Table of Contents

SL. #
CHAPTER I 1.1 1.2 1.2

Title
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY, INTRODUCTION AND OBJECTIVES Executive summary Introduction Objectives of the study

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4 4 4 5

CHAPTER II 2.1 2.2 2.3

EFFECT OF GLOBALIZATION ON WOMEN States control on policy, trade and production Changes in traditional life patterns of women Degradation of womens dignity: women as commodity in advertising media

6 7 9

10 11 12 12

2.4 2.5 2.6 2.7

Cultural transformation and dependency Trafficking and prostitution Agriculture: Trading with hunger and poverty Withdrawal of Subsidies in agricultural and marginalization of the peasant society

13 13 14 15 15

2.8 2.9 2.10 2.11 2.12

Seed marketing and loss of biodiversity Hybrid and HYV Agro-chemical Food security Biotechnology and genetic engineering: Unknown threat and ethical concern

16 16

2.13

Intellectual property right: An unpredictable crisis for the humanity

2.14 2.15 2.16 2.17 2.18 2.19 2.20 2.21 2.22

Women in export oriented industries Foreign investment and employment generation for women Labor rights violation in export oriented industries Low wages and low productivity Crisis in RMG sector Backward linkage industries and prospects of RMG sector Opportunities in electronics industry Women in informal sector Service Sector: Production for fancies of affluent but not for mass consumption

17 17 18 18 19 20 20 20

21 22 22 22 23

2.23 2.24 2.25 2.26 2.27

Handicrafts and cottage industry Retrenchment of workers and poverty Information technology and women Commercialization and privatization of the social sector Globalization: An annihilating process of indigenous and tribal community

24 25 26 26 27 29 33 34

2.28 2.29 2.30 2.31 CHAPTER III

Globalization and conflict Urbanization and migration Gender relations Growth and globalization CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION Reference Glossary

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CHAPTER I EXECUTIVE SUMMARY, INTRODUCTION AND OBJECTIVES

1.1 Executive Summary Women in Bangladesh experienced a long history of exploitation being a member of a society based on caste, color and gender discrimination. Rural women especially the agricultural force who were nourishing the seed bank selecting from the best varieties are losing their strengths as the commercialization of the terminator seeds has taken place holding slogan of the development. Many of the rural women have migrated to the cities especially in Dhaka and working for garment and other industries for a minimum wage. Women as a social category had a limited scope of economic movement in a society like Bangladesh. The NGO initiatives in the rural areas and rapid increase of capital flow in the country industrialization have changed the scenario. But the reality is as industrial worker women are being paid less than the men are. This is because of the socio-political structure, which is governed by the patriarchal ideology. Unskilled cheap labor is a great attraction for the foreign investors that made possible the huge number of garment factories setup in Bangladesh. And unaware /uninformed members of the NGOs are the main target of the hybrid seed sellers. The major manifestations of globalization in the recent times are basically these two in Bangladesh. The intention is basically the commercialization of everything and to make South dependent on the North. The question of safety net is obscure especially to the women. There are enough evidences that the unleashed free market is destroying the economic stability and undermining social cohesion, sweeping away the family, proletarising the middle classes, weakening social institution and associations, and contributing to an astonishing growth of economic inequalities of all kinds. Bangladesh Nari Progati Sangha (BNPS) as an agency for empowerment of women in Bangladesh is apprehensive to the current trend of globalization in Bangladesh, because the process has an exploitative nature which is extreme to the women folk of the society. This has prompting to undertake a small exploratory study aiming at identifying the nature of globalization from a gender perspective. 1.2 Introduction Globalization generally implies the meaning of freeing the forces of competition that help to channel the energies of people and the resources of countries into activities where they are likely to be most productive. Some proponents think that as a consequence of Globalization
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the trend towards freer movement of goods, service, capital and technology is being strengthened. Many other people see globalization as threatening. They see it as accelerating the pace of change to which they must adapt, and over which they seem to have less and less control. Governments also see it as undermining their policy sovereignty, not only vis-a-vis other governments but also vis-a-vis the market. It is a different kind of political economy that the globe experienced ever. The process is the new form of capitalization that has been launched after and legitimized by the Uruguay Round talks and became operational with the start of the WTO. The process of globalization needs to be understood on the light of the relationship between the North and South, - sometimes within the same countrythe ruralurban relationship. The following excerpts from UN secretary general, Kofi Annans speech conveys the essence of globalization, We live in an era of realignment ..... As is true of all transitional periods, very different expressions of the human predicament coexist in uneasy tension today: globalization envelops the world even as fragmentation and the assertion of differences are on the rise; zones of peace expand while outbursts of horrific violence intensify unprecedented wealth is being created but large pockets of poverty remain endemic; the will of the people and their integral rights are both celebrated and violated; science and technology enhance human life at the same time as their by-products threaten planetary life-support systems. It is not beyond the powers of political volition to tip the scale in this transition, towards a more secure and predictable peace, greater economic wellbeing, social justice and environmental sustainability. No country can achieve these global public goods on its own, however, just as none is exempt from the risks and costs of doing without them. 1.3 Objectives of the study The principal objective of this study was to identify all major dimensions and issues of globalization and attempt to explain those, to the extent possible, from gender perspective. The specific objectives set were as follows: To assess the effect and impact of the process of globalization on the life and livelihood of women, especially women in Bangladesh. To shed light on the life of working women of Bangladesh and analyses the impact of globalization on this largest group of woman. To explore the opportunities and hazards of globalization in the life and livelihood of women as an oppressed social category. To identify some major areas of further studies on the subject and to suggest issues of advocacy in favor of women to protect them from the negative or unavoidable factors of globalization.
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CHAPTER II EFFECT OF GLOBALISATION ON WOMEN Identification of the social, political and economic agents of globalization is important in understanding the impact of globalization on women in Bangladesh. Considering womens contribution in family, society, and national development an attempt has been made to identify and analyses the factors associated with the possible impact of globalization on Bangladeshi women. The impact of globalization on women has been analyzed keeping in mind the different spheres and issues which are related to life and livelihood of women in Bangladesh. Globalization affects global labor markets and labor relations, migration, the use and control of resources, human rights, democracy, cultures and traditions and gender relations. Globalization is manifested in changes in production, technology, trade partners, international investment and finance, and the transmission of cultural values. Globalization has historically been linked to the concentration and centralization of capital, wealth and power. The driving force of globalization has been the co-operation and competition of the imperialist powers. Global trade and investment policies, agreements and institutions that undermine democratic process while ignoring labor, consumer, environmental, human rights, small business and local community development concerns. Advance of globalization means a relative loss of autonomy for the individual states. Globalization has a way of rearranging the economy of a country, which leads to a growth pattern that also perpetuates inequality, employment and poverty. Liberalization and globalization appear to have been associated with rising levels of unemployment and underemployment, income inequality, and poverty in Bangladesh. The driving forces are centered in the hands of imperial states and the multi-national corporations and banks, backed by the international financial institutions. The technological changes; especially in communications (computer, fax, Internet etc.) have been a prime factor in shaping the high velocity of movement of capital. Globalization is removing all obstacles to the rule of the global elite and their corporations. The process keeps the majority of the world in poverty while allowing unsustainable consumption for the global elite and its allies. More than $US 400 billion annually flows from the poorer to the richer nations while health, housing, education and welfare budgets are cut for the marginalized within the rich as well as poor countries. Globalization refer to the more rapacious and rapid process of economic restructuring, takeover and control over production resources by transnational corporations associated with the neo-liberal policies of privatization, deregulation and liberalization. The global crisis has burst the bubble of globalization. The issues have become more urgent, have become the life and
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death struggle of millions of people all over the world who have lost their jobs, homes, communities, livelihood and have been pushed to poverty and starvation by this crisis caused be the rapacity of transnational corporations, by the inhumane greed of our local elites and the active, open collusion of our governments. It would be appropriate here to mention that the presentation of the outcome of this study follows a straightforward method: all the materials analyzed were grouped into 38 issues, and then similar type of issues (e.g. women in agriculture sector and globalization) were arranged in a logical sequence and presented issue-by-issue so to keep the materials under a broad issues close by. 2.1 States Control on Policy, Trade and Production Globalization argues for a universal incorporation to the world marketplace and the distribution of benefits among the wealthy creditors as well as the bankrupt debtors; superrich speculators and impoverished unemployed workers; imperial states that direct international financial institutions and subordinate states which are to their dictates. But WTO guided globalization has introduced a new morality where the god is the dollar and a failure to maximize profit is a moral sin. Concepts of love, fairness, equality and social justice are given no value by the new morality. Some of the key aspects, which characterize todays globalization, are the following: a. The breaking down of national economic barriers, resulting in an acceleration of the international integration of finance, trade, and investments. b. Government must be failed to properly implement the national women development policies if some of those policies contradict with the WTO policies c. The internationalization of production by transnational corporations and the unprecedented growth and concentration of the power of Trans National Corporations (TNCs). d. The development and spread of technology which facilitates financial and economic globalization. e. The spread of production and consumption patterns, and consumer and product preferences, lifestyles, and cultural identities associated with the north. f. Erosion of national policy making and appropriation of this process by international agencies (IMF, WTO, WB, TNCs etc.), resulting to the drastic reduction of the power, authority, and status of the state, political leaders, parliamentarians and bureaucrats g. The emergence of informal and formal global networks, alliance, and campaigns of peoples organizations, citizens groups, and NGOs.
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It would be very difficult, for a developing country member to change the WTO rules, or to avoid compliance of obligations. The disciplines of the WTO are legally binding on present and future governments. Once the WTO agreements come into force, it would be difficult for a present government to have economic policies relating to foreign trade, investment, sectorial policies in services and agriculture or technology policy (vis-a-vis intellectual property rights) that are in violation of WTO rules. Moreover, the rules are binding on future governments as well. Thus, should a present opposition party have a different economic programmer; it would find it difficult or impossible to implement it (should it come to power if this were to contradict the WTO rules). The main instrument of neoliberal globalization has been the structural adjustment program of the IMF and the development and restructuring programs of the World Bank. These have been redesigned by the Washington consensus to include neo-liberal prescriptions in their fiscal management programs. The WTO strengthened this process of trade liberalization through various agreements that ensured the opening of markets and provided unparalleled advantages and benefits for transnational corporations and developed countries. To complete the process is the Multilateral Agreement on Investment (MAI) which would have implemented maximum investment liberalization. The prescription of globalization is to open up economies through trade and investment liberalization, deregulation and privatization. In order for monopoly capital to survive its crisis and in order for globalization to succeed, it must continue to push for liberalization of markets to allow it to take over economies. Not unlike old imperialist plunder of colonial territories, TNCs simply intensify accumulation not through cheap resources, labor, environment and other costs, but also plunder through manipulation of financial markets. The direct result is the devastation of economies, displacement of livelihood and employment, and the destruction of productive forces the world over. The most important new issue being promoted by Northern countries in the international arena is investment policy. The agreement is termed the Multilateral Agreement on Investment (MAI) in the OECD and the Multilateral Investment Agreement (MIA) in the WTO context. For the proponents, the desired content of both is basically similar. MIA is primarily an issue with great economic, social and political significance, as it will have such an important bearing on economic sovereignty; ownership patterns; the survival of local enterprises, business and farms, employment prospects, as well as social and cultural life. The acceptance of such a MAI or MIA would have the most profound effects on the behavior, operations and effects of foreign investments worldwide, and on each country.

