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Textile Factories In Bangladesh

Understand the cultural context before victimizing others.

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DHAKA, Bangladesh- He said that if a factory can’t do a million units per month that he doesn’t talk to them. What the companies need and what the government needs are massive factories that can employ 5,000 to 10,000 people each, and there is nowhere else in the world that has that many people willing to work, who do high enough quality work, for such little money.

This is why Bangladesh has become the new global epicenter of textile manufacturing.

People in Bangladesh have food, they’re not starving here. What they don’t have is money in case they need to go to the doctor or in case something comes up or in case they want to buy a new cellphone. So while the three to five thousand lahk they make each month doesn’t seem to be a lot it’s money that they are able to stash and save up instead of spending it all on immediate needs.

“They call it speed money here,” he said with a laugh.

“We had some Times photographers here and they wanted to do a story on textile factories,” he continued. “I told them where to go and when they got back I asked them how it was. ‘They were all smiling, weren’t they? They were all walking tall and proud, weren’t they?'”

The photographers agreed — that was their experience.

While in the West we tend to think of the factory workers of Asia as victims, that is often not the case. In Bangladesh, especially, factory work gives women more of a role in the society; it makes them a little more important.

Victimizing others is disrespectful and arrogant.

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Filed under: Bangladesh, Travel Diary

About the Author:

I am the founder and editor of Vagabond Journey. I’ve been traveling the world since 1999, through 91 countries. I am the author of the book, Ghost Cities of China and have written for The Guardian, Forbes, Bloomberg, The Diplomat, the South China Morning Post, and other publications. has written 3723 posts on Vagabond Journey. Contact the author.

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VBJ is currently in: New York City

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