Economics for Managers (ECO401)

An Assignment on

Victims and present scenario of Rana Plaza Tragedy

Submitted to:
Proffesor Dr. Muhammad Mahboob Ali
Daffodil International University

Submitted by:
Dipok Chondraw Ray
ID: 142-14-1506

Date of Submission: 26.03.2015

THE

TRAGEDY

Rana Plaza Collapse: Death of A Thousand Dreams

The tragedy of the building collapse on 24th April 2013 in Savar, is one the whole world
will remember. Situated under the jurisdiction of Savar Police Station on the east of
Savar bus-stand in Savar, Dhaka, the eight-storied building Rana Plaza collapsed at
8:58 am on that day. The building contained five garment factories where almost 5000
workers were employed. According to Odhikar statistics, 1131 amongst them lost their
lives while around 2438 could be rescued, however badly injured. Most of them were
garments workers. The government claimed that 1115 bodies have been recovered
and 2438 people have been rescued with injuries. Till 19 th June 2013 after being
rescued, 16 injured workers expired at various hospitals while under treatment. In
this incident five garment factories, a bank, ATM booths of the bank, a company, a
market and the parking space, all in the Rana Plaza, were destroyed.
Right after the collapse, members of the Bangladesh Army, Fire Service and Civil
Defence, Police, BGB, pedestrians and also members of various social welfare
organisations had begun rescue operations. They also helped the injured to various
hospitals, delivered dead bodies to the relatives, arranged for the burial of
unidentified bodies and financially helped the affected.
It was learnt during the fact finding mission that in the morning of 23 rd April 2013,
three pillars of the factory in front of the cutting section (middle of the building) had
two-inch deep cracks. Hearing this news, local journalists came to Rana Plaza. The
buildings security guards did not allow journalists to enter under the instructions of
the building owner, Sohel Rana. A local engineer, Abdur Razzak, visited the place of
occurrence and opined that the building was vulnerable. He also suggested that the
building be immediately inspected by engineers from the Bangladesh University of
Engineering and Technology (BUET) and Rajdhani Unnoyan Kortipokkho (RAJUK).
Hearing this, the owner of the building, Sohel Rana, who is also a Jubo League 8 leader,
came to the place and said that a crack in the building was not a hazard. He told the
journalists not to report it. That day, the owners of five garment factories declared
their factories closed. On 24th April 2013, workers refused to work in the vulnerable
building. It is alleged that, Sohel Rana was present at his office situated in the
basement of the building and he was taking initiatives to bring people to work in

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order to defy the hartal that day, which had been called by the BNP; and for
organising an anti-hartal procession. During this time, hearing of the refusal of
workers to enter the building, Sohel Rana and the owners of the factories came out
and forced the workers to enter the workplace.The building collapsed at 8.58 in the
morning; and Sohel Rana was trapped in the basement. He was rescued by his men
and escaped with the help of Member of Parliament and Awami League leader,
Talukder Mohammad Touhid Jong Murad (popularly known as Murad Jong). It was
learnt that on April 24, an anti-hartal procession led by Murad Jong was supposed to
be brought out from Rana Plaza.
About Sohel Rana
The son of Abdul Khalek and Morjina Begum, Sohel Rana was born in Joymondob
village under the jurisdiction of Shingair Police Station in the district of Manikganj.
Abdul Khalek was once a petty trader who would sell oil on the ferryboats. He moved
to Savars Moddhapara and continued the same trade. Rana studied till the eighth
grade in Odhor Chandra Model High School. He became involved at a young age with a
local gang of miscreants, the Rajib-Shamar Bahini.
In the year 2000, Sohel Rana joined the Bangladesh Chhatra League 17. In 2004 he was
elected the Chhatra Leagues General Secretary of Savar Municipality. His father,
Abdul Khalek was a dedicated activist of Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) in Savar.
On 29th December 2008 in the national election, Murad Jong became the Member of
Parliament from the 19th constituency, representing the 14 party grand alliances (led
by the Bangladesh Awami League). At one point when Sohel Rana was on good terms
with Murad Jong, upon his orders, Sohel Rana was made the Joint Convener of Jubo
League18 of Savar. Having the full support of Murad Jong, Sohel Rana established
supremacy in the area and got involved in criminal acts. His gang was involved in
drug dealing, theft, robbery, extortion at industrial organisations and allegedly even
murder. Rana was also involved in forcefully taking possession of land that belonged
to members of the Hindu community. He got away with crime due to Murad Jongs
protection. In a very short period of time, Sohel Rana and his father Abdul Khalek
became very affluent people.

