It was born at the turn of the 20th century and at a time when industrialised world was experiencing great turbulence and crisis and when women, in the midst of all kinds of political, economic and social restrictions, were entering paid work in great number mainly in the textiles, manufacturing and domestic services where the working conditions spelled more than disaster and wages worse than depressed. Year after year, men and women in Europe and in the United States attended rallies in and around March 8 to push for women's political, economic and social rights. They chanted for women's voting rights, pushed for Women's Trade Union League to help organise women in paid work around their political and economic welfare. Today it has assumed a new global dimension, strengthened by growing international movement and UN support and the day is now commemoration for rallying efforts to demand women's rights and full participation in the political and economic progress. It is a day to reflect and draw inspirations from past achievements, and express solidarity with our sisters in order to look for future directions.

Like any other developing and developed country Bangladesh also celebrates the day with due honor and dignity. Solidarity with women's demands for equal rights to participate in the political, social, economic process on equal footing with men would be expressed through rallies, and other activities. Major issues that need to be addressed to make women live productive would be highlighted. One of the issues, I feel, must draw our attention this year should be the predicaments of the female garment workers of our country whose untiring work has so richly contributed to our national exchequer. The irony is that though Bangladesh is never tired of impressing upon the investors and the donors about the success of its garment sectors but neither the government nor the owners of the industries have ever tried or bothered to comprehend or give due recognition to the labour of the workers whose sweat and blood have made the industries so profitable and successful. It seems that thoughts have ever crossed the minds of the relevant people that they too, along with the glowing tributes paid to the success stories of RMG sector, need the basic or minimum recognition in terms of better salaries, security and better working conditions.

There are in all 3700 garment industries in and around the capital city of Dhaka and elsewhere in the country, which employ about twenty lac workers, of which 80 percent are females. Their tender age -- mostly between 14 and 25 -- their lack of education and skill to negotiate in the job marker and their status like that of internally displaced persons (they are mostly from the rural areas and migrate to the capital city for jobs) make them a special category of people i.e. they are insecure and vulnerable. They are dispossessed and disempowered. In a society where the rich and mighty find it rather easy to exploit the poor and the disempowered, it is no surprise that the garments workers as a whole suffer various discriminations and exploitations. However, the female workers are subjected to double exploitations and other abuses due to their gender.

The females are usually at the lowest rung of the hierarchy. They are paid less than their male counterparts and at times, given jobs without any contracts so that they can be thrown out at management's (who are 100% male) sweet will. The income is so meagre that most of them can barely manage to support themselves only. The management also is oblivious of gender-related problems the female garment workers face. It is evidenced from the fact that in a recent fire at KTS Textiles Limited 47 out of 52 that were killed were women, who were deliberately kept waiting for their so-called delay in reporting to work due to their monthly cycle. Again, both male and female workers have wretched working conditions but the female face the similar situations at home as well. According to a newspaper report their lives at home are raven by poverty and violence.

Besides the job insecurity and horrible conditions at home and work these women are subjected to violence in the form of sexual harassment both at work and while traveling to and from work. While traveling they are mostly harassed through eve teasing, which is considered to be normal male behaviour and condoned by the society that refuses to recognise that such male aggression is detrimental to women's physical and psychological health. However, it is at work that they are sexually harassed most. In a recently conducted study, it has been found that the female garment workers face intense sexual harassment like quid pro quo negotiations, reprisal for refusing sexual advances and physical assaults for preventing attempted rape. The men in authority also commit extreme type of harassment like rape. Phenomenon like grabbing, touching, leering and suggestive comments have also been common. The female workers usually tolerate such acceptable male behaviour in silence due to societal norms, lopsided male-female power relationship and economic necessity. There has also been no specific law for dealing the perpetrators of such violence. In sum, they lead a life that is full of indignity and injustice.

The above is just a bird's eye view of what the female garment workers go through day in and day out. The issue of the female garment workers must then be addressed in a meaningful way. On March 25, 1911, tragic Triangle Fire in New York killed 410 working girls that had a significant impact on labour legislation in the United States, and the working conditions leading up to the disaster were invoked during subsequent observances of International Women's Day. On this day of reckoning, let us pledge that we would not allow to go in vain the lives of the female garment workers that have been lost in KTS Textiles Industries fire, and that their loss will make us more determined to fight for their rights, which remained elusive while they were still living.

Dilara Choudury is Professor, Govt and Politics, Jahangirnagar University.