Kalpona Akter is a courageous labor rights activist in Bangladesh. She has dedicated her life to ensuring better working standards for those in the garment industry. 

The Story of   Kalpona Akter: A Lifelong Struggle Against Labor Exploitation

Short biographies of activists from Pakistan, Bangladesh, and India

 South Asian Activists

Activism is all about bringing people together from all walks of life behind a common cause. Activism can come in many different forms inspired by many different challenges. By bringing awareness to a problem activists hope they will not be alone in their struggles.

Some famous activists that you have probably heard of!

Mahatma Gandhi was an anti-colonialism activist in India during the first half of the 20th century

Activism can be incredibly hard, even dangerous work, often requiring those leading to make great personal sacrifice, but it is the best way for those without power to change society!

Nelson Mandela was an anti-Apartheid activist in South Africa and the country's first ever black President!

Here are some sources that helped me write the story of Kalpona! If you are interested in learning more about Kalpona these articles will be very helpful.

https://www.businessoffashion.com/community/people/kalpona-akter https://eca.state.gov/ivlpparticipants/kalpona-akter https://www.bcwsbd.org/page/staff/ https://www.hrw.org/news/2016/09/01/kalpona-akter-bangladesh https://www.business-humanrights.org/en/latest-news/bangladeshi-labour-rights-activist-kalpona-akter-wins-award/ https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/mar/15/bangladesh-kalpona-akter-arrested-rana-plaza-new-jersey https://cleanclothes.org/news/2021/letter-by-kalpona-akter-to-the-european-commission-on-sustainable-corporate-governance-legislation https://progress.unwomen.org/en/2015/kalpona/

The story of Kalpona Akter begins in a small town of Chandpur Bangladesh in 1976. Kalpona was born into a poor family and forced to begin working in a garment factory at the age of 12 after her father could no longer provide for the family.

Kalpona was working up to 400 hours a month while only being paid around 6 US dollars. Kalpona was often physically abused by her supervisors while being asked to work for 16 hours straight.

To put that in perspective, the typical kid in the US spends around 6.5 hours in school. If you spent 6.5 hours every day in school for the next four weeks that would only be 182 hours!

Chandpur Bangladesh is a major port city in Bangladesh. It sits just miles away from where the the Dakatia and Meghna rivers meet!

In Bangladesh alone, there are over 4 million people working in Garment factories, 85% of which are women. Often the buildings that Garment factories are in have taken few precautions against Covid-19 and are not up to fire safety standards.

Kalpona does not do many interviews or talk much about her own personal life publicly. These are some of the few interviews and talks she has given publicly:

Improving the Life of Bangladeshi Garment Workers | Kalpona Akter |

Fashionscapes: A Living Wage

Talks met Kalpona Akter

The Public Eye Awards 2014 - Kalpona Akter

By the time Kalpona was 16 she was already attempting to organize fellow workers at her factory. After 1500 workers at her factory were told they would not receive a pay bonus for working during Eid al-fitr, Kalpona organized a successful labor strike. By walking out of the factory with her fellow workers she got them their bonuses.

The garment industry is vital to Bangladesh, making up over 11% of the total economy. This industry also employs over 4 million Bangladeshi citizens. While the garment industry has made a lot of many for some companies in Bangladesh, helping to grow the economy, workers in the factories have not seen much pay increase.

Great question! A strike is when workers refuse to do their work. They stop the factory to force the managers to talk to them. It is hard to convince everyone to stop working because they could lose their jobs or be punished. Unions make it easier to strike because all the workers agree to support each other. That makes it harder for managers to punish individuals

This is the Rana Plaza garment factory, which collapsed in 2013. Even after cracks in the building were discovered, workers were required to come back the next day. Many people lost their lives in this tragedy. The collapse of the Rana Plaza factory made worldwide news and highlighted exactly why Kalpona's work is so important.

In response to her efforts to organize her fellow workers Kalpona was fired from her job at the factory. However, she did not let this stop her from continuing the fight for her fellow garment workers. Kalpona founded the Bangladesh Center for Worker Solidarity in order to continue the fight!