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Transnational companies would have the greatest freedom and rights to conduct business all over the world, free from the many government regulations they now face. On the reverse side, it would mean that governments would no longer have the right or the power to draw up their own basic policies or laws regulating the entry, behavior and operations of foreign enterprises in their economies. Existing national laws and policies that now place restrictions on foreigners would have to be cancelled or altered to fit the new multilateral investment treaty. In fact this treaty would abolish the power and legitimate right of states and people to regulate the entry, conditions, behavior and operations of foreign companies and foreigners in their country. This is a prime and fundamental sovereign right, which is essential for any country to determine its own economic and social policies. This is a prestigious right, which is especially vital for developing countries to protect. This is because the domestic sector (comprising local firms, local farms and the public sector) has been weaken through colonialism and still requires a longer period of capacity building. 2.2 Changes in traditional life patterns of women In Bangladesh women came to the forefront of international attention in the form of cheap and docile labor. The traditional patriarchal households, which had previously kept their women at home, were quick to release their hold to allow the women to work in factories. Young Bangladeshi women left home by the thousands and moved into squatter dwellings, company boarding houses or congested rooms in the Dhaka and Chittagong cities and free Trade Zones. They were in a position for perhaps the first time in their lives to make decisions for themselves. They are able to decide how to spend their money, how to marry, where to work and so on. The women become wage earners almost overnight and support their families and the building of new townships near the Industrial Zones. Their contributions to National Incomes increased at staggering rates. Now women are the major contributors in national export earnings. In Bangladesh, 75 per cent of the foreign earnings come from the Ready Made Garment (RMG) sector and around 80 per cent of the workers in this sector are women. The study findings, presented below, given ample scopes to conclude that womens contribution in the economy is substantial. To cite few examples: conventional GDP estimate 98 per cent of mens production but only 47 per cent of womens production; if non-market work is included in national income estimates womens contribution is 41 per cent and mens 59 per cent; womens contribution to market work 25 per cent and to nonmarket work 97 per cent; of the total time spent on work in rural areas women contribute 53 per cent and men 47 per cent; of the total time spent on non-market work women contribute 89 per cent and men 11 per cent2.
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Globalization has also caused women to take up paid work without attempting to share the domestic burden of women. Thus women work longer hours and earn low wages. In Asia, women contribute 36 per cent of all market hours, with fairly even shares in industry, service and agriculture. Increased female participation in the labor market empowered the women and consequently increased the womens bargaining power at the household level. It is also contributing to poverty alleviation by generating extra earnings for poor households. There is an apparent change in the status of women in the recent years in Bangladesh. Their public appearance and mobility has increased tremendously due to establishment of export oriented industry in the urban areas and microcredit programs in the rural areas. They have entered into non-traditional occupations to a large extent. Globalization has also caused the price of essential goods and services to increase. Owing to the de-regulatory processes in Bangladesh economy food, healthcare, water, electricity and fuel have become more expensive. Now working women especially in the urban area bear a major share of these family burdens. It is to be mentioned here that a large portion of the female workers or RMG live alone and defray their expenditure own self. 2.3 Degradation of Womens Dignity: Women as Commodity in advertising media The entertainment and culture industry in general converts the women and her body into a commodity quite openly and nakedly. Contemporary capitalism treats women in two ways. They are de-feminized as producers and decision-makers. On the other hand their sexuality and femininity is glorified from the mind and personhood as far as their use in advertisements is concerned. The advertisement industry has taken the use of sexuality to a new and unprecedented height. There is a distorted exhibition of the female body for the sake of commerce. This is achieved also through various carnivals and spectacles. There is something more that is done. A sexual image was earlier used to sell a commodity. Now the sexual image is inextricably linked to a commodity so that the commodity by itself can invoke the sexuality. The commodity itself becomes sexualized. There has perhaps not been a cruder exploitation of human sexuality ever before. It is then no surprise that the leisure and hospitality industry caters to all sexual whims and fancies of its consumers. The TNCs e.g. Coca-Cola, Pepsi, Virgin, Liver Brothers, ACI, Berger Paints, Novartis, John Player etc. are the pioneering agents of utilizing women in advertisements.

