Joint contribution one taka per day from garment worker and owner per day on health insurance will return as Tk 18. This was stated at the SNV-Prothom Alo virtual media cafe, emphasising the necessity of initiating health insurance for the physical and mental well-being of low-income garment workers.
Discussants urged for combined and systematic action by government, employers and workers in paying insurance premiums. They also said that reproductive health of female workers under insurance scheme needs to be prioritised. Episode three of this discussion took place on 11 November 2020.
With the funding support of the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, Working with Women project-II of SNV Netherlands Development Organisation in Bangladesh and Prothom Alo has organised a 6-episode media café series. Earlier, the second episode was held on 21 October and the first episode on 8 October.
Director-General of the Ministry of Labour and Employment (Central Fund), Amir Hossain, said 3,600 out of more than 4,000 registered garment factories are active and exporting at the moment. Eighty per cent of the 4.5 to 5 million workers in this sector are female, thus their health and wellbeing are of top concern. He shared current information on different packages for workers from the central fund, i.e. – 200,000 BDT of financial support in case of workers disability or death, financial motivation for good academic result etc. According to a 2016 baseline survey of USAID on garment factory workers - most workers were unaware of their health and reproductive health care. Presently, more than half of them are much more aware. In this situation, it is necessary to conduct a new survey on them. If the owner and the worker pay one taka per day, it is possible to get insurance for the worker in 365 days.
Hanifur Rahman, chairman of the BGMEA Standing Committee on Health Center - an association of Ready-made Garment manufacturers and exporters - said that insurance should be introduced to ensure workers’ mental peace of health security. He said, 75 per cent of a garment workers’ salary are spent as soon as s/he goes home. If they are sick, they don’t go for health care considering the treatment cost. They continue working in their sickness. As a result, their condition deteriorates and remain absent from the factory for 1-2 days. Therefore, in the interest of factory production, the focus should be on ensuring healthy workers with mental peace.
Hanifur Rahman said a portion of the owners' export earnings was deposited in the central fund. However, the funds are paid only in case of death or serious illness of the workers. On the other hand, if a worker contributes one taka per day on health insurance, s/he will be able to return 18 taka to the owner through sustainable productivity. If we work together, this seemingly 'worthless' value of 1 taka will become of 'extraordinary value'.
Director-General of the Health Economics Unit Shahadat Hossain Mahmud said that the theoretical calculation of 18 times return from one taka instalment is not as easy as it is in practice. However, it is important to introduce health insurance step by step to protect the health of the workers. According to Shahadat Hossain, the payment of insurance instalments should be done jointly.
He added it wouldn’t be ideal to spend only from the employee’s pocket. Workers, labour organisations and the government also have responsibilities. Before introducing insurance, we have to consider the instalment amount for each contributor, which diseases will be covered by the insurance, whether the family of the worker will be covered or not etc. Since most of the garment workers are women, reproductive health needs to be given higher importance. To carry out this big task, health care laws need to be enacted and high-level institutions need to be set up to oversee the overall execution.
The same opinion was expressed by the Director General of the Ministry of Labour and Employment (Central Fund) Amir Hossain. He said that the policy should be formulated by forming a committee comprising all parties to start the work on time. It is possible to introduce sustainable and effective health insurance if everyone participates.
SNV Bangladesh's Inclusive Business Advisor Jamal Uddin stressed on the importance of government's control and supervision to make the insurance issue sustainable. He said SNV has taken pilot projects on health insurance in 12 factories. The workers and the owners, both are contributing to the insurance premium there. However, the biggest challenge in this work is the negative attitude towards insurance. Employees think that only the owner will pay, not themselves. ON the other hand, the owner wants the government to be a major partner. Due to these multifaceted thoughts, it is challenging to offer insurance for the garment factories.
Prothom Alo Assistant Editor Firoz Choudhury moderated the discussion session. He said production in the factories would be more dynamic if workers’ health security could be ensured through an insurance policy.