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It is indeed a good development that the country's labour-intensive apparel industry is advancing along the path of automation to accelerate the production process and reduce the cost of production. Automation has gained greater importance for Bangladesh when its competitors such as China and Vietnam are far ahead in the introduction of robotics and artificial intelligence in the production of readymade garments. The more Bangladesh advances in adopting automation, the more it is likely to remain on a par with or gain competitive edge over its rivals. But automation is not all about development of the sector; innovative fashion designs and switch over to manmade fibre are vitally important to achieve the objective. Upskilling workers, as demanded by new technology, is a formidable challenge before the apparel sector.
Apparel industries have started reaping benefits of automation. Quoting survey findings conducted by Solidaridad Bangladesh, Bangladesh Labour Foundation and BRAC University, The Financial Express reports that because of introduction of advanced machines, efficiency has increased by 3.0 per cent to 5.0 per cent; knit polo shirts productivity also increased to 140 from 90 per hour and rejection reduced from 10 per cent to zero per cent, which is no doubt a remarkable achievement that substantiates the benefits of automation. Weekly overtime has also dropped from 20 hours on an average to 11 hours mainly due to faster production cycle enabled by automation. A factory now requires only one person for spreading fabrics instead of seven in times of manual process. Data automation also enables manufacturers to track production metrics, energy use and maintenance schedules.
Production automation has already proved to be a boon for the industry. But, despite a host of positive impacts of automation on overall productivity in this industry, this is not a case of unmixed blessing, particularly for millions of unemployed girls. Upgrading of technology has eliminated more than 30 per cent jobs from the country's apparel industries. The cutting section of the RMG industries saw more than 48 per cent job cut, the highest in the sector, while it is about 27 per cent in the sewing section where majority of the workers, especially women are employed.
Due to data discrepancies, it is very difficult to find the exact number of unemployed youth in Bangladesh. The number of the unemployed aged between 15 and 29 is likely to be around 2.6 millions. Their number is swelling with the joining of around 2.0 to 2.2 million working-age people to the job market every year. But generation of employment opportunities is far below the demand level due to stagnancy or sluggish growth of industries and the service sector. Introduction of automation is likely to further aggravate the unemployment situation. However, this is not an argument against the necessity of automation in industrial production. Despite introduction of automation, the situation of unemployment must not be allowed to worsen; it must be averted through adoption of pragmatic strategies aimed at reaping the benefit of demographic dividend.
Women are still the majority of RMG workers. Employment in the garment factories created an opportunity for them to live a worthy life. Their participation in production was a significant step in the direction of women empowerment. But, with the introduction of automation, they are going to be more affected than their male counterparts. According to the above survey, in the process of automation women were replaced either by reassigning to different roles or, in some cases, dismissed. Alternative job opportunities should be created for them instead of retrenching them and thus depriving them of their financial liberty. Automation is a must for faster growth of the economy but surely not at the cost of demographic dividend.