Brands like H&amp;M, Inditex and the Bangladeshi government have fought back against Kalpona, charging her with criminal offenses like inciting a riot in 2010. Kalpona and her fellow activists did not let repercussions and kept fighting!

Kalpona's center for worker solidarity provides garment industry workers in Bangladesh with labor rights education programs, legal aid, child care and adult literacy programs as well as working with government to change laws!

Kalpona and her fellow activists won a major victory for garment industry workers in 2013 when the minimum wage was increased for the first time in decades. Unfortunately the minimum wage has not changed since 2013. In order to be above the poverty line, current wages would need to increase by almost 500%!

"ONE PERSON SPEAKS, IT'S LIKE RINGING A BELL. A SMALL BELL CAN MAKE A HUGE NOISE WHEN MANY ARE GATHERED TOGETHER. YOU CAN CHANGE THIS SITUATION." 

Not sure? Well here are some great ways to check!

Ask the company directly! You can email the brand you buy your clothes from or message them on social media to get answers on how they are producing clothes. Second, look for organic cotton on your label. This method is not a guarantee the clothing is ethically produced but a good place to start. Websites like Free2work.com and GoodGuide.com were built specifically to help people shop more ethically and can help you too!

That would mean: $30 for retail $6 for the brand $6 for material costs $4 for transportation costs $2 for the factory And only 3 cents for the factory worker

Kalpona knew the conditions she was working in were unfair but she did not know what she could do about it. That changed when activists showed up at her factory to educate the women on ways to fight back against the factory owners.

Unions are an important way for workers of a particular trade to band together in order to achieve common goals.

These activists were labor rights organizers. They went all over Bangladesh to Garment factories educating workers on their rights and their ability to stand together to fight for them!

Kalpona learned from these organizers that her employers did not have the right to make her work more than 8 hours without extra pay. She did not know her supervisors were not allowed to intimidate her physically and emotionally. But most importantly Kalpona learned she and her fellow employees had the right to unionize.

Without Unions we would not have: - minimum Wages - five day work week - safer working conditions

This book was created in a South Asian Politics course at Lehigh University taught by Professor Nandini Deo (ndd208@lehigh.edu). I reached out to Kalpona for additional information but never received a response.

You can follow Kalpona and her work the following ways: Twitter: @Kalponaakter Facebook: Bangladesh Center For Workers Solidarity Instagram: @Kalpona.Akter

If you want to be able to see the work Kalpona continues to do today you can stay up to date by visiting The Center for Workers Solidarity linked below and follow her on social media to!

BCWS - Bangladesh Center for Workers Solidarity

If you would like to donate, become a member or volunteer with the Bangladesh Center for Workers Solidarity you can email <a href="mailto:info@bcwsbd.org">info@bcwsbd.org</a>.

Below are some great resources for helping to ensure your consumption habits are not helping to exploit workers in Bangladesh:

Clean Clothes Campaign

The Good Trade

Human Rights Watch 

In 2014 Kalpona spoke in front of the US Congress on the issue of labor rights violations in Bangladesh garment factories!

We can all be a part of the solution, just by making more informed choices where we buy clothes! We all have the power to influence change through our collective action! If we make sure to only buy new clothes they are being produced ethically then companies will begin to make the changes we want to see! Activists like Kalpona seek to bring about awareness to a problem, but they cannot solve any of these problems without all of our help!

In her testimony Kalpona asked for the help of the US government. She asked the US government to call on its retailers producing in Bangladesh to sign on to Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh, and that all companies who sell clothes in the United States made in Bangladesh sign as well. Kalpona also urged corporations whose neglect led to the loss of life for their workers to pay a fair compensation to the families as well as provide mental health counseling.

Check the tag in your own shirt! More than 90% of all apparel in the United States is made overseas!

To see her full testimony you can use this link: https://www.foreign.senate.gov/download/akter-testimony

Flash yellow

A Lifelong Struggle Against Labor Exploitation

Name

Safari may block some audio or video from playing automatically and ‘read to me’ will skip these. You can configure this in Safari’s preferences.