Form committees at factories to monitor violence against female workers: analysts
Apparel factory management must form a committee that monitors and resists violence against female workers inside the factory, speakers said at a programme yesterday.
The female workers will be able to approach the committee to raise their voice against harassment and thereby, help reduce gender-based violence remarkably in the garments industry, they added.
They spoke at a certificate giving ceremony organised by Fair Wear Foundation (FWF), a Netherlands-based organisation working to improve workplace conditions at garment factories, at The Daily Star Centre in Dhaka.
FWF gave certificates to seven apparel factories for successfully establishing an Anti-Harassment Committee to resist gender-based violence through its Workplace Education Programme, which is working with 29 garments factories in Bangladesh.
The factories are -- MM Knitwear, Ahsan Composite, Eve Dress Shirts, Crown Fashion and Sweater Ind, MM Fashion, DIRD Composite Textiles and Ahmed Fashions.
Manusher Jonno Foundation Director Rina Roy said, “Sexual harassment is one of the reasons why female workers leave their jobs and most garments factories do not have a particular section where they can complain about it.”
Factory authorities should form a committee for this as soon as possible, as it is their responsibility to ensure workers' safety, she added.
Md Arifuzzaman, manager (HR and compliance) of Sayem Group, said the committee formed by FWF's Workplace Education Programme helped his company reduce gender-based violence significantly.
Shahanaz Parvin Putul, a garments worker, said, “We have to raise our voice. If we do so, further violence against us can be resisted.”
Bablur Rahman, country representative of FWF; Rokeya Rafique Baby, executive director of Karmojibi Nari, a platform of working women; Pieter de Vries, first secretary (economic affairs and RMG) of the Dutch embassy in Dhaka; Nahida Anjum, lead trainer of FWF, and representatives of different garments factories, brands and labour organisations also spoke.