Women get less than half of what men get
Female workers in Lalmonirhat and Kurigram toiling hard on a chatal (paddy husking and drying yard) even braving inclement weather are being subjected to extreme discrimination in wages.
They said a male worker working on a chatal gets Tk 350 to Tk 400 a day whereas a female worker gets Tk 150 to Tk 170 only.
But female workers have to do the same work as the male workers do yet they get half the wages, a glaring example of gender discrimination.
Despite their unwillingness to work for wage inequality, they have no choice either. They are helpless due to a lack of employment opportunities in their localities.
Most of them come from erosion affected families and many of them are divorced. They work hard on chatals to feed their children.
According to the Lalmonirhat and Kurigram Mill Owners' Association, at least 15,000 male and 5,000 female workers work on about 1,500 chatals in 14 upazilas of the two districts. Along with the male workers, the female workers are engaged in boiling, drying and threshing the paddy.
Mina Begum, a worker of a chatal in Andharijhar area of Kurigram's Bhurungamari upazila, said she knows that they were being paid less but they could not manage any other jobs.
If a female worker demands a fair wage, the owner of the chatal fires her, she said.
Minoti Bala, another chatal worker at Sakoya village in Lalmonirhat Sadar upazila, said she is also struggling to run her family with a wage of Tk 150-170 a day.
"Had there been any other source of income, I would have left the chatal work," she said.
Jamsher Ali, owner of a chatal in Andharijhar area, said the male workers get higher wages as they carry sacks full of paddy.
Comments