12,000 die a year from pregnancy problems
Staff Correspondent
Around 12,000 women die every year in the country because of pregnancy complications, said Suneeta Mukherjee, UNFPA representative to Bangladesh, at a seminar yesterday. She said safe motherhood is the right of women who constitute 80 percent of the garment workers. Suneeta urged the ready made garment (RMG) factory owners to respect this right by taking special reproductive health care for women workers. The orientation seminar for Garment Factory Owners on Reproductive Health and Gender Issues was jointly organised by Bangladesh Garment Manufactures and Exporters Association (BGMEA) and UNFPA at a city hotel. "Compared to Sri Lanka and China, productivity of each individual garment worker in Bangladesh is still low," said UNFPA Assistant Representative Nurul Amin. To face the challenges of quota-free global competition, Bangladesh RMG sector will have to take measures to ensure healthy and productive work forces," he added. State Minister for Health and Family Welfare Mizanur Rahman Sinha sought continued support of the UNFPA in reproductive health care. The seminar was informed that to impart first hand knowledge on reproductive health and gender equity, the BGMEA has been running a project for garment workers in collaboration with the UNFPA and government since 1998. The BGMEA also runs ten clinics for garment workers including three funded by the UNFPA in Dhaka and Chittagong. Acting President of BGMEA Nurul Hoque and Director Lutfor Rahman also spoke on the occasion.
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