Photo: bdnews24.com

The woman behind the wheels was a golfer with a handicap of 14. She hummed, took breaks and told me her story while driving me to the next province in her shiny SUV. She was a typical Chinese entrepreneur, a bold 30-year-old and happened to fear nothing. China today is all about women. In spite of the image of Chinese society being repressive, the Chinese growth rates today are attributed to the impressive increase of female employment proving that there is an opportunity to balance economic issues with social justice.

And… in Bangladesh, where the GDP growth rate along with all the other human development factors come off as promising, 711 cases of abuse were reported in 2012, with 119 of the victims being gang raped and 89 of them being killed. On the 1st of April, 2012, a four-month-old baby was raped. On 1st of August, 2012, a physically challenged woman was violated in Louhajang. On the 27th of September 2012, a twelve-year-old kid was strapped to a tree and abused. On the 12th of June, in Mireswarai, a six-year-old was raped. On the 2nd of June 2012, a 17-year-old teenager was attacked, raped and was chopped into 26 pieces. It was only yesterday a student of Eden College came under acid attack after having refused a marriage proposal. It was only the other day when a 14-year-old teenager was taken and raped for three days at a stretch and was dumped by the railway at Madhupur in Tangail. Another victim, a 20-year-old recounted her tale, only in January 2012, before a judicial magistrate detailing the trauma of being raped in November.
Rape happens to be a steady South Asian tale…

Photo: Reuters

While Damini in New Delhi was violated with an iron rod, which left her with severe intestinal injuries, and was ultimately hurled out of the vehicle, the conscience of India suffered a stark blow. In a note to her mother, while Damini had written: “I want to live”, she finally didn’t make it through the intensive care unit. The story didn’t quite end there. Right after the Damini gang-rape episode on the 16th of December, on the 11th of January, 2013, another brutal case of rape was reported in India. This time, the victim was raped by seven men in a district bordering the Sikh holy city of Amritsar.  Seven men have been arrested so far. What had prompted their defiance? Worst of all, the lawyer defending the accused in the Damini rape case has gone up to the extent of stating that Westernised women invite sexual assaults and has even dared to share that he had not ever heard of a “single incident or example of rape with a respected lady”. A guru in India has even said that the girl should have “chanted God’s name and fallen at the feet of the attackers” to stop the attack. Some have even said that these attacks happen only in Indian cities and not in the villages. In New Delhi alone, 128 women committed suicide because of dowry related abuse. In 2010 and 2011, the numbers stood at 142 and 143 respectively.

The Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission recorded 4,010 cases of violence against women in the seven months between March and October last year, nearly twice as many as in the previous 12 months. The perpetrators feel that they can operate with impunity as these figures keep on rising as justice falters in its stride in the region. Apart from cases of acid attacks on women, violence over dowry, ‘honour’ killings and other equally barbaric practices, there are many widespread practices of the sex-selective abortion and infanticide that leave a count of 96 million ‘missing’ women in the Asia-Pacific. A grim figure indeed…

Not surprisingly, the UN data on South Asia records that millions of women across South Asia continue to suffer violence inside and outside their homes. Their access to economic opportunities is limited, employment choices are few, and their control over assets is meagre. And of course, there is almost no implementation of legislation in spite of existing domestic laws.

Photo: Reuters

Rape here has become routine…forming human chains and organizing protests too. What hasn’t yet become common is the execution of justice. This is one area where the whole of South Asia limps. In South Asia, days or dates don’t matter anymore as the region along with its people and ideologies continue being raped. The concept of justice today stands out much more violated than ever before…

In Sri Lanka, the parliament, dominated by Mr Rajapakse’s supporters, impeached the first female Chief Justice of Sri Lanka, Shirani Bandaranayake on suspicion of corruption. Charges? Well…among other rulings, Bandaranayake delayed a bill that would grant greater political and financial power to the president’s youngest brother Basil, who is the economic development minister. That was what ushered her downfall. The all-powerful go on forever while the judiciary stands violated.

In our very own land, we routinely fall prey to violation, bias and brutality. Given that there are active civil society members routinely protesting the heinous crimes, we still lag behind with our individual conscience bearing the burden of inactivity. While many of us are raped right within our own secured homes, while many of us are discriminated and displaced on account of gender, while many of us suffer passive aggression, while many of us subscribe to the fearful pledge of silence, the perpetrators strut around in distasteful honour.

In reality, we, women, are possibly the most vulnerable to violence, fall and ouster. We are possibly the most passive of all races when it comes to our dignity. We are possibly the cheapest of all commodities that outlive their expiry dates on their shelf lives. We are indeed…women.

