GARMENTS WORKERS HEALTH CARE SERVICES
Apparel industry in Bangladesh we understand the complex challenges that surround the garment industry. Many of our organizations have worked individually to improve safety and training for garment workers. We also know that Bangladesh garment industry (which employs millions of workers, roughly 80 percent of whom are women) provides invaluable economic opportunity in the country . But most of the workers particularly female workers in Bangladesh tend to have very little education as they drop out of school early to help support their families, and some are illiterate. so they have lake of awareness about health & safety issue . They are more malnourished than men at every stage of life but this phenomenon is more visible in the case of adolescent girls & pregnant mother . But the safety & health condition record of Bangladeshi factories is unacceptable and requires our collective effort. We can prevent future tragedies & improve health condition of workers by consolidating and amplifying our individual efforts to bring about real and sustained progress.
We see few factories in Bangladesh have referral programs , for example, where the factory has a contractual relationship with a local clinic to send its workers in case of emergencies. The law state that every factory with more than 300 workers should have a full time doctor. Most factory fail to comply with this requirement, and have only a nurse, a clinic room, and some basic medicines. Sometimes there is a part time visiting doctor. The medical facilities depend on the size of the factory as well as the clients to whom they supply .On the other hand the combination of long working hours for garment workers and long waiting hours at government hospital makes them close to inaccessible to the majority of female factory workers. In addition, government health facilities tend to be poorly equipped and inadequately staffed. Bangladesh has only 3 physician per 10,000 person. In addition , government expenditure on health as a percent of total expenditure on health is 33%, the rest covered by private health facilities. Most private clinic are also poorly equipped except for a few which are extremely expensive. Some factories have a worker welfare fund which is used to cover worker’s medical fees if they fall seriously ill, but this is not common.
Realizing the situation we have taken an initiative to give health service to the every worker who does not have money to afford treatment. This will be a service oriented business program to take health care for worker who works in the Apparel industries. Our motive is to reach up health service to the door to door working people . The program is to give health service as well as entrepreneur initiative as below :
Health service to the Garments workers :
1)In the 1st year of the program will provide health service for 30 thousands worker in different Apparel industries .
2)2nd year will cover 60 thousand workers in another Apparel industries under health service .
3)3rd year 1 lac worker will get health care service .
This project will give employment opportunity :
1) 4 Doctors will work permanently to provide health service .
2) 5 Nurse or paramedical
3) 2 Marketing executive In a whole 11 person will be employed to provide health care service .
Entrepreneur initiative & financial development :
The project will give financial development for the investor who will take initiative to provide health service .
Apparel owner will be benefited :
The project will help the apparel owner to get health service for their organization in a very little charge 7500/= BDT or $ 100 in a month .
Actually the Bangladesh garment industry-safety issue has a wakeup call to global citizens, governments and companies for taking sustainable measures to address the lack of safety in the garment factories. For the millions of workers who craft apparel in these factories, their daily trek to work in the quest for survival is a toss-up between life and livelihood. So the initiative of ‘health service program’ will help working people to improve health condition as well as employment opportunity.