Workers sort clothes at a garment factory in Savar. The April 24 collapse of the Rana Plaza complex, built on swampy ground outside Dhaka with several illegal floors, killed 1,132 workers and focused international attention on sometimes lax safety standards in Bangladesh's booming garment industry. More than four million people, mostly women, work in Bangladesh's clothing sector, which is the country’s largest employment generator, with annual exports worth $21 billion.
Colleagues stand beside Asma, a garment worker, who was injured in a devastating fire at Tazreen garment factory in Savar, outskirts of Dhaka. A fire swept through Tazreen Fashion factory in the Ashulia industrial belt of Dhaka, on the outskirts of Bangladesh's capital killing more than 100 people, in the country's worst ever factory blaze.
Tahera Begum, 25, who survived a devastating fire in a garment factory, lies inside her slum room in Savar. Begum, an operator of Tazreen Fashions garment factory, escaped the fire which killed more than 100 workers on November 24. According to Begum's husband, she became mentally ill and lost her memory after escaping the fire.
People rescue garment workers trapped under rubble at the Rana Plaza building after it collapsed, in Savar, 30 km (19 miles) outside Dhaka. The April 24 collapse of the Rana Plaza complex, built on swampy ground outside Dhaka with several illegal floors, killed 1,132 workers and focused international attention on sometimes lax safety standards in Bangladesh's booming garment industry.
20-year-old seamstress Runi Akhter, a survivor of the rubble of collapsed Rana Plaza Building, stands in front of her slum house with relatives in Savar. Akhter used to work in Phantom TAC Ltd garment factory in Rana Plaza. She is now unemployed and shares a two-room slum house with eight people, including her parents and two young children.
Jotsna Akhter Ripa, 17, who was rescued from the rubble of the collapsed Rana Plaza building, sits inside her slum house in Savar. Ripa, who is unable to work due to a spinal injury sustained from the accident last year, says she has not received any compensation. Survivors of the world's worst garment factory accident, struggle to rebuild their lives from the rubble of the Rana Plaza collapse as Bangladesh was about to mark the first anniversary of the disaster that killed more than 1,100 people. Survivors of the tragedy are still haunted by the memories of the fateful day. The efforts to compensate victims and inspect factories remain frustratingly slow and erratic.
A policeman kicks the gate of a garment factory as they suspect protesters are hiding inside during a riot in Dhaka. Several hundreds of garment workers blocked the street and clashed with police demanding overtime wages and incremental increase of minimum wages to 5000 takas ($73), police said. The worker's current salary was less than 1,700 takas ($25) per month.
Workers, suspected of vandalizing a car, are seen after being captured and restrained by the security team of a garment factory in Savar. At least 100 people, including 10 police officials, were injured as police fired rubber bullets and tear gas during a clash with garment workers in Savar. Garment workers took to the streets to protest against the detention of a fellow worker from Hameem Group's Artistic Design Limited who was detained after he allegedly attacked an official of the group.
People gather at a site to watch a rescue operation, after a five-storey building collapsed off its base, in the Begunbari area in Dhaka. The building collapsed, flattening several adjacent homes and killing at least 9 people, with dozens more trapped under the rubble, police and witnesses said. At least 50 people were injured in the collapse of the building, most of them are the garment workers and their relatives. More than four million people, mostly women, work in Bangladesh's clothing sector, which is the country’s largest employment generator, with annual exports worth $21 billion.