Washim Mia, Staff Reporter: Ready Made Garments (RMG) factories are the lifeblood our Bangladesh economy. More than 82% of total export income is grabbed by this sector and more importantly 4.5 million workers, mostly female, are working in it. Health, Gender and well-being are some important aspects in terms of their safety at workplace. With a view to working with governmental regularity bodies, bringing out the significant issues related to health and Gender Based Violence (GBV), SNV Netherlands Development Organization organized a workshop on Health Insurance, Gender Issue and well-being for RMG workers at Tawfiq Aziz Khan Seminar Hall, The Daily Star head office, Dhaka yesterday.
Funded by Embassy of the Kingdom of Netherlands, some 20 delegates from the Department of Inspection for Factories and Establishments (DIFE) attended the workshop.
The session was inaugurated by the chief guest Mr. Shamsuzzaman Bhuiyan, Inspector General (IG)-DIFE while Mr. Anwar Ullah, Additional Inspector General-DIFE was also present as the special guest.
On behalf of the Team Leader of Working With Women project, Ms. Koyela Sharmin, Private Sector Engagement Advisor-SNV, delivered the welcome speech.
The session started proceeding with the presentation on Health Insurance conducted by Mr. Syed Abdul Hamid, Professor & Director-Institute of Health Economy, DU. He emphasized on the health insurance for the workers working in the garments factories. He said that health insurance can be for great use if any worker if he or she is victimized in any accident during work period or death at large.
A tool developed for assessing the status of the wellbeing of the workers in different garments factories was also presented by Mr. Abdul Mottaleb, Managing Director- Global Sustainable Certification Services (GSCS). He projected a detailed questionnaire based on the WHO parameters, Bangladesh Labor Act and Rules, ILO, UN Guidelines and other national and international regulations with Plan Do Check Act (PDCA) approach. In it he focused on the management system’s roles and responsibility that what the cultures are in practice about the wellbeing of their workers.
Then Mr. Abdul Alim, President & CEO- Sustainable Management System Inc., conducted another important tool validating session on Gender Based Violence (GBV) at workplace as it has got a huge significance all over the world. Discrimination, Unwanted and unauthorized touch, Threatened Sexual relation, Corporal punishment, Sexual harassment, Rape or attempted rape, Economic violence and Verbal Abuse are some of the majors of GBV.This tool comprises some thirty questions which will be able to identify whether there is any gender violence or not and what are the assessment methods are already in practice. Featuring Management System approach, Protect-Respect-Remedy framework and triangulation technique to assess, it is also developed based on the national and international rules and regulations.
Mr. Anwar Ullah, Additional Inspector General- DIFE, delivered on overall health, safety and well-being of the workers. He thanked SNV for organizing such interactive validation workshop for the new inspectors who have just started their working with DIFE. He also advised the participants to learn and think out of the box and to interact with other relevant stakeholders when necessary.
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