On 28th April 2013, Sohel Rana was arrested from Benapole, Jessore
while escaping to India Photo collected from social media

Number of Workers in the Factories of Rana Plaza

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Factory
Number of Workers*
New Wave Style Ltd.
1165
New Wave Bottom Ltd.
452
Phantom Apparels Ltd.
438
Phantom Tac Ltd.
254

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Ether Tex Ltd.

450
Total
2759

Position of Workers in the Factories of Rana Plaza

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Page 6

Page 7

Grade
Factory-wise Number of Workers

New Wave
New Wave Bottom
Phantom

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Phantom
Ether
Style Ltd.
Ltd.
Apparels Ltd.
Tac Ltd.
Tex Ltd.

1
22
6
1

2
4
1
1
1

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22
3
185
68
1

4
432
173
98
145
235

5
58
30
-

7
380
69
82

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17
-

Other
247
170
72
24
212

Total Workers
1165
452
438
254
450

Missing Workers

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A large number of workers are missing since the Rana Plaza incident. According to the
official estimates, a total of 332 workers who were employed in these factories have
not been identified. Relatives of the missing workers have authenticated documents
such as payslip, appointment letter, ID cards, etc. in support of their identification.
Among the missing workers, 233 are female (70.8 per cent), and 99 are male (29.8 per
cent). Similar to the deceased workers, majority of these missing workers are from
Dhaka division (131) followed by Rajshahi (58), Rangpur (56) and Khulna (39) divisions
(Table 3). As per the information, these workers are almost equally distributed to
different age-brackets from 15 to 30 years (Table 4). According to different
newspaper reports, a total of 234 unidentified dead bodies have been buried from
which 200 samples were collected for DNA test. Hence, some of these missing workers
might have been among these 234 unidentified workers, even though another 98
workers remained untraced. Families of these missing workers have been greatly
distressed.

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Division-wise Distribution of the 332 Missing Workers

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Division

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Male
Female
Total

Barisal
8
19
27

Chittagong
1
7
8

Dhaka
44
87
131

Khulna
12
27
39

Rajshahi
15
43
58

Rangpur

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14
42
56

Sylhet
3
6
9

Not Found
2
2
4

Total
99
233
332

Injured Workers
According to the information from the Enam Medical College and Hospital (EMCH), a
total of 1,800 workers have taken primary treatment there, of which 1,000 workers
were released within a week. Among the rest, another 700 were released within one
to two months. A total of 34 injured workers who needed special treatment were
shifted to Centre for Rehabilitation of the Paralysed (CRP), Savar Combined Military
Hospital (CMH) and Orthopaedic Hospital, Dhaka.

Concerns Regarding Seriously Injured Workers

There were a total of 339 seriously injured workers, as mentioned earlier, sustaining
severe injuries in their hands, legs and backs, and a number of them were
traumatised. Information of 52 injured workers (mostly injured seriously) collected in
early May 2013 revealed that each of them received about Tk. 47,827 on average from

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three sources (District Commissioner (DC) office, Prime Ministers Office and private
sources) (Table 8). These workers received financial benefit as well as medical
treatment free of cost. There had been some allegations about wrong treatment in
some instances. However, the fact remains that most of these workers, despite
getting the treatment, might permanently or partially lose their capability to do
heavy works, particularly in labour-driven industrial operation. Thus, a large number
of efficient and productive workers have turned into unemployed and would
perhaps become dependent on their families. Without proper support, these workers
would become a burden to their families.
Compensation for the 52 Injured Workers (as of May 2013)
Gender
Number of
Compensation (in Tk.)

Workers

DC Office
Prime Minister
Private

Male
22
1,10,000
2,10,000
6,20,000

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(5,000)
(9,545)
(28,182)

Female
30
1,25,000
2,70,000
11,52,000

(4,167)
(9,000)
(38,400)

Total
52
2,35,000
4,80,000
17,72,000

(4,519)
(9,231)
(34,077)

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INTERVIEWS
Mosammat Karina Akhter (22)
Mosammat Karina Akhter is the wife of garment worker Md. Israfil. She told
Odhikar that her husband worked on the 2nd floor of Rana Plaza for New Wave
Bottoms Limited. On 24th April 2013 Md. Israfil went to work at 7:30 in the
morning. After the tragic incident, Israfil could not be traced for 15 days. On 9 th May
2013 she heard that her husbands body had been found in Odhor Chandra School field
in Savar. While taking the body away, she received a compensation of Taka 20,000/from the District Commissioner. However after that she received no other financial
help. She is unemployed and has a two year old son.
Md. Amjad Hossain (22), injured worker, Phantom Apparels Limited
Md. Amjad Hossain informed Odhikar that his hometown is in the Ulipur upazila of
Kurigram. For the last four months he has been working as a mechanic in Phantom
Apparels Limited. He joined work at around 8:15 am on 24 th April 2013. At 8:58 am,
when a concrete slab fell on his legs, he lost consciousness. After he regained
consciousness, he saw that he was in Dhaka Medical College Hospital. However after
three days he was transferred to Apollo Hospital. Both his legs had to be amputated in
order to save his life. He was then brought to the Centre for the Rehabilitation of
Paralyzed (CRP) on 23rd May 2013. He is admitted there now, in cabin no. 107 and
under treatment. Amjad Hossain complained that other than medical treatment, he
has received no monetary compensation.

