Plight of women stone breakers in Lalmonirhat

Women labourers are preferred for the arduous work of breaking stones in Patgram upazila under the district as they can be exploited, being hired for wages as low as one-third of their male counterparts.

The stone traders in the upazila pay a woman labourer Tk 100 a day for breaking stones into small pieces, whereas a male labourer gets Tk 250 to 300 for the same work, said labourers.

At least 4,000 woman are engaged in the work in the upazila, especially in Burimari land port area, as the hard-pressed people have no alternative for earning, said sources of Bangladesh Sangjukta Sramik Federation's Patgram upazila unit.

"We break stones for eight hours from 8:00am to 4:00pm daily but our earning is very low. A woman labourer can break into chips 22 cft (cubic feet) of stone everyday, and the traders sell one cft for Tk 25 to 30, according to quality, on the spot," said Maleka Begum, 45, at Islampur village of Patgram upazila.

"We are deprived of fair wages although the stone traders earn high profit by selling stone chips. Still we have to do the hard labour, in absence of alternative option for earning," said Rabeda Bewa, 50, at the same village.

Abdul Mamin, 45, a male labourer at the same village, said, "We get Tk 250 to 300 each as daily wage for breaking stones and loading and unloading it. I think woman labourers doing the same work should get wages like us."

Nazrul Islam, 48, a stone trader at Burimari village of Patgram upazila, said they buy one cft of stone for Tk 10 to 12 from the importer and Tk 8-9 is spent for processing one cft of stone after getting it broken into small pieces by labourers.

"We earn Tk 5-6 from selling one cft of stone chips on the spot. I am ready to increase woman labourers' wage if other traders do it," he said.

Maniruzzaman Manir, general secretary of Lalmonirhat district unit of Bangladesh Sangjukta Sramik Federation, said his organisation is working to unite the woman labourers engaged in stone breaking to fight against wage discrimination.

"A woman labourer should be paid minimum daily wage of Tk 200 and I am talking with the stone traders in this regard," he said.