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2.4 Cultural Transformation and Dependency Culture is another area that exhibits tremendous changes in the age of globalization. Some are quite visible and obvious. The impact of globalization on cultures is complex and ambiguous. While on the one hand, globalization has opened up new possibilities and opportunities (worldwide communication, exchanges among people, etc.), on the other hand, it has created a lot of pressure on various cultures, including trends towards the homogenization of lifestyles as in consumption patterns; consumerist values; communication pattern; styles of urbanization; and the total extinction or loss of some cultural systems. Homogenization does not exclude domination by centralized culture and the possibilities for abuse and manipulation of cultural identities for political purposes. Indeed, such manipulation seems to be increasing. The information and communications revolution of the past few years has made the world smaller to an extent. People from different parts of the world, and not just scholars or specialist but common citizens; know each other far more than they did ever before in human history. They know of the existence of other people, their environment, their life styles, their belief systems, their modes of behavior, and even their problems. The expansion of the print media began the transmission of this information. The explosion of the electronic media, including satellite television, has taken the dissemination to unprecedented levels. It is interesting to remember that the original purpose of the communications revolution was to serve military objectives of the US across the world. The use then extended to business deals and production control. It has now become general. The advances in communications technology, the spread of the electronic media across the globe, the disproportionate increase in the trades and services sector, internationalization of production and search for eternal perishables provide the basis for this vast commercialization of culture. Certain commonality in the life styles of the upper and middle classes in many countries, some similarity in the availability of goods across the world, rise in incomes of some sections of the societies, greater importance given to leisure, the creation of a market for cultural goods have made the business a reality. A culture industry thus now exists. It not only makes a business out of culture but also alters cultural practices, modes of cultural expressions, forms of cultural activities and ultimately the content of culture. Literature, music and cinema are now truly world products. The satellite television systems and dubbing technologies have made the access common place. Life styles, ideas, modes of behavior, dress styles and fashions also now become global. These are the well-known, visible, obvious cultural aspects of globalization in Bangladesh perspective. It is needless to say that in all the above mentioned respect women are the worst victims of cultural transformation and dependency.
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2.5 Trafficking and prostitution The commercial sexual exploitation of women has in recent years become an issue of concern in global perspective and the indications are that it is on the rise. Women are increasingly being bought and sold across national borders by organized networks. Bangladeshi women are sold to Dubai, Pakistan, India, America etc. According to different UN, international and media reports it has been found that thousands of women of Bangladesh are getting victims of sex trade in the form of sale of women, prostitution and pornography etc. The increase in the sex trade with the Bangladeshi women is no doubt largely due to the internationalization of sex tourism, Studies of the sex workers (CSWs) whose customers represent all segments of the society. Female CSWs have an average of 2-5 clients a day, making the number half a million men a day. According to estimates by human right activists, 200 to 400 young women and children are smuggled every month, particularly from Bangladesh into Pakistan, and the number has been on the rise since the mid-1980s. Statistics show that in 1995 135 children and 93 women were rescued while they were being smuggled out of the country. In the UNICEF report Progress of Nations, 1995, it has been reported that around 40,000 Bangladesh children are engaged in prostitution in Pakistan. Another 10,000-12,000 is forced into prostitution in Bombay and West Bengal. 2.6 Agriculture: Trading with Hunger and Poverty Those that defend globalization do it expecting more production with better efficiency, so offering best prices and not leaving space for protectionism of any kind. However, ground experiences have shown differently because great dissimilarities between countries, in terms, for example, of production conditions, location and distances, environment, population and community profile, etc. This makes impossible the ideal globalization, not only the economic one but also the social, toward population equity, to benefit poorer communities and states throughout the world. In Bangladesh, one cant trade with food for maximizing profit because still around 60 million Bangladeshis cannot afford even 1,805 calories per day less than the prescribed daily minimum calorie intake. Because of obvious reason Bangladeshi women eat less and least, and they are much more malnourished than men. In addition, to ensure food for all the people of Bangladesh is a constitutional right of the citizens. TNCs is using the image of the poor and hungry of Bangladesh to push a technology that is neither safe, environmentally friendly, or economically beneficial to us.

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Local food means not only better health and less wasteful packing and transportation; it means money staying in the community, and increase in biological diversity and the revitalization of rural life. 2.7 Withdrawal of Subsidies in Agricultural and Marginalization of the Peasant Society Globalization has everywhere marginalized the peasant sector. The marginalization has been intensified by the agribusiness TNCs domination of world agriculture facilitated by the Green Revolution; by the unequal liberalization of agricultural trade, including especially European Union and United States subsidy policies; by corporate monopoly of biotechnology; and by the withdrawal of government supports for agriculture and bias towards the industrial sector. Moreover, this marginalization is aided by governments lack of political will to carry out genuine agrarian reform. The overall effects of these processes are the following: landlessness and joblessness, unviability of farms; poverty, indebtedness and destitution of peasants; loss or erosion of land rights, loss of on-farm decision-making, over-exploitation of natural resources; depletion of genetic resources; water scarcity, and soil erosion. Withdrawal of input subsidies and increasing imports have acted in concert to depress agricultural prices, raise costs of production, reduce profitability, and hence discourage investment in agriculture. The resultant stagnation of agricultural production has constrained labor absorption, leading to an increase in unemployment, underemployment, and poverty in this sector. Bangladesh Agricultural Development Corporations activities had been weakened as a consequence of withdrawing subsidy in agricultural sector. Seed, fertilizer, pesticide and irrigation facilities had been privatized. Moreover it is noted that per capita consumption strongly indicates a fall in real income of the poor in the 1990s. This suggests a shift in income distribution away from the poorest groups. As a consequence of low consumption around 70 per cent of the Bangladeshi women are still suffering from malnutrition. Malnutrition causes numerous diseases and death, and the burden falls mainly on the women and children of poor families. 2.8 Seed Marketing and Loss of Biodiversity Many farmers and environmentalists are concerned that in the end Third World farmers will be disallowed the traditional practice of saving seed for the next seasons plantation (if the seed used is under the intellectual protection of a company but forced to purchase the seeds. TNCs would like to abolish the right of seed preservation by the farmers especially by the rural women, because if this right to preserve seeds continues in the hand of villages then it will hamper to fulfill the greed of the TNCs of making endless profit in seed business sector.

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Marketing of Hybrid and HYV seeds through BRAC, the worlds largest NGO with microcredit and/or as a precondition of receiving microcredit would inevitably loss a considerable number of species of paddy in Bangladesh. Similarly HYV seed marketing of maize, millet, sunflower, and pumpkin would cause loss of biodiversity. These initiatives would certainly destroy the seed stock of the indigenous Bangladeshi farmers and make these people dependent on ACI marketed Hybrid and HYV seed. BRAC, ACI, Novartis etc. would obviously be able to make billion dollar's profit if a country like Bangladesh with a population of 130 million depend on these companies for seeds. It should be mentioned that women of Bangladesh like other parts of the world still perform the responsibility to preserve seeds for the next season. Due to this womens effort farmers never had to pay anything to TNCs for seed. A new technique, nicknamed Terminator Technology that renders seeds sterile after one planting season is claimed by environmentalists that it would end the age-old practice of saving seeds. Terminator Technology self-destructs after a period of time, stopping the 12,000 year tradition of farmers keeping seeds for their own use7. Playing God is unnatural. Such genetic engineering is not only unnatural, but it presents unknown risks it is unsafe, it is unnecessary and it is certainly irreversible. Opportunities of genetically engineered foods say sterile seeds are inconsistent with Monsantos feed the world philosophy and would unfairly burden Third world farmers. Developed by Delta and Pine Land Co., a firm of Monsanto has developed the techniques patent. In Bangladesh BRAC is marketing the same sort of seeds which will result no seeds. 2.9 Hybrid and HYV The main objective of introducing HYBRID is to destroy the seed preservation system of the indigenous farmers and to make these millions of indigenous farmers to the TNCs for satisfying their greed of making unimagined profit. Within the last two decades the TNCs captured all the seeds. They introduced HYBRID and HYV in the name of global revolution. The TNCs are gradually capturing the seed market. If the TNCs be able to replace the indigenous seeds by the Hybrid and HYV seed then the farmers will be dependent on the seeds marketed by the TNCs. To make the TNCs mission in Bangladesh BRAC has been chosen as their collaborator i.e. to market the Hybrids in the name of a very popular Bengali name Shuphala (A good yielding seed). BRAC has been chosen as local partner by the TNCs (ACI) because if the wretched poor of the rural areas of Bangladesh dont have required money to purchase seed then BRAC can make it possible through their microcredit program. It is known that poor and illiterate people are the victims of induced purchasing by the microcredit institutions.

