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The (modern) garment industry in Bangladesh has grown explosively
the last twenty years. The amount of garment factories has grown
from about 300 in 1978 to 2500 nowadays. The garment industry today
is the biggest industrial sector of the country. This has led to
an increase in the garment exports: 68% of the total of exports
is composed of garments, half of which goes to the United States.
Today, 1.5 million people work in the garment industry, of which
about 90% are women. For most of the workers, labouring conditions
are very bad. Labour laws that specify minimum wages and working
conditions are generally ignored by factory owners. In Bangladesh
the legal minimum age for admission to employment is fixed at 14
years. Yet 'helpers' start work in the garment factories at the
age of 10. This is, however, not a situation unique to the garment
industry.
In Bangladesh, child labour became at a debate when Bangladeshi
garment products came under severe threat by the US and other foreign
buyers as it was said that these export products are made by children
under the minimum age of admission to work. In 1992, the American
Senator Harkin proposed a Bill, the so-called Child Labour Deterrence
Act, to ban imports of products to the US market that uses child
labour in the production process. This has had disastrous consequences:
As many as an estimated 50.000 children under the age of 14, possibly
more, working in the garment industry, were dismissed, with no provisions
for their rehabilitation. The dismissed children found jobs that
were often much more hazardous.
The concern about the children led to negotiations between the
ILO, UNICEF and the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters
Association, culminating in a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU),
signed in 1995. However, the MOU deals only with about 10.000 child
workers who are currently employed in the garment sector. The children
who were sacked prior to the signing of the MOU have been deprived
of any of the rehabilitation measures as mentioned in the understanding.
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