Induced Myopia among Readymade Garment (RGM) Workers

Background: To determine the induced refractive error among the readymade garment workers. Those who are working in the knitting section and those who are working other than the knitting and computer section. Methods: It was a prospective cross-sectional analytic study among 600 workers in 2 factories at Joydevpur, Gazipur, Bangladesh on January 2020. Group: A comprises 300 workers who were working at knitting section for a minimum of six hours a day and 5 days a week. Group: B comprises another 300 workers who were appointed for loading-unloading, care-taker, driver and security guard also. Prevalence of refractive error in two groups was compared. Results: The mean age of participants in group: A was 26.61 ± 4.99 (CI 95%, 26.04 ± 27.18) and in group: B was 28.51 ± 5.69 (95% CI 27.86 ± 29.15). Prevalence of refractive error between two groups was 52 and 28.3 respectively. The chi-square statistic is 44.9775. The p-value is <0.00001. Significant at p < 0.05. Strong positive correlation shows in Pearson’s correlation between time duration of knitting and refractive error (R is: 0.7619). Visual acuity between two groups chi-square statistic is 33.1866. The p-value is <0.00001. Significant at p < 0.05. Conclusion: Knitting workers at readymade garment (RGM) are more prone to develop late onset myopia than other workers in the same premises.

Auditing and Energy Efficiency of a Ready-Made Garment Factory in Bangladesh: A Case Study

The possibilities for improving energy efficiency in ready-made composite garment factories in Bangladesh are assessed in this study. This work aims to understand the impacts of energy consumption on garment production and determine the scope of energy efficiency improvement based on energy-related data collected from a garment factory over a three-year period (2018-2020). Data from 2018 is used as the baseline and is compared to data from 2019 and 2020. It has been discovered that energy consumption has a seasonal impact. Despite the fact that electricity consumption decreased significantly during the 2020 pandemic, the energy consumption pattern in 2020 was found to be similar to that of 2018 and 2019. To improve energy efficiency, recommendations are made to modify the boiler, water pumps, gas generators, electrical motors, and lighting systems in specific ways. These suggested actions could save BDT 95 million (1.15 million US dollars) on power generation and BDT 20.5 million (0.25 million US dollars) on natural gas used for power and heat generation. These would result in a 3.75 percent reduction in the unit (kWh/kg) production energy requirement and a 3.65 percent reduction in natural gas usage per unit production, respectively, when compared to current conditions. Furthermore, these changes will provide an opportunity to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 9.78%.

Bangladesh Economic Development Model （BED Model）

Bangladesh economy has experienced some stable growths with regard to major macroeconomic indicators, significant progress in social development indicators, rural infrastructure, investment in industrial agricultural sector, and poverty alleviation since the 1990s. Bangladesh has made major strides in its human development index （HDI）, population growth rate achieved to 1.3%, gross domestic product （GDP） over the last five years achieved more than 5% growth consecutively; as a result, it mooted the Brazil, Russia, India, China （BRIC） successors, otherwise known as the Next-11. The success has come through the miracle activities of micro finance （MF： Grameen Bank and non-governmental organizations （NGOs））, remittance from migrant worker （RMW）, and export of readymade garment （ERMG） products. These three （MF, RMW, and ERMG） as the ＂prime powers＂ or engines have been achieving to ＂bottom up＂ of social economic development. This paper reviews aspects of economic development in Bangladesh, analyzes three prime powers, and tries to find out a development pattern, vis-a-vis construct Bangladesh economic development model or BED model. Finally, this paper examines Bangladesh＇s development experience in light of the BED model. It has recognized MF model for poverty alleviation in the worldwide.