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2.10 Agro-chemical One of the major reasons of death of the human beings as well as other living beings is agrochemicals. It has been accredited that women are the worst victims of agrochemicals. Women work in agriculture throughout the world and are subject to occupational hazards such as exposure to biological and chemical agents. They can be found mixing, loading and applying pesticides, fertilizers, or herbicides, some of which are highly toxic and potentially carcinogenic. Pesticides exposure poses considerable risks of cancer, neuropathy, neurobehavioral effects, immune system abnormality, destruction of endocrine, hormone reproductive and nervous systems. It is also injurious to heart and kidneys. 2.11 Food Security The future food security should not lie with the biotech industry that is dominated by just six companies that is declaratively interested in feeding the world, but in reality interested in maximizing profit. For example in the last three years, Monsanto has bought up at least ten independent companies, worth nearly 5 billion pound sterling. The agro-food industry operates in response to global markets not through the notion of basic human need for food. The relevant outcomes here are: the transformation of the agro food system has broken into and disrupted the natural cycle of renewal (resilience) which ties agriculture to the environment and create major environmental problems. Local consumption, principally in the developed world, is dependent on the global operation of business, which is oriented to profit not general or individual country welfare. In both these senses the trade in food can be seen as promoting and extending inequality and illustrates the need for policy based on social justice. The availability and distribution of food has historically been a national security consideration but under the process of global restructuring and industrialization, the control has moved to global multinational industry. In the near future it is assumed that the agro food companies may also start their operation for profit in Bangladesh. Such profit making approach would hamper to sustain the vulnerable groups in Bangladesh. Since 60 per cent of the Bangladeshi population only getting 80 per cent of their daily calorie requirement so it can be assumed that the purchase capacity of the people is at a very low level. In this respect food production for profit rather than subsistence may entail more hunger in our country. Third world countries as well as Bangladesh will also have to reduce domestic subsidies to farmers and remove non-tariff controls on agricultural products, converting these to tariffs and then progressively reducing these tariffs. This will impose uneven competition on the domestic farm sector. Farmers unable to compete with cheaper imports may not survive. Agricultural liberalization will also raise world food prices, which may benefit food exporters but about 100
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Third World food importer countries will face a higher food import bill and are likely to be among the biggest losers. The fact remains free market is never poor-friendly. 2.12 Biotechnology and Genetic Engineering: Unknown Threat and Ethical Concern The agricultural area in which the globalization has been present vigorously is in the high technology tract such as biotechnology, genetic engineering and information technology. The advance of biotechnology and genetic engineering together with the population growth, contribute to increased agriculture production, also accelerate the rates of unemployment principally in the countries where population is increasing at substantial rates. On the other hand, the promises and perils of biotechnology have developed a mystique of their own, and as expressed by Serageldin8 (1998), the world was soon buffed by conflicting stories on possible benefits of scientifically created superabundance and possible disasters that raised fears from Frankensteins monster to Jurassic Park. More thoughtful concerns were expressed about the possible health or environmental effects of genetically modified organisms (GMS), in addition to the ethical concerns of tinkering with nature. The process, called genetic engineering, allows scientists to transfer a single gene from any organism plant, animal or microbe into a food crop so it can withstand insects in herbicides, as well as last longer. Genetically engineered or transgenic crops look and taste the same as conventional crops, and are not required to be labeled in the United States, unless they contain known allergens. There are more than 20 varieties of genetically altered foods already in the market, including onethird of all US soybeans. Chemical giants like Monsanto and Du Pont are betting the farm that biotechnology will change the face of worlds agriculture. But critics question the basic need for the product. Greenpeace says that Roundup Ready soybeans bring no benefit to the consumer. They are not cheaper, tastier, or healthier. Biotechnology research and application will likely accelerate biodiversity loss and could threaten natural ecosystem. 2.13 Intellectual Property Right: An Unpredictable Crisis for the Humanity TNCs based primarily in U.S., Canada, Europe and Japan are creating trade related intellectual property rights in the indigenous wisdom and resources of people who have lived sustainable for thousands of years. TNCs are expropriating native gene pools of plants, animals and even human beings for private gain, depriving local people of the right to maintain even a subsistence level existence. Many communities now face having to pay northern TNCs for the
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right to use resources and knowledge that local people previously developed and used freely. Some have described this as a new form of colonialism in the guise of global market capitalism and transnational corporate property rights. Locally, we may not see the direct social, economic, environmental and cultural impact of biotechnology, but by uncritically promoting it, we are aiding the destruction and dislocation of distant communities and ecosystems. 2.14 Women in Export Oriented Industries Bangladesh is the twelfth largest apparel exporters in the world. This industry currently brings in about 76 per cent of the countrys total export earnings. The garment industry currently employs about 1.5 million workers, 90 per cent of whom are females. The twin processes of liberalization and globalization can be expected to unleash the forces of economic growth primarily through increased levels of exports, enhanced volume of foreign direct investment inflow, technology transfer, and higher levels of savings and investment. But globalization is not an unmixed blessing. While it provides opportunities for accelerating growth, it also exposes domestic industries to the challenges of intense competition from imports. The downside of globalization, unless domestic procedures can become more efficient quickly enough, is that the very existence of many local industries may be threatened by an onslaught of highly competitive imports and withdrawal of quota. Attainment of higher levels of productive efficiency in a country like Bangladesh, however, is constrained not only by economic factors such as shortage of skilled workers, weak physical infrastructure, low level of technology, but also by the various structural weaknesses, corruption, and weak governance. 2.15 Foreign Investment and Employment Generation for Women Foreign investment in manufacturing enterprises has led to the creation of employment and an increase in export earnings. The zones have been particularly successful in generating employment for women. Export Processing Zones are at the cutting edge of globalization, and are the mechanisms through which global production chains are elaborated9. Bangladesh has sought to benefit from the globalization of production by attracting foreign investors to its EPZs. One incentive offered was the assurance that the foreign investors would operate in a trade union-free environment. Foreign investors faced with the possibility that trade unions would be permitted in the EPZs are threatening to withdraw their investments. If the threat is a real, and Bangladesh does introduce trade unions in the EPZs, foreign direct investment could evaporate, and employment and exports would evaporate with it.

