In most cases, it can be generally assumed, such fatal accidents are not reported in the media; the self-censorship being usually enacted by interested quarters including the concerned construction company, the building owner and the consultants.

Accidents are perhaps inevitable during construction with so many movements and trades involved, but fatality and serious injury are both avoidable by taking precautionary measures as well as abiding by national and international code.

It should not be the case that the only hard helmet on site is reserved for the site engineer-in-charge, who is always eager to voluntarily hand it over to his boss during his rare visits to the construction site.

Bangladesh is a major exporter of hand-gloves, thousands of pairs, but it is ironic that the workers of this country have to work bare handed. For instance, brick breakers (many of them women) have to make do with sections of cycle tube covering their bruised and bloodied fingers.

Workers can be seen working on the outside of tall buildings sitting atop only a horizontally fixed bamboo piece on a scaffold similarly vulnerable. The idea of harnessing oneself in such a situation has not seemingly occurred. Life is only that much costly here.

Architect Falguni Mallick brings to light the realities facing workers at construction sites in Bangladesh in today's piece.

Let there be an increase in awareness all across the board such that we can once again look up to workers as human beings.

The author is Consultant to the Editor in Urban Issues and Professor, Dept of Architecture, BUET