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Ready-Made Misery 5/04
A TF investigation of South Asia’s garment industry chronicles
globalization’s race to the bottom
Each day, 20-year-old Farida leaves her home in the slums of Dhaka, Bangladesh’s capital (population 13 million), and walks an hour to her job at the Dalia Garment Factory. She works from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., sometimes as much as two hours more, and often seven days a week. Like many garment workers interviewed for this article, she didn’t want her real name used for fear of losing her job. For her labor, the young worker earns the equivalent of about $18 per month. At night, she must walk through the pitch black and dangerous streets of a city notorious for its crime rate.