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2.16 Labor Rights Violation in Export Oriented Industries The suspension of labor laws in EPZs has been a matter of considerable concern to the USA, which is a major market for Bangladesh exports. First, the suspension represents a violation of workers rights, which the US seeks to promote in its trading relations. The Trade Act of 1974 (amended in 1984) sought the adoption of international fair labor standards, and defined internationally recognized worker rights including: the right of association the right to organize and bargain collectively no use of forced labor respect for the minimum age of employment of children acceptable provisions relating to minimum wages, hours and occupational safety and health

Besides these legal barriers there are some non-legal barriers, however-e.g. intimidation, blacklisting of workers, victimization, unjustified dismissal, and refusal of entry into zones are often used to dissuade workers from organizing. Second, and more importantly, the suspension reflects the fear of the US labor movement of competition from low wages in countries such as Bangladesh. In an increasingly integrated world market, the US labor movement seeks to ensure a level playing field with other countries by ensuring that workers in all countries enjoy the same rights as do those in the US. If freedom of association is not restored to the EPZs Bangladesh exports will lose preferential access to the US market granted under the Generalized System of Preferences (GSP). Thus, industrial relations have become a significant and complicated issue. The Government has an obligation to guarantee constitutional rights, but it has suspended the right of association of workers in the EPZs to protect investment and employment. On the other hand, the US government and labor movement seek to guarantee a level playing field, and thus want to see that trade union rights are ensured in EPZs. Finally, the multinational corporations are threatening to relocate their production to countries having a trade union-free environment. In this context, an in-depth investigation on industrial relations in EPZs in needed to suggest appropriate policy options to achieve a balance between foreign investment and employment in EPZs, export markets, and workers rights. 2.17 Low Wages and Low Productivity Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS) wage data for 1995 show that the average monthly wage of skilled workers in the garment industry is 1.4 to 2 times lower than that of similar workers in textile and other industries. Compared internationally, the wage level in Bangladesh's garment
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industrys wage level remains very low, with the average hourly wage only 42 per cent, 50 per cent and 33 per cent of that in India, Nepal and Sri Lanka respectively. Lower wages, however, do not necessarily imply low per unit production cost. Since labor productivity is also relatively low in Bangladesh, the per unit production cost tends to be on the high side in spite of low wages. A recent technical evaluation shows that the person minutes required per basic production in Bangladeshs garment sector is 25.0 compared to 14.0 in USA, 20.7 in the Republic of Korea, 24.0 in Sri Lanka, and 19.7 in Hong Kong, China. Once the MFA comes to an end, and the quota system is abolished, the impact of globalization on the industrial relations in the export-oriented garments industry may be severe. Jobs and working conditions among garment workers are likely to worsen when competitive pressures arising from globalization force entrepreneurs to cut costs, including employment at stake, conditions for those continuing to work are not expected to improve. Under these circumstances, it is imperative that certain proactive measures are taken to improve industrial relations, thereby improving productivity, competitiveness, and job quality in the garment industry. 2.18 Crisis in RMG Sector The US government asked its Bangladesh counterpart to introduce trade unions in EPZs, failing which the latter would run the risk of losing GSP benefits and thus a decline in exports and employment. Bangladesh, which seeks to gain benefit from the globalization of production, assured foreign investors of a union-free environment. Foreign investors faced with the possibility of the introduction of trade unions in EPZs threatened to withdraw their footloose investment. In the worst scenario, a failure to maintain competitiveness will lead to enterprise closures and increased sub-contracting from larger to smaller units. This will obviously lead to unemployment among the mostly women workers, a reverse trend of rural-urban migration, and a reduction in the household earnings of workers. A greater degree of subcontracting may also adversely affect job quality, since working conditions and job quality have been found to be inversely related to the size of RMG units. The nature of this kind of employment in the garment industry is making women vulnerable to fluctuating global demand. The footloose nature of export-oriented manufacturing enterprises thus affords less job security for women. Most of the retrenched workers have kin in the rural area because most of them migrated from the rural areas before starting to work in garment industries, once they loss the job, it is likely that they will go back to their family in rural areas.
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Training should be organized immediately after retrenchment. A general concern prevailing in the country is that RMG workers will face large-scale unemployment after withdrawal of MFA. Even if the RMG units do not close down on a lower scale, to remain competitive they may have to increase their capital intensity. Even if 20 per cent of the female garment workers face retrenchment, the total number will be around 300,000 (at present 1,500,000 women are employed). If a plan for redeployment of half of them is implemented, and between Tk.5,000 to Tk.10,000 is required for each worker, then a Tk.750 million to Tk.1,500 million special workers fund (SWF) will be required. 2.19 Backward Linkage Industries and Prospects of RMG sector The garment industry is currently heavily dependent on imported raw materials. Roughly 90 per cent of woven fabrics and 60 per cent of knitted fabrics are imported. Bangladesh may face a shortage of needed fabrics as current suppliers themselves move to the production and export of garment. Dependence on imported fabrics has also adversely affected competitiveness by increasing lead time and production costs. The lead time from the date of order of the date of shipment, for Bangladesh, is 120-150 days, compared to 19-45 days for India and Sri Lanka. Massive investment is urgently needed for the development of backward linkage industries in the textile and garment sector in Bangladesh. 2.20 Opportunities in Electronics Industry Bangladesh has made progress with expanding an export-oriented electronics industries based on subcontracting for foreign companies and multinationals. This development faces competition from other countries with more skilled manpower. Many South-east Asian countries are better placed in this respect, and skills will provide the cutting edge in competing for foreign direct investment. 2.21 Women in Informal Sector Government and labor rights organizations try to pay attention on the labor conditions mainly of the formal labor sector of export-oriented industries (garments, leather, toys, etc.). But the broad informal sector receives very little attention, although the problems in this sector are often bigger compared to the formal labor market. Labor inspection and trade unions have in most cases no access to the workers, which are in many cases women (homework, domestic services, etc.). ILO employment report 1998/99 says, the majority of new jobs in developing countries are being created in the informal sector, which according to ILO estimates employs about 500 million workers.

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Manufacturing industries and agricultural sub-sectors catering primarily to the domestic markets and operating on the basis of traditional and outmoded technology are generally swamped by the flood of cheaper industrial and agricultural products that now enter national markets with facility because of trade liberalization. The winners are usually those successful in finding niches in global market based on more sophisticated technology or those with tie-ups in the global production chain of transnational corporations. In Bangladesh some of the biggest losers are agricultural sub-sectors such as the grains industry and poultry, livestock industry, which are being clobbered by the high-tech offensive of American, European and neighboring countries. Bangladeshi women are the worst victims because a large majority of the women in Bangladesh are involved in the informal sector. 2.22 Service Sector: Production for Fancies of Affluent but not for Mass Consumption In Bangladesh, the service sector is relatively shielded and local enterprises in banking, insurance, trade, the media and professional services have been able to develop. It is feared that under the pressures of liberalization, the Northern TNCs involved in services will make further inroads and in some countries may come to dominate some of the services. About 60 per cent of the total employment in developed countries is now provided by the services sector. The same trend is seen in the developing countries too. According to an estimate, the travel and tourism industry today is generating more than US $ 3,500 billion or about 6 per cent of world GDP13. The travel and tourism industry in the mid-nineties was estimated to generate more than 6 per cent of the world GDP and employ one of the every 15 persons in the world. In other words, instead of providing food, clothes, shelter, etc., to the millions and millions of the hungry, naked and roofless population of the world, the economy is getting increasingly geared to catering to the fancies of the affluent. The entertainment, tourism, travel and hospitality and image industries attract most investment, generate great profits and provide significant employment. The fashion industry was considered at the same time to be the largest enterprise in New York in terms of investment, employment and profits with chain effects across the world. It is also a common experience that the new investment produces not mass consumption goods but luxury items that cater only to the fancies of the affluent. Women are largely used in service sectors in Bangladesh. Any crisis in service industry would cause thousands of womens joblessness and further impoverishment.

