The whole rotten system

Bangladesh can truly be called today, the garment capital of the world. Bangladesh exports $18 Billion worth of ready-to-wear garments to developed world, which also works out to about 80% of the country’s overseas exports. Every major brand in the western world like H&M, WalMart, Gap, Next and Marks and Spencer today purchases garments from this country. In the process, Bangladesh has become world’s second largest exporter of ready to wear garments only after China. With increasing labour costs, rising inflation and a strengthening currency, China is fast losing its foothold as the world’s lowest cost manufacturer of ready to wear garments and countries like Indonesia and Bangladesh are the biggest winners. It would be no wonder, that in few year’s time, Bangladesh takes over the top position held by China today.

One specialty of the Bangladesh garment industry is the garments made from blue Denim cloth such as Jeans. Since 1990, a new type of denim finish became very popular in western world denim users. It is called distressed or already worn look. The new garments with this look, appear as if they have been used for years. Such a finish is created by actually sandblasting the denim garment with sand. This is done by mixing fine sand with compressed air with the help of an air compressor, with which suspended sand particles in air are blasted on the garment by means of a hose fitted with a nozzle.

Behind this rosy picture of increasing exports are the hidden long hours of painful labour, low wages and unhygienic conditions, suffered by the textile workers of Bangladesh. There are more than 4000 garment factories in Bangladesh and many of these operate in dingy little places with poor ventilation and lighting. The workers are paid poor wages, yet they are forced to work because of the general poverty and lack of jobs in general. Work shifts, as long as 11 hours at a stretch and wages equivalent to US$ 70 a month are very common. The situation in the factories making distressed jeans is even more horrific. The air within the factory would be thick with silica particles and each and every person working in the factory would keep on breathing this air for long periods up to 11 hours.

The immediate effect of this is watery and painful eyes and extreme tiredness due to lack of fresh air. The long term effect is known as Silicosis, where small silica particle get deposited in the lungs. It causes shortness of breath, coughing, weakness and weight loss. If affected person continues to work under such environment, it could turn fatal for him. There is no known cure for Silicosis.

Many of the garment factories are built illegally and safety considerations are largely ignored. During last decade savaral major disasters have struck Bangladesh garment industry, In April 2005, Spectrum Sweater and Knitting Industries factory collapsed killing scores of people. It was found out that the factory was built on a swamp three years ago, and though immediate cause of the disaster was found to be an explosion in a boiler, factory's poor construction also was a contributory factor behind the collapse.

On 24^th November of 2012, a fire broke out at 'Tazreen Fashion factory' in the Ashulia district on the outskirts of Dhaka. At least 117 people were confirmed dead in the fire. The factory, opened just 3 years back employed more than 1600 workers and supplied garments to many western consumer chains including Walmart. It was found that its fire worthiness certificate had expired in June, 2012 but was not renewed. It was obvious that safety norms were not followed in the factory.

This week, or on 24^th April 2013, Rana Plaza building in Savar, some 30km (20 miles) outside Dhaka, collapsed suddenly in the morning. Eyewitness described the collapse like that of a pancake. There were some 2,000 people were inside the building. As reported on 25^th April 2013, as many as 187 bodies were recovered by rescuers. The building was an eight-story building that housed mostly garment factories and ninth floor was under construction at this time.

This building is actually located very near the site of Spectrum Sweater and Knitting Industries factory that had collapsed in 2005. According to the home minister of Bangladesh Muhiuddin Khan Alamgir, it appears that the building owner had illegally added three extra stories to the building and had violated construction codes. The owners have been reported to be gone in hiding.

It should be obvious that behind the glowing facade of rising export Dollars earned by Bangladesh garment manufacturers, something is very wrong. There is a reality that is absolutely rotten. The workers are being exploited and are being made to work in unsafe conditions and buildings. There are very few chances for this system to improve unless the western buyers insist upon buying goods from garment factories, where child labour is not employed, work environment adheres to safety standards and lastly the factory buildings themselves are constructed according to the laws of the land. If they do not do that, they would have to be considered equally responsible for this sad state of affairs.

