Physical and Mental Health of the Workers in the Readymade Garment Industry of Bangladesh

Readymade Garment Industry is the most important sector of earning foreign currencies that strengthen the economy of Bangladesh for the last couple of decades. At the same time this industry opened a new door of employment for the rural marginal people. The working environment of the garment factories is not congenial to health and the income level of the workers in this industry is very poor to keep up their minimum living requirements in the society. As a result, the workers in the readymade garment industry are not physically and mentally sound to do the work efficiently. Keeping this in mind, the study has been conducted to identify the major health problems of the workers in the garment industry of Bangladesh. In this study 265 workers have been interviewed personally and collected data have been analyzed through factor analysis to identify the major health problems of the workers derived from the working environment and the nature of their job. This study identified fourteen major health problems of the workers. They are pain in body muscles, complexity arises from abortion, food poisoning, pruritus, eye strain, neck pain, hepatitis, frequent headache, cut injury, fatigue, common cold, numbness and tingling of fingers and arms, gastric pain and helminthiasis. The government along with other concern bodies should take necessary action to overcome the health problems of the workers so that they can contribute more for the development of the readymade garment industry of Bangladesh