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2.23 Handicrafts and Cottage Industry Bangladeshi handicrafts have a market in western countries. Due to the growing demand of handcrafts a large number of women have been engaged in handicrafts production. Thus the traditional unpaid women of the rural and urban areas have turned into paid laborers i.e. the traditional production relation has been changed. Traditionally the rural people used to use pottery and cane or bamboo made household products (handicrafts) but due to substitute production of household products in imported modern plastic industries the handmade household products lost their markets and numerous artisans become unemployed or had compelled to change their professions. BRAC advertise for Aarong with the slogan that Aarong is The World of Rural Artisans. The question is whether it is really a house of rural artisan, does the rural artisan really own the equitable production share. Rural artisans products are selling at a high price in the home and abroad but do these artisans getting their reasonable share of production. Though a considerable number of rural women have been able to earn cash involving themselves in the export oriented handicrafts industry but this process have consequently strengthened the Metropolis and Satellite Relationship. 2.24 Retrenchment of Workers and Poverty Retrenchment of workers due to either privatization of large-scale closure of units in a particular industry may have serious repercussions for the battle against poverty. The effects could be more serious for retrenchment in sectors, which employ a large proportion of unskilled workers with low wages who come from poor families. The profile of the garment sector workers shows that more than half of them come from poor households, and their fate will be uncertain if RMG units are subject to widespread closure. 2.25 Information Technology and Women Globalization will involve the adoption of improved technology together with associated risks of labor redundancy. New workers who will participate in thrust sectors such as information technology (IT) are yet to be developed. The international market for computer-related services will expand at an unprecedented rate, and will include areas impossible to predict at present. So far, the software, data-entry, medical transcription industries have been most in demand; and, even if new activities and services do emerge, total demand in these areas is expected to boom. Proper utilization of these opportunities will certainly create job scopes for the women.

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Development of information technology has already enhanced the investment and business of pornography and sex. Satellite TV channels are supplementing in these business. This business helps to transform the women into commodity rather than establishing dignity of the women, increased use of Internet not only developing world business, knowledge and education among the people but also helping to establish crime network, trafficking of women, drug and arms business etc. 2.26 Commercialization and Privatization of the Social Sector: The impact of commercialization and privatization of the social sector have deeper consequences on social and economic spheres of life. The more the country relies on the market, the more social protection for workers is required. In fact, social protection of the workers is a prerequisite to confronting the social insecurity caused by economic liberalization and globalization. Social insecurity risks also inspiring a backlash against liberalization. The inability of workers to utilize their mental and physical capacities leads to psychological frustration, leaving them vulnerable to appeals for serious dislocation of the social structure. We can hardly hope for enduring economic, social, and political stability in any society charged with such undercurrents of deprivation, dislocation, and frustration. Crime and domestic violence are on the rise in Bangladesh. Street muggings, hijackings, drug trafficking, extortion, and bribery have become rampant. Extortion has become so prevalent that businessman and investors consider it a great constraint on business and investment. Violence on women, both domestic and social, has been increasing. Domestic violence often results from failure to provide a dowry for the husband. Social violence in forms such as rape, fatwa, acid throwing, and trafficking in women and children has also been rising. Trade liberalization and privatization have aggravated unemployment and underemployment. Social protection is needed to contain the consequent social security. In addition, the globalization of trade has rendered restrictions on trade union affiliation at the sectorial level all the more disturbing. Recent attempts to link trade to labor standards by the industrialized nations amounts to displacing workers from the traditional sectors in the country undergoing structural change, and eventually acerbating industrial relations. The inequality has been built into the system in more ways as well. Reduction of employment forces the women into the job market. The jobs if any available to them are those of low skill and low pay, often taxing, hazardous, demeaning and dehumanizing. The withdrawal of the social welfare and security net also forces the women into an even more subjugated and deprived position. Their nutrition, education and health become special causalities of the logic of globalization.
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Today, access to health care, education, police protection and other collective goods is largely neglected by the state. Rights of the poor must be respected and economic and social rights will have to acquire institutional protection in an economic order. An entry into the knowledge industry requires specialized high level education. Persons who do not have such specialized education and knowledge occupy a secondary status in the society permanently. Then can only form parts of the large pools of low skilled low paid insecure employees. NGOs who are working for the rural and urban poor are trying to implement a cost-recovery approach for all the people. Public health and education facilities are limited and on the other hand, private services for health and education are beyond the reach of the poor and middle class. So a decrease of public expenditure in social sector would inevitably increase the vulnerability of the poor especially the poor women. 2.27 Globalization: An Annihilating Process of Indigenous and Tribal Community The drive for mineral or forest wealth leads to a vital confiscation of common property resources. The people are denied access to such resources i.e. to their own resources. It also means a displacement of large sections of the people from their traditional habitats. The relocations are notorious failures. The real result is a dislocation of lives. The commercialization of gene pools denies access to local communities to traditional resources critical for livelihood and survival. The indigenous people generally occupy areas that are home to rich mineral or forest resources or are necessary to harness and harvest other natural resources water, land and power, for example. To keep pace with the global development Kaptai Hydroelectric Station was constructed at the cost of evicting thousands of Chakmas from their habitats and cultivable lands. In 2000, now we need to evict thousands of Khasias to establish the Eco-Park. Environmentalists claim that the Eco-Part will attract numerous tourists and earn foreign currencies for the country but such steps will cause the loss of 500,000 species of plants and animals. The intensified economic activity requires a great exploitation of these resources. The indigenous peoples are then evicted from their traditional and historical habitats, sometimes repeatedly and often with brutal force. The exploration and extraction of oil and gas would certainly effect devastatingly on the indigenous people. The displacement of the indigenous peoples is quite different from the eviction and relocation of even the urban slum dwellers. The indigenous people likes to his habitat. The indigenous
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people relates not only to individual patches of land on which houses are build or agriculture practiced but to the entire territory and the eco-system. The existence of the indigenous people is dependent on the territory. Displacement of such people then actually means a total dislocation of lives. They cannot be relocated elsewhere, even in model villages with grants of some land or compensation. They are usually unable to survive there. Globalization must negatively influence the matrimonial system as well as the women headed family system of the tribal areas if they are compelled to be evicted from their own land and have to live with the patrimonial system of Bengali community. The indigenous people thus face a threat of annihilation in the age of globalization. 2.28 Globalization and Conflict Globalization not only provokes more poverty, inequality, and disintegration of states, it also promotes strong tensions and conflicts between nationalities, ethnic groups or religious communities. Social conflict is not inherently a bad thing: civil strife can produce opportunities for beneficial change in order to promote human rights, redistribution of land and wealth, good governance, justice and sustainable forms of peace. Competition for resources, political participation, cultural identity and freedom of religion are entirely legitimate. Indeed, poor societies suffering from shortage of water, forests and fertile land are particularly affected by the imbalances in the allocation of resources and environmental scarcity because of the social crisis and scarcities. Situation of ethnic minorities in Bangladesh is the appropriate instance in this respect. The point is, however, that the roots of conflicts are not in factors that can be controlled, such as scarcity of resources, political failure, but in deeper factors like humiliation, un-chosen inequalities, the prospect of exclusion and fragility. Indeed, efforts of people to preserve, protect or stabilize their particular identities are an understandable response to the pressures of globalizing economics and politics, especially when their identities appear to become negated, revitalized and marginalized in processes of global change. Nowadays, people are more concerned with identity and community: they challenge political institutions and national boundaries more than economic process and outcomes. Deprivation, humiliation and negligence of the ethnic minority women by the oppressors are the major reasons of being violent and rebel against existing situation. It is well known that once the ethnic minority women of hill tracts used to assault by the military maniacs.

