Socioeconomic Status of Ready-Made Garments Industry Workforce of Bangladesh and Human Assets.
- Publication History
- Published online: February 28, 2026
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.35877/454RI.qems4169
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- Copyright (c) 2026 AKM ASADUZZAMAN PATWARY
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- https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0
Abstract
The Readymade Garments (RMG) industry has made important contributions to the economic development journey of Bangladesh. This industry has emerged as the largest female-dominant manufacturing sector, employing around 4 million workers with 80% export share and 15% GDP. A positive socioeconomic development trend witnessed in Bangladesh through per capita income growth, reduction of extreme poverty, literacy rate, reduction of malnutrition and child mortality, improved living, female employment, education, and healthcare. Iimprovement in socioeconomic factors indicate socioeconomic development. A composite socioeconomic development index built on human assets of RMG workers was lacking. The studies on the socioeconomic conditions of the RMG sector range from work environment, living environment, income, and wage to deprivation of different work benefits, socioeconomic issues, and other social and economic factors. Conventional human welfare indices like PQLI, HDI, and MPI are unable to find the socioeconomic state of RMG workers. The objective is to construct a composite socioeconomic development Index using core human assets. The quantitative research used a survey research technique with 400 samples of RMG clusters from Dhaka, Savar, Narayanganj, Gazipur, and Savar. The primary data were analysed with the PCA. The Filmer and Prichett 1998 work on household asset index for school enrolment in India was referred to. The index ranked 400 workers- 40% “Poor”, 40% “Middle-Income”, 20% “Rich/Non-poor” as socioeconomic strata
Keywords
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