—————————-
Rubana Huq is a poet, researcher and an entrepreneur.

Photo: Reuters

The owner of Spectrum, a factory that collapsed in 2005 resulting in 62 deaths has apparently been having nightmares for the last seven years. This evening, he recollected of having given till date Tk 21,000 to the labour court, Tk 79,000 to the BGMEA totalling Tk 100,000, a price tag for a dead worker’s life. He told me that he had gone beyond the rule of law and had paid another 100k per family in 2011, six years after the incident. Meanwhile, his buyers had helped and altogether each affected family has received more than Tk 900,000 for their loss. At his end, he had incurred a loss of Tk 45 crore overnight. Whether the sum given to the workers’ families was enough is another question, but that the owner still hasn’t woken up from his bad dream and promises to pay the workers every time he has extra money in his pocket at least gives me hope that a few of us have conscience.

When I say ‘us’, I refer to the manufacturing and exporters’ club that smells of violation and non-compliance. The rules are all set. We are supposed to listen to the law of the land. As per the Bangladesh gazette 29/5/2008, exit access, exit, and an exit discharge fall under the compulsory requirements for setting up a factory unit. Every factory which has more than 50 workers must have minimum width for passages of at least 1.1 meters; no factory that has more than a thousand workers can be exempted from the basic requirement of three exits; no factory can escape the rule of law which clearly states that there has to be at least one fire extinguisher per every 5500 square feet with 25 per cent of the workers having full operational knowledge of fire fighting, rescue and coordination. The stairs have to be at least 55 inches wide and at least 78 inches in height. There has to be gas and powder type extinguishers on each floor with 30 refill masks, blankets, fire hoses, fire beaters, lock cutters, stretchers, ropes, etc.

Now is the moment for reality checks.

With the rule of having 6 per cent of workers per factory being trained by the Fire Service and Civil Defence, there are hundreds of applications pending on the BGMEA’s desk. Unfortunately, in spite of charging a straight Tk 16500 for 40 workers per application, neither the BGMEA nor the Fire Service has adequate manpower to train our factories. As far as licenses go, things have just gotten worse lately. Some check and issue licenses with diligence; some skip every process and issues them without checking. Building codes are not adhered to, water reservoirs are almost non-existent, fire extinguishers are mostly blocked, ebonite sheets are non-existent, circuit boxes have cobwebs, boilers and generators are not routinely checked, extinguishers are exposed to excess pressure… While the list could go on, I would also like to point to the excessive media coverage that scars the industry.

Reports on private television channels are still showing images of a factory building burning. The electronic media is still covering the event with at least one reporter stationed there and giving a brief of the incident every time the studio loops him or her in. At our end, as manufacturers we crib and complain for being covered in such frequency; as human beings, we burn in shame.

Starting from the Mirpur tragedy in 1990 to 53 deaths in Choudhury Knitwear in 2000, to the 24 deaths in 2001 Maico Sweater, the 9 in Nisco Supermarket building, and the 23 at Shan Knitting and of course the 64 in the building collapse of Spectrum, 2005, the records wreak tragedy.

Tazreen Fashion Limited, a unit of Tuba Group, situated at Nishchintapur, Jirabo, Savar is reported to be exporting US 35 million dollars by producing knit items. A factory which has been set up only three years ago, with a sprawling 49000 square feet equipped with 12 production lines, 1200 workers, with a machinery strength of 650 sets produces knitted polo shirts, fancy fleece jackets and basic t-shirts.

As a manufacturer myself, it felt only natural to visit the site. It was impossible to manoeuvre the car through the road, as there were hundreds of workers from other factories who were all over the place, with their mobile phones, taking pictures of the charred building. I wondered about how long could it have had taken for the fire service trucks to reach the destination. The law requires a clear space of nine feet to be left around the factory building in order to allow fire service teams to access the affected site. But what happens when the roads to the factory happen to be of inadequate width for the fire service team to access? How do we comply?

There was no representation from the factory management; there was no sign of any workers. Police and fire service personnel swarmed the site along with television crew. None could explain the source of fire and none could explain exactly what had happened. There was an internal staircase, which was burnt. Apparently scrap material, electric boards blocked the stairway. All I saw was burnt yarns, which almost looked like burnt heads. Whether the fire had started from the store or whether there was a boiler, which had burst, was unclear. All I heard was that the 4th floor gate had remained locked in spite of the workers burning in there.

The point is, for how long can the community of manufacturers live with murder?

———————————–
Rubana Huq is the managing director of Mohammadi Group.