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2.29 Urbanization and Migration Employment of women has led to significant rural-urban migration, as most women are migrants from rural areas. Both wage and non-wage factors - low opportunity cost of female labor, on the one hand, and docility and amenability to repetitive process functions on the other - account for entrepreneurs explicitly preference for employing young, mostly unmarried women in the garment industry. Globalization has meant internationalization of capital, of investment, of production, of trade, of consumption and of accumulation. There has, however, been no corresponding internationalization of labor. There is near total freedom of international mobility for capital, technologies, information, goods, services and profits. On the mobility of labor, however, there are severe restrictions. The globalization and urbanization pattern directly degrades and destroys ecosystems and natural resources, as rural land-based economies and communities are uprooted by the forces of expanded industrial production, large-scale agribusiness, forest clear-cutting, extractive mineral mining and other activities designed to produce goods and services for global market. The feminization of migration is a direct offshoot of the crisis in agriculture and the abject lack of jobs in the rural areas. This can only be seen in the phenomenon of rising internal and external migration, particularly of women. Bangladeshi migrant workers also faced threat in Malaysia and Korea during recession. They are dismissed in the first place from where they are hired, as the employers make best use of the situation. The government of those countries was also trying to make use of the mass unemployment situation to systematically expel them from their countries. All these meant massive unemployment, social frustration, falling of living stability, poverty, increase of homeless, criminals and suicides. In addition, most of the Bangladeshi women migrant workers face sexual harassment while working in the Arabian countries. 2.30 Gender Relations Women also become particular subject of the policies of world-wide population control. The state or other agencies invade and seek to control their bodies. Needless to say that, the women from the toiling sections would be the guineapigs for dubious technologies. As one moves up the employment hierarchy in garment industry, the proportion of female employees declines gradually, becoming insignificant in the officer-technical category. Thus female employees fill more of the low-skill, low wage category jobs, while male employees get more of the more skilled, higher-wage jobs.
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Within the RMG factories, gender discrepancy in wage levels for comparable jobs is small, especially when accounting for factors such as age, education, and experience. In the production process, however, female workers are mainly concentrated in less skilled operations, and thus are low paid. In the RMG industry, most women work either as operators (where almost all workers are female) or as helpers (40-60 per cent of the total work force in this category are female). In the RMG sector, about 70 per cent employees are women. Moreover, it is likely that a relatively larger proportion of female workers will face retrenchment due to probable crisis in this sector. This is because women have less bargaining power and receive less compensation when retrenched. The increase rate of unemployment in Korea is 7 times higher for women than for men, as they are forced to leave labor market or turn to part-time or temporary jobs. Because 60 per cent of women workforce works in small companies with less than 5 employees, they are victimized in the first place by bankruptcy and mass layoff since the IMF intervention. More than 100 small businesses a day have to close down till August 1998. What happens in reality that part-time work and temporary contracts go hand in hand, and that women accept them because of other responsibilities while men go for the better paid, fixed contract full-time jobs. Women workers suffer far more from the negative effects of globalization in the garment industry than men. Moreover, certain problems such as gender differentials in wage rates, leisure deprivation, night work, and sexual harassment are unique to women workers. Unlike their male counterparts, furthermore, women workers suffer from reproductive health problems due to occupational hazards. Women in particular are disadvantaged the world over and work in low-paid, insecure and segregated jobs as machinists, assembly-line workers, packers and clerical workers. Dawn tilldusk unpaid domestic responsibilities are accompanied by low paid, low status jobs with no entitlements. Women face restricted access to the labor market and have less labor mobility. 2.31 Growth and Globalization The ear of globalization has seen an expansion of economic activities. Investment, production, productivity, trade, incomes of certain sections, growth rates of economies has all registered increases. The one area where no growth has been registered is that of employment. There has been on the contrary a decline in employment and an increase in the numbers of the employers. The reasons for this development are integral to the nature of globalization.

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The UNDP reports that the wealthiest 20 per cent of the world population receives 82.7 per cent of the total world income. This means that 1 billion people live on $ 1 a day and another 3 billion live on $ 2 a day for sure, this situation has worsened several times over now. The 1996 Human Development Report also showed that over the past three decades only 15 countries enjoyed high growth whilst 89 per cent countries were worse off than they were ten years ago. With the global depression there will be even fewer countries enjoying growth. This report identified five types of growth, which are the following: jobless growth (overall economy grows but no job) ruthless growth (economy grows but rich get richer and poor get nothing) voiceless growth (economy grows but democracy and empowerment of the majority does not keep pace) rootless growth (cultural identity is submerged or outlawed) futureless growth (present generations squander the resources needed by the future generations)

In Bangladesh; perspective all these sort of growth cause joblessness, poverty, resource less and voiceless to the women.