26 April 2013

A clogged urban future

A friend mentioned to me yesterday, an interesting calculation about traffic congestion on roads in my hometown, Pune in India. This calculation is made by an engineer, who works in the roads department of the Municipal corporation. According to this calculation, if all the four wheeled vehicles plying on city roads are made to stand in a straight line, touching bumper to bumper, the total length works out as double the length of all city roads taken together. Such is the congestion of vehicles in the Pune city. It is a common experience here, that if vehicular traffic moving smoothly on any busy road is interrupted even for few seconds, for reasons such as a vehicle pulling up from parking slot or a vehicle taking a U turn, vehicles start piling up on both sides almost instantly. If this interruption continues for more than a half or a full minute, we have regular traffic jam, which may last for any length of time. Unfortunately, this clogging of traffic, is not the only clogging we face here. We have water clogging the roads, whenever there are few spells or sharp showers of rain. We have clogging of garbage all the time, with garbage cans overflowing and removal mechanisms unable to cope up with piling garbage.

I recently came across a report describing the precarious situations faced by the residents in some of the Asian cities. This report in a way removed one disbelief nurtured by me in my mind, that my hometown holds the distinction of being filthiest or with most congested roads. This however is no solace to me, that most of the urban centers in Asia are suffering the same fate as my hometown.

Talking about cities in India first, Mumbai with more than a 12 Million inhabitants has a population density of 20,000 inhabitants per square KM, which makes it one of the world's most densely populated cities. Its packed suburban trains carry more that 7 million people every day. Every year more than 3000 commuters are killed while travelling, sometimes falling from open doors or hit while crossing the tracks. During rush hours, trains are so crowded that it is difficult to breathe even. Mumbai offers the best economic opportunities for the migrant labour, who keep arriving in large numbers every day to Mumbai and since housing is almost impossible to get in Mumbai, they often build shanties on river banks (such as river 'Mithi'), storm drains and even foot paths. Since they can not avail of any civil services, they just dump garbage anywhere they find some space. This clogs the storm drains and impedes the flow of storm rainwater.

Toady, out of India's 1.2-billion population, only 30 percent live in cities, far lower than the 50.6 percent in China or the 70-80 percent in developed countries. Just imagine, what would happen to Mumbai, if 50 % of Indian population migrates to cities. Even at present, with an astronomical rise in the population, pollution and the micro weather of the cities are becoming quite intolerable. This fact and the high living standards of country's burgeoning middle class in the cities, have created great demand for air conditioners, microwave ovens, washing machines and other electrical items. This has no wonder, created a great strain on the power requirements. We have seen how this strain can affect a city in last week's power outage all over north India.

Considering the Asian cities outside India, Dhaka city has already become a moribund city and is facing the worst transport infrastructure problems in its history. In January 2009, the government promised to tackle the crisis with an array of ambitious rail, bus and road projects, but most are still on paper. Intelligentsia in Bangladesh feel that it is dying fast and there is no hope that it can be saved. However, traffic jams are by no means unique to Dhaka. In the Indonesian capital, Jakarta, experts predict that with its aging bus network and lack of a suburban train system, the capital will reach total gridlock by 2014. A global commuter satisfaction survey carried out in 2011 ranks Jakarta in the bottom position.

Bangkok and Manila have been hit by the most devastating floods in decades over past year. Yet, on the outskirts of Manila, vital forested areas have been destroyed to make way for housing developments catering to growing middle and upper classes and within the city squatters have been building shanties at their own will. This rapid urbanization without proper planning is blocking the natural waterways . This and the neglected drainage systems, are the two major factors behind the deadly floods that have battered the Philippine capital Manila in recent times. Thailand capital Bangkok has been actually built on swampland. But as building boom shows no sign of abating with apartment towers mushrooming around the city, the city is slowly sinking and risks being below sea level in half a century from now. Bangkok also depends heavily on ground water to meet the growing needs of its factories and 12 million inhabitants. Aggressive groundwater extraction is taking a heavy toll as groundwater levels are dropping lower and lower.

According to experts, the principal reasons for this disastrous situation faced by urban conglomerates in Asia are not difficult to find. Poor strategic planning, paltry investment in infrastructure and a lack of political will, have made these overcrowded cities highly vulnerable to the pressures from ever increasing population density, shortage of water and climate change. McKinsey Global Institute research centre reports that India alone needs 350-400 KM (around 250 miles) of new metros and subways a year and 19,000-25,000 KM of roads. If we talk of Asia as a whole, these figures would rise to astronomical levels.

The living conditions in the cities of Asia have deteriorated to such an extent that even with ever increasing prosperity, the inhabitants are still forced to dwell their lives in the same squalid conditions faced by them, when they were not so well off.

Is their a solution? At least in India, my answer is negative. With the democratic set up, there is almost no chance of any political leadership taking up unpleasant corrective steps. All major cities in India appear to be doomed. How long would they survive, one may never know. But the process might have already began.

14 August 2012