Radio-based campaign on garment factory workers' safety launched in Bangladesh

A radio-based campaign has been launched to raise awareness of basic Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) issues and their prevention in the Bangladesh ready-made garment sector.

Senior Correspondentbdnews24.com
Published : 30 March 2017, 07:13 PM
Updated : 30 March 2017, 07:13 PM

Labour and Employment Secretary Mikail Shipar inaugurated the campaign on Thursday and said efforts to improve workplace safety remained the “highest priority” of the government.

The factory safety and workers' rights issue in Bangladesh came to the fore after the Rana Plaza building collapse in 2013 in which over 1,100 workers were killed.

Styled ‘Safe Workplaces, Go ahead Bangladesh’, a series of 19 radio episodes will be broadcast on Dhaka FM 90.4 at 10pm on every Thursday and Friday, starting from Mar 31 as part of the campaign, according to the International Labour Organization (ILO), which is supporting the government for the initiative.

Canada, the Netherlands and the UK are funding the campaign, the UN labour agency said in a statement.

Each episode with 30-minute duration will focus on a specific OSH related issue.

The episodes will feature a drama format as well as songs and discussions. The first show will cover ‘what to do in an emergency’ while the others include electrical safety, earthquakes, good housekeeping and hygiene.

A series of safety-related radio commercials will also be broadcast on the same radio channel.

A song - "We want safety" - has been produced to highlight key safety messages.

A weekly contest linked to the radio programme will give listeners the chance to win weekly Tk 1,000 prizes as well as a grand prize at the end of the campaign of Tk 50,000.

A video, posters and stickers on workers' safety have been produced to support the campaign and those will be distributed widely to RMG factories.

Labour inspectorate staff members are also receiving training to help build their communications skills when working with managers and workers.

TV actor Mosharraf Karim will support “a number of the campaign activities” in order to create better recognition amongst RMG workers, supervisors and managers.

ILO Country Director for Bangladesh Srinivas Reddy said this safety campaign was “certain to benefit large numbers of RMG workers”.

“It is vital, however, that the efforts to build a culture of safety in Bangladesh begin to go beyond the all-important RMG sector,” he was quoted as saying in the statement.