There are equally tragic reports from Khalispur, where over a 1,000 jute workers laid off by four state-owned jute mills (Platinum, Crescent, Star and Eastern), along with their families can barely survive, because they have not been paid their back wages. BJMC officials reason that the mills are running at a loss, but do not explain the cause of this, nor indeed why the BJMC empire should appropriate funds for itself if its workers are forced into debt.

Can the government, as protector of the right to life and livelihood of the country's citizens, make a humane response? On June 6 and 9, two laid-off workers died silently. Earlier on May 29, another worker succumbed to police violence.

An investigation by five organizations (GJS, SPS, Rupayan, BLAST and Action Aid) found that 50 year old Abul Kalam, an employee at Platinum Jute Mills for 18 years, the last 8 as a permanent employee, had been laid off in early April, because the mill was to be closed down. With his wife, three sons and one daughter, he lived in a rented room. The eldest son, a rickshaw puller, was married and working but could not afford to support his paternal family. On the night of June 6, after his dinner of plain boiled rice, he fell down and died.

Another permanent employee of People's Jute Mills, 52 year old Serajul Islam was laid off after 36 years. On June 9, he too died after severe chest pains. He left behind a wife, two daughters and a son who earns only Tk 1,500 per month in an ice cream factory.

Both workers were owed seven months' salary, and when they received only five weeks' pay they were already owed Tk 30,000 and Tk 14,000 respectively. Given that their room rent was Tk 300 to 500 per month, this left nothing for basic necessities. In both cases the doctors attributed the cause of death to a stroke. But weeks of a starvation diet, tension caused by indebtedness, and the insecurity of unemployment must have contributed.

The government may use efficiency criteria to justify their neglect of the industry. But efficiency also demands an investigation into the causes of the failure of the industry, to make the management accountable for the losses caused by their decisions.

Reports have indicated that nationalised mills have failed to perform, not for worker inefficiency but due to manipulations in jute purchase, non-renewal of obsolete machineries, lack of market research and product diversification. At a time when West Bengal jute industry has succeeded in entering world markets, Bangladesh has eased itself out. The Sonali Aash which was to be the economic foundation of a Sonar Bangla has itself turned to ashes!

Of course the present government cannot be held responsible for problems that emerged earlier, because BJMC bureaucratic management failed to understand the logic of industrial management and market entrepreneurship. By the early eighties allegations of corruption and mismanagement had put the workers at risk. In the nineties, the World Bank started raising alarms calling for closures.

Until 2005 there were reported to be 135 jute mills in Bangladesh, out of which 114 were functional and the remaining 21 had closed down. In 2005-2006 total earnings from jute export was Tk 22.28 million constituting 3.54 per cent of the total earnings. In addition, raw jute worth Tk 93.5 million was exported in the same year.

Workers in government own jute mills have demonstrated in the last three years as well for payment of arrears, and protested against lay offs and non-payment of compensation. In response to a question in Parliament in 2005, the minister is supposed to have said that eight jute mills in Khulna made a loss of Tk 12.9 million in eleven months, incurred a total of Tk 48.6 million bank loans, and an accumulated loss of Tk 18 billion. So the big question is where did the money go, and who was responsible?

We gave in to the World Bank's grandiose plans of dividing the world into areas of raw material production and centres of manufacture. So the industries in West Bengal are now flourishing while previously successful factories in Bangladesh have been allowed to whither. The alternative has been that raw jute now feeds successful private enterprises or finds its way across the border, while skilled workers who could revive the industry are laid off.

Last April, when the workers protested the unilateral lay offs, they were attacked by the police, 70 of them were arrested, their homes were invaded, and even their families became targets of police attacks. The promise of a golden handshake was washed away as they became indebted to shopkeepers from whom they had to buy food rations with promissory notes. The workers have had to pay the price because we took no steps against the mismanagement of the jute sector.

Today the jute industry has become a pariah in Bangladesh's development strategy, even though environmental considerations have raised international demand. On the other hand, the debts have mounted. Should we not be asking ourselves why we have allowed the management to mount debts in an industry whose products have a growing international demand. And will the termination of workers solve the problem of indebtedness created by mismanagement?

There is time yet for a rethink. And the Advisor on Jute indicated that she wanted to explore short term, medium term, and long term possibilities. Last May she told representatives of the Sromik Nirapotta Forum that she would call a meeting of experts to advise on steps for its reconstruction. This needs to be done immediately, at a commercial pace not at a bureaucratic pace. If she has convinced her colleagues and the BJMC officials of the urgent need to do so, this is not reflected in the budget.

The Finance Advisor has also expressed concern, but this must move beyond verbal statements. The silence of the Labour Adviser indicates that the workers' interests have been put on the back burner. But this will be at the cost of national schemes for poverty alleviation and industrial growth.

It is worth listening to the voices of the workers who have asked that the police withdraw all cases against them because they protested lay offs in the mills in April, to release all workers who were arrested, to pay all arrears including their back wages and benefits, and to plan to open all production sectors and not just one sector.

In the long run, the government must engage immediately and more seriously with experts to consider ways of reviving the jute industry. Strategies that end up with long lines of unemployed cannot be a criteria of efficiency.

Dr. Hameeda Hossain is Convenor of Sromik Nirapotta Forum.