ADVANCE FOR USE SUNDAY, JUNE 9, 2013 AND THEREAFTER – FILE – In this Monday, April 29, 2013 file photo, a Bangladeshi worker leaves the site where a garment factory building collapsed near Dhaka, Bangladesh. Pushed by poverty and pulled by the hope of a better life, the residents of the village of Tekani, Bangladesh have for almost a decade been making the trip south to Dhaka. But with neighbors and relatives killed and maimed in the Tazreen factory fire in November and the collapse of Rana Plaza factory building in April, terror has overtaken this village of about 1,800 people in far northwestern Bangladesh.
Bangladesh (AP) — Twice a year, buses filled with garment workers come rumbling into Tekani, shaking the houses made of mud and tin, and alerting villagers that their loved ones are home for the holidays.
Wearing new outfits bought specially for the Muslim Eid festival, and boasting of a regular income, they cut a striking image of success in a village where most own no land, have no steady jobs and are among the poorest people in one of the poorest regions of one of the world’s poorest countries.
Three days later, the buses begin the nine-hour ride back to suburban Dhaka, creeping along the same narrow road covered with drying rice husks and jutted with potholes. The workers are invariably joined by hundreds of fresh recruits from Tekani and its sister villages who will work alongside them in factories making clothing worn around the globe. They are the fuel that powers a $20 billion garment industry that is the world’s third-largest.
Mosammat Almuna Begum once dreamed of sending her 21-year-old daughter on one of those buses. No longer.
“It’s better to stay hungry here,” she said. “There is no safety there.”
Pushed by poverty and pulled by the hope of a better life, Tekani people have for almost a decade been making the trip south to Dhaka. But with neighbors and relatives killed and maimed in the Tazreen factory fire in November, and the collapse of the Rana Plaza factory building in April, terror has overtaken this village of about 1,800 people in far northwestern Bangladesh. Many question whether the industry’s shaky promise is worth the sacrifice.
Source: Suntimes
