Battling to get women workers their due

It was after toiling in a towel factory and seeing up-close the pathetic conditions of the female factory workers that Rehana Yasmeen, along with other workers, decided to constitute a union by the name of Hosiery Garment Textile Workers Union in 1997.

Then onwards, there was no looking back. The union is now actively working for the rights of the workers, especially the female workers, raising awareness and educating them.

Yasmeen’s struggle against the indiscriminate labour system started after the sudden death of her husband when she was left alone and penniless. “I had a five-month-old baby to take care of and did not know what to do.” Yasmeen then became a home-based worker, sewing laces on frocks for minor girls. Later, she switched to sewing baby towels which enabled her to earn a meagre Rs20 per 200 pieces.

“In 1996, I joined a towel-producing factory, United Factory in the SITE Industrial Area, where women cut, sewed, packed, and labeled towels, which were exported. By working in the factory, the hazardous conditions under which the women worked and the way they were treated by the owners of the factories was exposed.”

According to Yasmeen, due to the threads of the towels, a lot of women suffered from sinus and chest infections. “There were no health precautions for the women. Also, they were under-paid and overstressed, as they worked 12-14 hours at a stretch. Meanwhile, harassment and abuse gripped women at the workplace but fearing losing their jobs, they did not speak up about the crimes. Women are treated like slaves in factories.”

Having a B.Ed degree, Yasmeen was better off than the others as she was aware of her rights and spoke against any unjust treatment meted out to the women. But she realised that she could completely work for the rights of the women when she was out of the factory. After leaving factory, she formed the union, of which she is the General Secretary today. She later became a labour councilor in 2001 of Baldia Town, UC-6.

Yasmeen then took up the task of educating women on their problems and how too speak up. “Women suffer from a lot of problems. They are not given appointment letters when they are working in a factory; there is no social security for them; there is no concept of maternity leave for the women.

Factories don’t even have the simplest facilities such as drinking water or separate washrooms.”

Currently, Yasmeen’s union has 600 female workers, majority of them working in garment factories. Yasmeen who has traveled to Bangladesh, India, Sri Lanka to discuss the plight of female workers feels that women are becoming aware of their rights. “The conditions have improved a little bit as the female labourers are speaking up for their rights. But there is still a long way to go before women will be completely empowered and be treated as equals of their male counterparts,” she said.