The ratio of female and male workers in the country’s apparel sector has reached 65:35 with involvement of women workers in woven sector having the highest 71 per cent, according to a recent survey. The findings of the survey, conducted by Asian Center for Development (ACD), indicates that the involvement of male workers in the garment sector continues to rise over the years as the engagement of women workers was estimated to be 80 per cent previously. “Many believe that nearly 80 per cent of the workers in the sector are female. In this survey, we found that male and female ratio of RMG workers to be 35:65,” the report said. Survey challenges myth about women holding garment jobs At the same time, the ratio is 46:54 in sweater factories, 42:58 in knitwear factories, 29: 71 in woven and 30:70 in other factories, it said. The survey conducted between August and December 2014 in some 173 BGMEA member factories-knit, woven, sweater and other categories, and some 1,204 workers were interviewed. The summary of the report is also available on the ACD’s official website. The male to female ratio of workers vary across industry types, the report said, adding based on its survey the ACD estimate that nearly 1.4 million male and 2.6 million female workers are currently working in the garment industry represented by BGMEA. “The vacuum in the field of labour statistics on the RMG sector resulted in quagmire of information asymmetry,” the report said adding accidents also expose the industry to a negative image that is further confounded by the lack of good statistics. “The average experience of workers in the industry varies between grades. The youngest ones (in grade 7) have been working for about 3 years on average, while workers in grade 1 have been working for about 12 years”, the report said. About 86 per cent of the factories are direct exporters, 8.6 per cent are engaged in both direct exports as well as sub-contracting from others while 5.5 per cent are only sub-contractors, it added. Garment workers come to factories in Dhaka and Chittagong from all over the country with the largest chunk coming from Barisal district followed by Comilla, Mymensingh, Rangpur and others. About 36 to 44 per cent of the workers said that they are sometimes consulted in the family with regard to taking decisions related to entertainment, healthcare, buying and selling of assets, choosing location of residences, education, health, and marriage of brothers and sisters, and savings and loan related decisions. Workers are investing in their future generations. Their children/siblings are in schools. Some of them are also in universities. This is also true in case of unskilled workers. Less than 0.3 per cent of the workers have income below Tk 6,000 per month, 10 per cent is between 6,000-1,200. The average family income varies from 15,500 to 20,000 taka per month between grades 7 and 1. Nearly 60 per cent of the workers earn their living from the garment industry alone. In terms of asset ownership, 86 per cent have mobile phone, 68 per cent have television, 84 per cent have electric fan, 75 per cent have own home and 28 per cent have gold ornaments, the report said. About 40 per cent of families send money back home (to extended family members) and the average monthly remittance is around Tk 3,000. Mohammed Nasir, a vice president of Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA), said the male-female ratio might vary 5.0 to 10 per cent in reality. “But the number of female workers has decreased in recent times,” he added. BGMEA leader Mahmud Hasan Khan said the real picture will be clear after the completion of workers’ database.
