The New Nation - Internet Edition

Staff Reporter

Most of the country's factory owners are indifferent to the safety of their workers and though the laws are in place in this regard, their enforcement is not monitored, said a report of the Occupational Safety, Health and Environment Foundation, an NGO.

The report pointed out that the factory workers themselves take precautionary measures before going to workplace. The workers, both male and female, wrap their legs and feet with old rags and bags to protect themselves from the heat of the steel foundries, or from the burns that could be caused by the explosion of a boiler, one of the leading reasons for accidents, according to the report.

The workers know that their precautionary measures are little to ward off any accident, but they have no other means of protecting themselves, the report added. As many as 1,768 accidents occurred in the factories across the country last year last year leaving more than 2,000 workers seriously injured. The workers are particularly exposed to accidents in textiles, rice mills and steel re-rolling mills, the report added.

There were 40 explosions in the rice mills alone in the year under review.

The government seems to be not interested in looking into these accidents seriously. No government organisation visited the workplaces after the accidents, it mentioned.

The government has " Boiler Inspection office, to see the operation of boiler in sugar mills, textile plants, cement factories, hotels and hospitals. But it has not been possible to monitor their operation due to shortage of manpower, said a government official wishing to remain unidentified.

The government's department has only four inspectors to monitor 6,000 boilers across the country, he added.

There are 9,000 factories and 5,000 textile mills in Dhaka and Narayanganj alone.