Injured Rana Plaza workers still cry for proper treatment
Many of the injured Rana Plaza victims who were in immediate need of proper treatment but could not afford that are seeing their health conditions deteriorate day by day--some even perished in the meantime--while compensation eludes them even after 18 months of the disaster.
Since the nine-storey building collapsed on April 24 last year, the victims have staged demonstrations on a myriad of occasions demanding compensation, but to no avail.
On Saturday, one of the critically injured workers, Zaheda Begum, 25, who had been pressed in the hunks of concrete, breathed her last after vomiting blood four days in a row. Doctors had advised a surgery but it had been virtually ambitious for her poor family.
This correspondent has recently visited 20 of the injured, in Savar, whose health condition is getting worse by the day wanting healthcare.
Feli Begum, 34, is one of the worst cases. Her suffering has been so grave and the pain so excruciating that she wishes to die.
"I cannot sleep for pain in my hands and legs. Sometimes I cry out at mid-night. Death would bring me peace,” she said. “Please pray for my death, I cannot bear with this."
Feli had suffered injuries to the spinal cord, and left hand and leg. Recently she was diagnosed with internal infections in the limbs.
After the collapse, she took treatment in different hospitals. Lately she had been admitted to Gonoshasthaya Kendra Hospital in Savar for one and a half months.
Doctors asked her to get admitted to Dhaka Gonoshasthaya Nagar Hospital for a long-term and better treatment. But her husband Hasu Mia, a rickshaw-puller, who often has to avoid work to move her wife, took her back home instead, late last month. He had no choice.
“If I go to hospital with my wife, my family remains hungry. I have to work to earn the bread,” he said, adding that he was already broke paying for medicines when Feli was admitted to Gonoshasthaya Kendra.
The financial plight has taken a toll on their only daughter Bithi, 11, too. She has dropped out of school.
Feli is one of the 221 grievously injured victims who were identified by a committee formed on the directive of the High Court, a few days after the collapse. These wounded workers either lost one or more limbs, had their spinal cord bruised or require long-term treatment.
The list also includes Nilufa Begum, Runi Akter, Parvin, Maleka, Nasima, Rina and others who are nearly maimed.
Talking to The Daily Star, some victims at Mazidpur, Rajashon and Anandapur said they were given free treatment in many hospitals and clinics but they had to buy medicines. For some days, individuals and organisations had helped them buy medicines but they are suffering now, they said.
The deadly collapse left at least 1,138 people dead and more than 2,000 injured.
According to the Rana Plaza Trust Fund managed by the International Labor Organization, 2,848 victims were identified for compensation, which needs $40 million. The fund has recently distributed Tk 12.7 crore to 1,496 victims.
Taslima Akter, coordinator of Bangladesh Garment Workers' Solidarity, said that while workers were suffering, Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) and the government were trying to pass donations off as compensation.
Economist Prof MM Akash, a leader of the committee formed on the directive of the HC, said they had recommended Tk 4.5 lakh for each injured worker needing long-term treatment, Tk 7.5 for each who lost one limb, Tk 11.25 lakh for each who lost two limbs, and a maximum of Tk 15 lakh for an injured person, which is equivalent to the amount to be paid to each of the deceased.
He said he had submitted the recommendations to the HC but there was no response yet.
Comments