Roundup: Bangladesh's worst ever industrial tragedy survivors still in desperate conditions

Two years after Bangladesh's worst ever industrial tragedy, a rather gloomy picture has been captured in a research survey conducted by a leading international charity.

Most of the survivors are not in a good shape, be it their physical, mental and economic condition.

The survey shows that 61.2 percent of the victims still need to visit doctors, clinic or development organization run facilities on a regular basis. Most of them (59.1 percent) are still suffering from depression and trauma.

This suggests that physical wounds may have healed in the two years, but the trauma and shock from the incident is harder to recover from.

A total of 1,130 people, mostly garment workers, were confirmed dead as an eight-story building - Rana Plaza - housing five garment factories crumbled into a cement grave on April 24, 2013 in Savar on the outskirts of Dhaka.

The survey was revealed on Wednesday just before the second anniversary of Rana Plaza Tragedy.

ActoinAid Bangladesh has conducted the survey on 1,414 survivors - 915 women and 499 men.

Of them, 70.6 percent responded that they are somewhat healed. While 22.6 percent reported that their condition is getting worse.

The survey report shows that 55 percent survivors are still unemployed, while 44 percent survivors got engaged in various types of jobs. Currently 54.4 percent respondents are facing difficulties to meet their daily needs, and 2 percent cannot meet their daily needs at all.

Farah Kabir, country director of ActionAid Bangladesh, said, " The situation of survivors are worse. The survivors don't go to work. Physically they are in bad situation. We should take the responsibility to help them go on with their lives. Government, garment factory owners, other partners should work together."

Mojtaba Kazazi, executive commissioner of the Rana Plaza Coordination Committee, said, "We have received many letters for compensation than the actual figure. So it takes times. The compensation depends on the loss and damage of the survivors."

Ishrafil Alam, member of Bangladesh's Parliamentary Standing Committee on the Ministry of Labor and Employment, said, " Compensation is an endless debate. After the Rana Plaza collapse, many parties wanted to give money. But we don't get enough."

"Incidents can happen. But it should not be continued. Victims are not getting the justice. It needs to be addressed. We want industrialization. But we don't want our industrialization by death like Rana Plaza", said Ishrafil.

Md. Shahidullah Azim, vice-president of the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association, said, "We have been working closely with factory owners and other stakeholders to ensure security of workers. We don't want any repetition of Rana Plaza."

"To improve the situation of survivors and the garment industry of Bangladesh, the most important factor is ensuring accountability. For that the government, owners and buyers should work together," said Tuomo Poutiainen, program manager of ILO Bangladesh. Endi