Understanding the pain of the victims

With a death toll of 1,135 and more than 2,500 left injured, the Rana Plaza collapse is the worst industrial accident in the world's history.
In the wake of the tragedy, the bereaved families and survivors, some of them disabled permanently, face destitution and further anguish over fears of a future in poverty. One year after the collapse, how are some of the most affected doing?  
During the months of March and April 2014, a multidisciplinary research team from Brac conducted a study to find out the present conditions of the survivors who received rehabilitation assistance from Brac.
With 26 survivors taking part, the study shed light on their arduous recovery process and the tragedy's continuing impact even after one year.
For the study, data was collected on the socioeconomic status of the survivors, their physical and mental condition, demographic information, assistance received from other sources, the treatments they sought in the last one year and their future goals and aspirations.
The survivors faced continued vulnerabilities in their lives in spite of the assistance due to poverty, disempowerment, trauma and disability. They perceive themselves as burdens to their families and society.
During the interviews, some of the survivors spoke in similar tones of distress: “What will I do with this life now? It would have been better if I just died that day”.
Even though much was promised as compensation, money has not reached their hands or when it did, it was inadequate.
As revealed through the research, the survivors mentioned that they are no longer receiving the free treatment they were once promised.
They continue to deal with the trauma and are sometimes faced with the stigma surrounding disability.
Physical disability, still misunderstood as a deformity by many in Bangladesh, is a problem particularly for girls. Many face an uncertain future, fearful of their inability to fulfil the traditional roles of a wife or a mother.
Ayesha's story makes it clear that disability has a profound gendered aspect. Women with disabilities find themselves doubly oppressed in an able-bodied, male-dominated world, and poverty only intensifies this.
Ayesha aged 25 had come to Dhaka from Magura with her husband. She earned enough to afford her life in Dhaka and sent the rest to her in-laws back in Magura.
Having suffered a severe fracture in her backbone, she received a brace from Brac Limb and Brace Centre (BLBC), which has somewhat eased her movements, though she still suffers from the pain.
More than the pain, Ayesha suffers from a constant fear about her future. She can no longer take care of her five-year-old daughter, and her in-laws are not very understanding of her psychological and physical condition.
She also worries that her husband may not remain supportive of her in the future. Even though she has received training on tailoring, Ayesha does not see herself being able to work.
Ayesha's story drives home the point that the disempowerment faced by the Rana Plaza survivors, in every aspect of their lives, is far from over.
Continued livelihood support is essential, especially for the disabled survivors.
Most of these survivors whom the researchers talked to once had earnings ranging from Tk 6,000-10,000 which helped them take care of their expenses and support their families back in their villages.
The loss of employment has been a major disempowering factor at the individual level. Despite their critical physical conditions, most of the survivors want to work in order to take care of their families, bear medical expenses and children's education.
Many look ahead to a future where they can own a small business, like a poultry farm or a shop.
The younger female survivors expressed their desire start afresh; one 16-year-old respondent realised that an education would help her achieve her goal of independence.
Of the 26 survivors in this insightful qualitative study, 11 are amputees who received prosthetic and monetary support from Brac.
The recovery process is a slow one, given the severity of their injuries and mental anxiety. The need for regular counselling for these survivors is an immediate and essential one.
Conscious that no amount of livelihood or healthcare support can truly replace what bereaved families and injured survivors have lost, Brac strives to still support the most affected.
Through the BLBC, Brac provided prosthetic support to 12 survivors and braces to 29 survivors with severe spinal injuries.

Hundreds more received psychosocial counselling and medical check-ups. Already 350 survivors and relatives of the victims have been identified for seed capital and are going through skills development training and apprenticeships.
This is so they can look towards a future of self-dependency and it is the organisation's intention to extend this support to more.
The Rana Plaza building collapse is not an isolated phenomenon. There have been many industrial accidents worldwide since the beginning of the 18th century.
Technical flaws in the plants' constructions, slow development of democratic forms and norms and lack of good governance saw a rise in the number of industrial disasters.
It is no surprise then that industrial disasters began to decline rapidly once the solidarity of workers, democratisation of society and the rule of law were put into place.
The Rana Plaza collapse came only five months after the fire accident in Tazreen Factory, which killed 112 people.
It's easy to look at the headlines and the numbers and move on with our lives, but the lives that changed forever cannot move on so easily.
The assistance for a lot of the survivors needs to be for longer term and holistic if we want to truly rehabilitate them back into the workplace and society.
What local and international observers place a lot of emphasis on are the issues within the garments industry, from workers' pay to buyers' unrealistic demands.
The truth is the building was not safe and there are many more buildings in Bangladesh built with the same disregard for rules and regulations.
If a building not housed with factories but with apartments were to collapse next, what corporations would there be to blame?
The survivors and bereaved families affected by the Rana Plaza collapse do not deserve to wait for the dust of the blame game to settle; they deserve to see solutions and second chances to be self-dependent.
For this to happen, a renewed push with their current needs in mind is absolutely crucial.

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Atiya Rahman is a research associate and Nawra Mehrin is a research trainee at Brac Research and Evaluation Division (RED).