Greed for cut-price products at heart of Bangladesh tragedy

The next time you go bargain-hunting on Eid, Christmas or Diwali, spare a thought for the hundreds of Bangladeshi garment workers who perished when their factory collapsed on April 24. Chances are some of the stuff you bought with European or American brand labels was produced in Bangladesh.
A week after the Rana Plaza tragedy, Bangladesh is still counting its dead as rescue workers pull bodies from the rubble. Interspersing the wails of those mourning are occasional cheers that ring out when someone is brought out alive, but as the hours tick by, hope is fast fading among the relatives of those still strapped in the debris.
Emotions apart, the incident is a grim reminder of the exploitation workers in poor countries face despite occasions bouts of activism that brings their plight into public focus from time to time.
Bangladesh, which earns most of its foreign exchange from garment exports – mainly to the US and Europe – has more than 5,000 factories employing close to 4.5mn workers, of which almost 80% are women.
Unsurprisingly, a majority of those dead in the latest calamity were women, especially from the impoverished rural areas of the country who migrate to urban centres to look for work in order to support their families.
The unemployment situation naturally breeds a corrupt and exploitative culture where even the fundamentals of safety are ignored in order to meet the greed of local factory owners and their European and American customers who demand quality clothing at throw away prices.
Some of the familiar brands of clothing available in European and American stores are produced in Bangladesh and similarly poor countries like Vietnam and Cambodia. The buyers of these products are often unaware that it’s because of the rampant exploitation of workers that prices are so kept so low.
Hopefully, the latest tragedy would result in concerted efforts to improve the lot of workers in terms of better pay and secure working conditions.
Admittedly, it’s an uphill task. The culture of corruption is so deep-rooted in Bangladesh and indeed the subcontinent that it will require massive political will to turn around things.
Factory owners are usually multimillionaires with strong political affiliations and connections to the police and the judiciary. It’s common knowledge that in South Asia, building permits can be bought by bribing officials who then look the other way when norms are flouted.
The recent collapse of an apartment building in the Indian financial nerve centre of Mumbai which took the lives of around 100 people was also a result of blatant violations at all levels of the lengthy process to get various clearances.
The owner of the collapsed Bangladesh factory, Sohel Rana, was nabbed near the Indian border while trying to flee Bangladesh.
He is said to be a youth leader of a political party. As he was presented in court yesterday, cries of “hang him”, “hang him” rent the air.
But Bangladesh doesn’t apply the death penalty for manslaughter. Maybe he deserves to spend the rest of his life in jail, but that would serve little purpose. The American and European companies who demand cut-price products for their customers must also share the blame.