page_title: Textile industry in Bangladesh
section_title: Employment
hierarchical_section_title: Textile industry in Bangladesh / Employment
caption_attribution_description: English: Garments Factory in Bangladesh
context_page_description: The textile and clothing industries provide the single source of growth in Bangladesh's rapidly developing economy. Exports of textiles and garments are the principal source of foreign exchange earnings. By 2002 exports of textiles, clothing, and ready-made garments accounted for 77% of Bangladesh's total merchandise exports.
  In 1972, the World Bank approximated the gross domestic product of Bangladesh at US$6.29 billion, and it grew to $173.82 billion by 2014, with $31.2 billion of that generated by exports, 82% of which was ready-made garments. As of 2016 Bangladesh held the 2nd place in producing garments just after China. Bangladesh is the world's second-largest apparel exporter of western fast fashion brands. Sixty percent of the export contracts of western brands are with European buyers and about thirty percent with American buyers and ten percent to others. Only 5% of textile factories are owned by foreign investors, with most of the production being controlled by local investors.
context_section_description: Of the millions of wage earning children in Bangladesh in 1990, almost all of them worked in the ready-made garment industry. Based on the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics Labor Force Survey estimated there were about 5.7 million 10- to 14-year-old children engaged in child labor. This number may have been as high as 15 million children. In 1993 employers in Bangladesh' ready-made garment (RMG) industry dismissed 50,000 children (c. 75 percent of child workers in the textile industry) out of fear of economic reprisals of the imminent passage of the Child Labor Deterrence Act (the Harkin Bill after Senator Tom Harkin, one of the US Senators who proposed the bill). The act which banned "importation to the United States of products which are manufactured or mined in whole or in part by children" would have resulted in the loss of lucrative American contracts. Its impact on Bangladesh's economy would have been significant as the export-oriented ready-made garment industry represents most of the country's exports.
  The results of surveys varied on the demographics and size of the ready-made garments industry at the time of the Harkin Bill. One study estimated that there were 600,000 workers in the industry., BGMEA estimate was c. 800,000. The Asian-American Free Labor Institute (AAFLI)  reported that in 1994 females constituted about "90 percent of all adult workers, and roughly 60 percent of all child workers."
  According to a New York Times journalist by August 2012 the garment or textile industry which exports worth $18 billion a year, accounted for "80 percent of manufacturing exports and more than three million jobs". According to the 2014 Bureau of International Labor Affairs's List of Goods Produced by Child Labor or Forced Labor, the Bangladeshi garments and textile industry still employs underage children as effective governmental measures are taking considerable time to be implemented.
caption: Garment factory in Bangladesh Dhaka EPZ
exif: {"Image ImageDescription": "SAMSUNG DIGITAL CAMERA", "Image Make": "SAMSUNG TECHWIN", "Image Model": "NV30, VLUU NV30, LANDIAO NV30", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "72", "Image YResolution": "72", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "802261", "Image DateTime": "2012:06:26 09:20:56", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image ExifOffset": "378", "Image ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "Image WhiteBalance": "Auto", "Image DigitalZoomRatio": "1", "Image FocalLengthIn35mmFilm": "37", "Image SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "Image Contrast": "Normal", "Image Saturation": "Normal", "Image Sharpness": "Normal", "Image SubjectDistanceRange": "0", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "6566", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "34714", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/40", "EXIF FNumber": "14/5", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Program Normal", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "200", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0221", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2012:06:26 09:20:56", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2012:06:26 09:20:56", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "391/128", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF LightSource": "Unknown", "EXIF Flash": "88", "EXIF FocalLength": "31/5", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "3072", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "2304", "EXIF FocalPlaneXResolution": "6652", "EXIF FocalPlaneYResolution": "6652", "EXIF FocalPlaneResolutionUnit": "2", "EXIF SensingMethod": "One-chip color area", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF SceneType": "Directly Photographed"}