Mohammad Amjad Hossain, whose legs had to be amputated, at CRP, Savar Photo
Odhikar

Shutlal Das, husband of missing Dolly Rani Das, Village: Bilpul, Police Station:

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Shalla, Shunamganj
Shutlal Das informed Odhikar that his wife Dolly Rani Das worked in New Wave
Bottoms Limited on the 2nd floor of Rana Plaza. His wife went to the factory at
around 8:00 in the morning on 24th April 2013. After the collapse, her whereabouts are
still unknown and her body cannot be traced.
For the purpose of identifying the body, his brother in law Utpol Das gave a blood
sample to the Dhaka Medical College for DNA test on 12 th May 2013. Shutlal Das filed a
General Dairy (GD) at Savar Police Station (GD number was 1285, dated 24/05/2013)
with regard to his missing wife. He complained that he had not received any
compensation as yet.
Lutfar Rahman (21), injured worker, New Wave Style Limited
Lutfar Rahman informed Odhikar that he belonged to the Malgram area of Bogra
district, and lives in a rented house at Savar. He had been working in the button
section of New Wave Style Limited in the 6 th floor of Rana Plaza for 2 years and 3
months. He went to the factory at 8:00 am on 23 rd April 2013. At around 9:40 am he
heard that cracks could be seen on the pillars in the 2 nd floor of the building. Robiul
Hossain, who was the mechanic-in-charge then declared leave and asked everyone to
exit the premises. Robiul Hossain mentioned that the workers would have to return
after lunch. After lunch, the workers returned to the factory. Lutfar Rahman observed
that a few journalists, along with many others were in front of the building. The
Managing Director of the factory, Mahmudur Rahman Taposh told the workers that
they could have the day off and return on 24 th April 2013. On 24th April 2013, around
400 women and 200 men started working in the factory from 8:00 in the morning. At
8:57 am there was a power cut and thus at 8:58 am, generators were turned on at
every floor of the building. He said that there was a
cutting section on the west side of the factory, in the middle was the sewing section
and on the east was a button section. When a cracking noise was heard
near the cutting section, the workers rushed towards the east. He saw the middle of
the 6th floor collapse. When all the workers rushed to the east side, the building tilted
towards the south. He was near a window and jumped out and fell on the roof of a
warehouse. Then locals took him to Savar Lab Zone Specialised Hospital.
Md. Ali Badhshah
Md. Ali Badhshah was the owner of shops 50 and 51 on the ground floor of Rana
Plaza. He informed Odhikar that he had initially paid an advance of Taka 500,000/and paid Taka 10,000/- per month as rent on the two shops, together called J&K
Zone, that sold clothes. On 23 rd April 2013, workers, with the use of megaphones,
had warned everyone of the cracks that could be seen on the 3 rd floor of the building.
Thereafter some garment factories declared work closed for the day. However Ali
Badhshah was informed on behalf of the owner of the building, that the cracks
signified no risks at all. At 8:00 pm he closed the shop and went home. On 24 th April
2013 at 8:30 in the morning, he went to Rana Plaza along with his employees Imon
Saha, Tauhid Bin Fahad and Laila Akhter. He observed that in order to protest against
the hartal that BNP had called, Awami League activists had gathered near Rana Plaza
and factory owners were forcing workers to go inside the factory. Tauhid Murad Jong

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was present there with his car, amongst the activists. Just when he was heading
towards the building, he heard a loud cracking noise and the building collapsed in
front of him. Hundreds were stuck inside the building, shouting and crying for help.
The locals moved forward to rescue them. After around 20 minutes, Sohel Rana got
out of the basement and climbing into Murad Jongs car.

References
1. http://odhikar.org/broken-dreams-a-report-on-the-rana-plazacollapse-2/
2. http://cpd.org.bd/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/100-Days-ofRana-Plaza-Tragedy-A-Report-on-Commitments-andDelivery.pdf
3. https://www.google.com.bd/

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