A roundtable on “Congenial working conditions for persons with disabilities in the RMG industry” was organized by the Daily Prothom Alo at the newspaper’s office on 12 May.
BGMEA Vice President (Finance) Mohammed Nasir, Labour and Employment Secretary Mikail Shipar and other stakeholders took part in the discussion.
Mohammed Nasir said that the RMG sector has been playing a crucial role in creating employment for persons with disabilities. To help people with disabilities a number of RMG factories have come forward -- Keya Knit Composite Ltd., Fakhruddin Textile Mills Ltd, Interstoff Apparels Ltd, Abanti Colour Tex. Ltd, Interfab Shirt Manufacturing Ltd, Onus Group, Tarasima Apparels Ltd, Givensee Group to name a few.
Among them Keya Knit Composite has employed 850 and Beximco Fashions has 576 workers with disabilities.
He also said that the RMG factories have taken special steps on the factories premises to create congenial working atmosphere for the workers with disabilities.  These steps include building ramp instead of stairs, installing attendance punch machine at lower position, separate toilets, modified machines, providing necessary tools like wheel chair etc.
Besides, BGMEA signed a MoU with Suchona Foundation to create employment and enhance skills of the persons with disabilities, BGMEA Vice President (Finance) Mohammed Nasir said, adding that BGMEA in association with GIZ is running a project named Inclusive Job Centre for training and job placement of the persons with disabilities.