Abstract Book of the 6th International Conference on Gender Studies and Sexuality
Year: 2025
[PDF]
Sewing Robot: The Story of Unemployment in Bangladesh
Atiquzzaman Bhuiyan, Prof. Nancy Gleason
ABSTRACT:
Ready Made Garments (RMGs) are accounted for around 16% of the GDP and 84% of export earning in Bangladesh. As developed countries like the USA and Canada increasingly adopt sewing-bots in garment manufacturing, the dependency on Bangladeshi RMGs will decrease, impacting the demand for products from Bangladesh. Furthermore, well-established garment companies with substantial investments are more likely to technocentrism, reducing the demand for manual labor and increasing technological unemployment on a large scale. As they do not have enough skill and education, it is unlikely that they will be able to shift jobs. The layoff in RMGs will result in an increase of labor exploitation, wage gap, poverty, and reduction of women empowerment. Bangladesh is still not ready to offer a proper work environment for human robot collaboration as necessary regulation policies do not exist. As there is not adequate training and preparation to tackle the challenge of this particular group, it is most likely that low skilled primary educated ready-made garments workers will be the victim of the technological shift.
Keywords: automation, creative destruction, female, exploitation, policy, garments, education