The Tazreen factory fire in 2012 and the Rana Plaza building collapse in 2013 have, amidst all the needless destruction and devastations of lives, at least brought Bangladesh’s apparel industry under some kind of scrutiny.

I was born in Nabinagar thana, Brahmanbaria district (the then Comilla district). My ancestors were not involved in any kind of job or business. At one point, our insolvency reached a point where it was no longer possible for me to continue my education, so I moved to Dhaka to earn a living.

There are few things more difficult in life than a full awareness of the conditions of one’s possibility. To come to terms with how little of my world is my own creation, and just how much of it is the accumulated labour of dead generations and living masses far removed from my consciousness, is to grapple with a sense of smallness and insignificance.

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We, as a people, are fond of referring to our glorious and revolutionary history; and yet, a crucial part of that revolutionary history, that of our labour movement(s), remains neglected, at least in mainstream discourses. This special May Day issue is an attempt, albeit a modest one, to highlight some of these omissions.

The post Rana Plaza period is often seen as a turning point for labour organising in the garment sector, given critical amendments to the labour law, implementation of the Accord and Alliance, as well as the increased scrutiny of international pressure from buyers and others.

Tajul Islam, former leader of Bangladesh Chhatra Union, joined the Adamjee Jute Mills as a general employee after completing his graduation from the Economics department at Dhaka University.

“Don’t let strangers touch you.” And yet it is seldom strangers, I learned long before I was a teenager, who do you harm.

The book opens to a dark, ominous scene. An armed man in a soldier's uniform chases a woman through an open field, her saree unfoiling, smoke billowing from hedges and houses in the horizon.

The jute industry is in such deep debt that it would have to sell an arm and a leg, and perhaps both kidneys too, to be able to pay all that it owes their workers.

In a disaster-prone city such as Dhaka, slum dwellers are often the most vulnerable to fires, earthquakes, water-logging and other disasters.

Within the span of just four days in January, the country saw five deaths in road accidents where four of the victims were children. What followed was a High Court order that held the government responsible for the losses.

Purna Chisik and Satendra Nokrek have four daughters—Francila, Malita, Nomita and Malina—and two sons—Parmel and Sebastin.

Glance through the Information Commission's publicly available database of applications made under the Right to Information (RTI) Act, and something striking stands out.

Fertile Land, Unequal Ownership

The present government declared the draft 'Jatiyo Naree Unnoyon Neeti 2011' (National Women Development Policy 2011) on March 8, 2011. The alleged aim is 'to improve the socio-economic condition of women in Bangladesh'.

“For men there is a share from what their parents and close relatives leave, and for women there is a share from what their parents and close relatives leave, be it little or considerable; an obligatory share.” (The Holy Quran-Sura Nisa- 4:7)

The Hindu Women's Rights to Property Act, 1937 completely excludes women from getting a share of their father's or husband's property if there are sons in the family. Even if there are no sons, not all daughters are equally eligible to inherit their father's property.

I do not usually write very easily. As someone working mostly with people with little or no literacy, my forte, as I would like to call it, is the oral tradition.

The United Nations Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, CEDAW in short, was adopted in 1979, and came into force in 1981. To date, a total of 189 countries across the world have ratified it in order to work for a world with gender equality.