A Cida delegation led by its health consultant Sudeep Kishore Bhattarai expressed the willingness at a meeting with SM Nurul Hoque, acting president of Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers & Exporters Association (BGMEA), in Dhaka on Saturday.

The Canadian aid agency would extend the healthcare service to the garment workers' children if BGMEA sets up childcare wings in its existing healthcare centres in Dhaka, Chittagong and Narayanganj, Bhattarai told the BGMEA leader.

Cida will educate the garment workers providing them with necessary knowledge on health and family planning. "Garment workers' productivity will increase after taking these services," SM Nurul Hoque told The Daily Star yesterday.

He said increased productivity means increased export of the ready made garment products, the key export earning source of Bangladesh.

BGMEA established seven healthcare centres to provide primary health and family planning services to the garment workers since 1994.

Besides, United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) assisted BGMEA in setting up three more centres under a project titled Family Welfare and Reproductive Health Education and Services for Garment Workers during 1998-2002.

Hoque said around 2 lakh workers received healthcare services under the project, which has been extended up to 2005 in order to provide free medical treatment and medicines targeting another three lakh workers.