LS&CO. AND LEVI STRAUSS FOUNDATION PROMOTE EDUCATION AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT FOR WOMEN GARMENT WORKERS IN BANGLADESH
During the last two decades, the garment industry in Bangladesh has seen phenomenal growth. It has been a major driver of the economy, comprising about 75 percent of exports and helping to create employment for some 1.6 million workers, 80 percent of whom are women.
Most of these women are very poor, between the ages of 15 and 30, have little or basic education, and come either from the Muslim or Hindu communities. The garment industry offers them life-changing opportunities to migrate from rural villages to large cities such as Dhaka to gain employment and earn an income for themselves and their families. However, life in the factory can be hard, with long working hours and few support networks. Labor laws in Bangladesh comply with international standards, but enforcement of worker protections is weak.
Both Levi Strauss & Co. (LS&CO.) and the Levi Strauss Foundation (LSF) are committed to improving working conditions and economic development for women workers in the garment industry. Given the emergence of Bangladesh as an important sourcing country for LS&CO. and recognizing the situation that many Bangladeshi women garment workers find themselves in, the company and the foundation funded a two-year program with local non-governmental organization ‘SHEVA’ (or Sheva Nari O Shishu Kallyan Kendra) to implement worker rights education and micro-enterprise programs for women workers in that country.
To date, some 1,100 workers have been trained by SHEVA in two factories in Dhaka under the management of a conglomerate called Opex, one of the largest vertically-integrated garment businesses in the country.
Through an innovative ‘train-the-trainers’ program which occurs during factory working hours, SHEVA provides education to workers on basic healthcare issues and other life-skills as well as relevant labor laws, protection and legal aid services, freedom of association and human rights. Workers in the program come away with a better understanding of their rights and responsibilities in the workplace and important personal and interpersonal matters including reproductive health, HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment, network building and conflict management.
Supervisors in the factories also undergo management training so that they can become more adept in human resource management and labor dispute resolution.
Said Shariff Ahmed, Terms of Engagement manager for LS&CO. in Dhaka, “One of the best ways to improve working conditions and livelihoods for women workers in a sustainable long-term manner – not just in our contractor factories but in the garment industry as a whole – is to educate and empower these women to understand and effectively stand up for their rights. In the same vein, we believe that we must encourage our contractors to buy into this concept and champion it as well.”
In addition to the worker rights component of the grant, SHEVA has embarked on a program to identify and implement micro-credit and micro-enterprise projects for 750 women entrepreneurs in the Tarabo community surrounding these factories in Dhaka. These women are either current or former garment-factory workers. SHEVA provides training and technical assistance to develop their skills in tailoring; quilt, toy and paper products manufacturing; food processing and vending; and the provision of day-care services for children in the local community.
“We believe that a successful future for women garment workers who ultimately leave the factories hinges on their ability to become and remain gainfully employed in a sustainable job that will generate income and enable them to save and build assets for themselves and their families. With such savings, they will be able to send their children to school, invest in a family business or other micro-enterprise, or pass assets on to future generations. Only in such a manner do we see families being able to lift themselves from cycles of inter-generational poverty,” said Daniel Lee, LSF senior program manager.