, would get the assistance through mobile banking (Sure Cash) and the BWWF signed an agreement with Rupali Bank. ‘We used to provide financial assistance in case of accidental deaths of workers from the central fund and now we have included assistance for treatment and education for workers’ children,’ Anisul said. According to the labour rules that came into effect on September 15, 2015, the export-oriented factories have to contribute 0.03 per cent of their freight on board prices to the central fund while contributions to the fund from the government and the buyers are voluntary. The government started collecting money from RMG factories on July 1, 2016 and the money was being deposited equally with two accounts –– a beneficiary account and a contingency account. As per labour rules, grants for workers or their family members will be taken from the beneficiary account while the amount deposited with the contingency account will be used by owners to pay the premium of group insurance and health insurance and dues of workers of any closed factory if its owner is unable to pay the workers.Anisul said that a total of Tk 100 crore was deposited to the central fund in last two years (up to June this year) and factory owners used about Tk 50 crore for meeting insurance claims for deceased workers and the government used Tk 7-8 crore to pay the families of workers who died in accidents.
