Same work but half wage for women
Women labourers at the brick fields in the district are facing serious wage discrimination despite doing same hard work like male workers.
The wage is half of their male fellows as they have no alternative option for earning, said the female labourers.
Saleha Begum, 44, a female labourer at a brick field in Sarodubi village in Hatibandha upazila, said 40 to 50 women work for manufacturing bricks at each of 47 brick kilns in the district and they are deprived of getting fair wages.
“We work daylong like a male labourer but we are paid fifty percent wage than that of male worker,” she said.
“We start our work early in the morning and leave the brick kiln in the evening every day,” said Rabeya Begum, 35, another labourer at the same brick field.
“We get Tk 350 to Tk 400, whereas a male labourer is paid Tk 800 to Tk 1000 per day,” she said, adding the brick kiln owner deprived them of fair wages as the owner very well knows that they have no alternative option for earning in the area.
Mabiya Begum, 42, a woman labourer at a brick kiln in Doljor village of Aditmari upazila, said they prepare soil for manufacturing bricks but their earning is too little.
“If we place our demand for same wage to the brick kiln owner, he replies “give up the job” and then we don't dare to raise our demand again,” she said.
Sultan Mahmud, 46, a male labourer at the same brick kiln, said women labourers work all day but they are treated as male labourers' assistants so brick kiln owners pay little wage to them.
“It is true women labourers do work same like us, they even work more sometimes,” he said.
Lutfar Rahman, a brick kiln owner at Sarodubi village of Hatibandha upazila, said women day labourers are available here. They give the women labourers the same wage as other brick kiln owners in the area.
Moniruzzaman Monir, general secretary of Bangladesh Sangjukta Sramik Federation in Lalmonirhat, said they are trying to get the brick kilns' women labourers together for raising voice for fair wage.