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CHAPTER III CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION WTO-guided globalization has introduced a new morality where the god is the dollar and a failure to maximize profit is a moral sin. Globalization is removing all obstacles to the rule of the global elite and their corporations. The process keeps the majority of the world in poverty while allowing unsustainable consumption for the global elite and its allies. More than $US 400 billion annually flows from the poorer to the richer nations while health, housing, education and welfare budgets are cut for the marginalized within the rich as well as poor countries. Once the WTO agreements come into force, it would be difficult for a developing country government to pursue economic policies relating to foreign trade, investment, sectorial policies in women development, services and agriculture or technology policy that are in violation of WTO rules. Moreover, such rules will be binding upon the future governments. Due to establishment of export oriented industry in the urban areas and microcredit programs in the rural areas the public appearance and mobility of the women has increased tremendously. They have entered into non-traditional occupations to a large extent. Increased female participation in the labor market empowered the women and consequently increased the womens bargaining power at the household level. It is also contributing to poverty alleviation by generating extra earnings for poor households. Globalization has everywhere marginalized the peasant sector. The marginalization has been intensified by the TNCs dominated agribusiness of world agriculture facilitated by the Green Revolution; by the unequal liberalization of agricultural trade, including especially European Union and United States subsidy policies; by corporate monopoly of biotechnology; and by the withdrawal of government supports for agriculture and bias towards the industrial sector of the third world countries like Bangladesh. Withdrawal of input subsidies and increasing imports have acted in concert to depress agricultural prices, raise costs of production, reduce profitability, and hence discourage investment in agriculture. The resultant stagnation of agricultural production has constrained labor absorption, leading to an increase in unemployment, underemployment, and poverty in this sector. Bangladesh Agricultural Development Corporations activities had been weakened as a consequence of withdrawing subsidy in agricultural sector. Seed, fertilizer, pesticide and irrigation facilities had been privatized. Moreover it is noted that per capita consumption strongly indicates a fall in real income of the poor in the 1990s. This suggests a shift in income distribution away from the poorest groups. The overall effects of these processes are the following: landlessness and joblessness, unviability of farms; poverty, indebtedness and destitution of peasants; loss or erosion of land rights, loss of on-farm decision-making, over-exploitation of natural resources;
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depletion of genetic resources; water scarcity, and soil erosion. As a consequence of low consumption around 70 per cent of the Bangladeshi women are still suffering from malnutrition. Malnutrition causes numerous diseases and death, and the burden falls mainly on the women and children of poor families. Many farmers and environmentalists are concerned that in the end Third World farmers will be disallowed the traditional practice of saving seed for the next seasons plantation (if the seed used is under the intellectual protection of a company and forced to purchase the seeds). TNCs would like to abolish the right of seed preservation by the farmers especially by the rural women, because if this right to preserve seeds continues in the hand of villages then it will hamper to fulfill the greed of the TNCs of making endless profit in seed business sector. Agricultural production with HYV and Hybrids requires more use of agrochemicals. It has been found that women are the worst victims of agrochemicals. Women work in agriculture throughout the year and are subject to occupational hazards due to exposure to biological and chemical agents. In Bangladesh existence of many local industries may be threatened by an onslaught of highly competitive imports and withdrawal of quota. Attainment of higher levels of productive efficiency in a country like Bangladesh, however, is constrained not only by economic factors such as shortage of skilled workers, weak physical infrastructure, low level of technology, but also by the various structural weaknesses, corruption, and weak governance. Now Bangladeshi women are the major contributors in national export earnings. In Bangladesh, 75 per cent of the foreign earnings come from the Ready Made Garment (RMG) sector and around 80 per cent of the workers in this sector are women. Because of their opportunity to work as a wage laborer they are in a position perhaps for the first time in their lives to make decisions for themselves, to decide how to spend their money, how to marry, where to work and so on. Bangladeshi handicrafts have a market in western countries. Due to the growing demand of handcrafts a large number of women have been engaged in handicrafts production. Thus the traditional unpaid women of the rural and urban areas have turned into paid laborers i.e. the traditional production relation has been changed. Information technology has reached a level, which no one could have predicted a few decades ago. Globalization is offering the prospect of participation in this path of progress. The international market for computer-related services will expand at an unprecedented rate, and will include areas impossible to predict at present. So far, the software, data-entry, medical transcription industries have been most in demand; and, even if new activities and services do emerge, total demand in these areas is expected to boom. Proper utilization of these
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opportunities will certainly create job scopes for the women. Bangladesh can expect to participate in this global endeavor only if suitable policies are adopted to enhance the skill and productivity of labor. The working environment of the garment factories is not safe and hygienic. Most of the buildings were overcrowded, congested and poorly ventilated. It has been found from the recent statistics that during the last 10 years around 300 garment workers (most of them are women) died from fire accident in the factory. The most perceptible adverse effect of employment in the garment industry is that on womens health. Garment workers, particularly the women, are exposed to toxic substances and dust, since they hold jobs where these hazards are greatest. The workers, particularly the operators and sewing helpers constantly inhale these substances. Illnesses or diseases further engrave because of long hours workload without any rest and entertainment and without any holidays. Most of the women garment workers work usually 12 hours a day and without any holiday. The impact of commercialization and privatization of the social sector have deeper consequences on social and economic spheres of life. The inability of workers to utilize their mental and physical capacities leads to psychological frustration, leaving them vulnerable to appeals for serious dislocation of the social structure. We can hardly hope for enduring economic, social, and political stability in any society charged with such undercurrents of deprivation, dislocation, and frustration. Public health and education facilities are limited and on the other hand, private services for health and education are beyond the reach of the poor and middle class. So a decrease of public expenditure in social sector would inevitably increase the vulnerability of the poor especially the poor women. Shrimp export is expanding at the cost of destroying the coastal forest and agriculture and ultimately evicting the indigenous farmers from their own agricultural land. Shrimp cultivation in the agricultural land not only negatively influences the environment but also reduces indigenous people food production and generates unemployment and generates poverty. It has given rise to an army of a cheap women labor. The entertainment and culture industry in general converts the women and her body into a commodity quite openly and nakedly. The TNCs e.g. Coca-Cola, Pepsi, Virgin, Liver Brothers, ACI, Berger Paints, Novartis, John Player etc. are the pioneering agents of utilizing women in such advertisements. According to different UN, international and media reports it has been found that thousands of women of Bangladesh are getting victims of sex trade in the form of sale of women, prostitution and pornography etc. The increase in the sex trade with the Bangladeshi women is no doubt largely due to the internationalization of sex tourism. According to estimates by
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human right activists, 200 to 400 young women and children are smuggled every month. In the UNICEF report Progress of Nations, 1995, it has been reported that around 40,000 Bangladesh children are engaged in prostitution in Pakistan. Globalization will not solve the problem of inequality. Nor will it feed, clothe, educate, and empower the majority of the worlds people. On the contrary it has been a major factor in rendering increasing numbers of the worlds people of hungry, homeless, destitute, illiterate and powerless in all areas of their life. What will empower people is their resistance to these processes and their participation in building viable political and economic alternatives. Massive reforms are needed on peoples welfare and basic needs rather than on policies favoring international capital. The findings of this exploratory study imply an urgent need for a knowledge-based action and advocacy on the issues involved. In order to expand our knowledge base on multidimensional aspects of gender perspective of globalization and especially on impact of globalization on women in Bangladesh it is of urgent necessity to conduct some studies (quantitative and qualitative) on priority basis. Such studies will contribute to our native knowledge industry so that the people and politicians may empower themselves with the knowledge generated for precaution and preparedness to face the evil effects of globalization and to reap the advantages from the new global situation. Some of the studies to be conducted on priority basis are the following: Impact of industrial farming on women; health and environmental consequences of agro-chemicals use in agriculture; risk of introduction of intellectual property rights and use of HYV and Hybrid seed; situation analysis of the women for withdrawal of subsidies and government's negligence in social and agricultural sector; crisis coping national strategy for the women working in export oriented industries; health consequences of the women working for market oriented production; impact of globalization on household food security and on household consumption pattern (especially of poor households); factors responsible for transforming the women into a commodity in the new global era etc. We need to replace global imperialism with global democratic governance of the people of the world with social justice and social control of means of production. The foundation of our strategy is democratic empowerment. Just as globalization disempowers the people, our responsibility is to harness these displaced productive forces and empower the people to take matters into their hands.

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REFERENCE Martin Khor, "Some Critical Aspects of Globalization", Third World Network Briefing Paper,1997 Hamid. A. Non-market Work and National Income: The Case of Bangladesh (1994), in S.Amin (Ed) Special Issue on Women, Development and Change, The Bangladesh Development Studies, Vol. XXII, June-Sept. 1994, Number-2 Chowdhury MR, N Islam, C Jenkins, TA Azim (2000). The sero-surveillence and Behavioral Surveillance on STD and AIDS in Bangladesh 1998-99, AIDS/STD Control Programme, DGHS, June 2000. Shamim, Ishrat (1995). Trafficking and Sale of Women and Children; Bangladesh Perspective Coordinating Council for Human Rights in Bangladesh (CCHRB). State of Human Rights in Bangladesh Wetzel, C.T. Personal communication, Brasilia, October, 1998 Rowell, Andrew, Globalization and the Struggle for the Environment (1998). Paper Presented at the International Conference on "Alternative to Globalization", organized by IBON and BAYAN, Philippines. Serageldin I. Development Challenges and Opportunities in the Global Village, 1998 Van-Heerden, Auret. 1998. Export processing zones: The cutting edge of globalization? (Geneva, International Institute of Labor Studies) See Rahman, Reshidan Islam, Skill Development in Bangladesh: Responses to Globalization (2001). Social Impact of Globalization and Role of Policy (ILO/UNDP SPPD Project) See Technical Evaluation of the ILO/UNDP Project No.BGD/85/153 Rashid, Mohammad Ali, Globalization, Growth, and Employment, (2001). Social Impact of Globalization: Role of Policy (ILO/UNDP SPPD Project) Roy, Ajit, Civil Society and Nation State in Context of Globalization, Economic and Political Weekly, August, 5-12, 1995 International Labour Office, 1999a. Retaining and Redeploying of Workers Affected by Privatization in Bangladesh, Draft (Geneva, ILO) Child Labor: Targeting the intolerable, International Labor Organization

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GLOSSARY

AD: Anti-dumping BBS: Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics BEPZA: Bangladesh Export Processing Zone Authority BNPS: Bangladesh Nari Progati Sangha GDP: Gross Domestic Product BRAC: Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee CCHRB: Coordinating Council for Human Rights in Bangladesh CSW: Commercial Sex Workers EPZ: Export Processing Zone EU: European Union GSP: Generalized System of Preferences HYV: High Yielding Variety ILO: International Labor Organization IMF: International Monetary Fund IT: Information Technology MAI: Multilateral Agreement on Investment MFA: Multi Fiber Agreement MIA: Multilateral Investment Agreement NAFTA: North American Free Trade Agreement NGO: Non-governmental Organization OECD: Overseas Economic Cooperation and Development PB: Privatization Board RMG: Ready Made Garment RO: Rules of Origin SAP: Structural Adjustment Programmed SCM: Subsidies and Countervailing Measures SOE: State Owned Enterprises SPS: Sanitary and Photo-sanitary Measures TBT: Technical Barriers to Trade TNCs: Trans National Corporations UNDP: United Nations Development Fund UNICEF: United Nations Children Fund WB: World Bank WTO: World Trade Organization

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