Threat Of Latest Technologies On Sustainable Livelihoods In Bangladesh Textile Industry

Impact of the 4th Industrial Revolution on Textile Industry in Bangladesh

Latest automation and technologies are observed to be spreading all across the globe which is primarily changing various industries including textile, footwear and apparel and this technologies aims at enhancing the environmental sustainability, productivity and efficiency at factory level. It is observed that textile industry is one of the major industry of Bangladesh and Bangladesh is among the nations which is adopting latest technologies at factory level. However, this utilising of technology like Sewbot in textile industry is significantly affecting the sustainable livelihoods of the workers. This essay aims at analysing the threat of latest technologies on the sustainable livelihoods of the workers at Bangladesh textile industry.

The 4^th industrial revolution is observed to be underway and is getting a series of the upheavals. Artificiall intelligence, machine learning, automation, and robotics are slowly getting into the production procedure all across the globe (Rumi et al. 2021). These key breakthroughs in production procedure will have negative impact on employment rate and the economy of Bangladesh. As an outcome of such automation, the demand for workforce in it’s textile or rather RMG (ready-made garments) sector is reducing and future for such RMG labours is bleak (Ehsan 2021). Introduction of such machinery in manufacturing procedures of this sector has higher possibility of influencing the semi-skilled and unskilled labours negatively in comparision to the skilled labours. The RMG (ready-made garments) sector is observed to be major source of manufacturing employment in this nation. Nevertheless, as per the ILO (international labour organisation) and a2i project of government about sixty per cent that is 5.38 million of workers at this industry in Bangladesh will eventually become jobless by the end of 2030 and will be replaced by the robots because of the automation taking place in RMG sector.

Software Automation Inc of Atlanta had launched its completely autonomous machinery, Sewbot, which can significantly affect the traditional method of sewing in the textile industry and revolutionize the $100 billion sewing sector. It was formally introduced in the year 2012, and from the initial days, Sewbots were built up as automated, advanced technology which could enable this industry in cutting down the overall cost and enhance its overall efficiency. Software Automation Inc. claims that its Sewbot can enhance the output or productivity by 150 per cent for many sewing procedures. This is one of the major technology or automation which has been affecting the employment rate in the textile industry of Bangladesh.

Bangladesh is a developing country which is well-known for having huge supply of reasonable labour. The textile sector of this country has played a crucial role in improving the overall economy of this country. It has been found that this sector has created several employment opportunities across the country, reduced the total quantity of people who were living in unsounding condition or poverty and fostered the women empowerment. Thus, it can be said that textile or garment sector was the key reason why the female labour participation enhanced in the nation (Raihan and Bidisha 2018). On downside, the key challenge or the nation faces is that huge portion of workers who were employed in the RMG industry are unskilled. Thus, the unskilled staffs are losing jobs as the demand for the skilled labours is enhancing due to automation in the industry.

Introduction of Sewbot in Textile Industry

Bangladesh is regarded as the 2^nd largest textile and garment export around the globe, and the garment industry has build up the jobs for more than 4 million people (Uddin et al. 2020). The country does not have adequate ability of transferring the workers from this garment industry to the other industry. Moreover, the nation is also not able to build up sufficient quantity of jobs for workers who would be laid off as an outcome of the automation. In spite of having huge quantity of suplus labour force in the nation, the advancement in technology have generally made it more effective and lucrative for the manufacturers to opt for such automation. Such textile manufacturers in this nation are recently emphasizing on integrating the automated machinery in manufacturing procedures. Nevertheless, the automation will influence various nations differently, relying upon the development stage they are in. Moreover, in the nation like Bangladesh, it is observed that a little more time will be required for RMG industry in order to become fully automated and also significant costs are involved in this procedure (Ahmed, Saha and Haque 2020). 14 steps are generally involved in the transforming fabric to the ready-made garments. Automation which is driven by technological innovation has been established in almost every stage of apparel making and in turn minimising dependency of the labour. Moreover, due to the technological transformation in the entire value chain, there are certain challenges throughout production procedure which needs to be overcome.

Automation in this RMG sector is progressing and the country has to embrace the this automation in order to take this textile industry to next level; however the nation has to face ceetain inevitable challenges along with this opportunities which is brought by this 4^th industrial revolution. This automation has the major employment implications. This automation might result in 2-way effect for this nation. Automation can lead to job cuts and lay off since the labour will be effectively replaced by the robots and technology. This indicates that the country might face huge unemployement issues since this sector is the major source employment in this country (Hoque et al. 2021). It is known that this industry has been the backbone of this nation and it employs more than 3 million people across the nation(de Mattos et al. 2020). Thus, the sustainable livelihoods of such workers would be negatively affected and thus the living standard of the same will also be affected. This ultimately means the per capita income and the overall economy of the country will be affected tremendeously. In a contrary, such automation might also result in certain job creation. Machine requires experience, supervision wear and tear, thus repair work is quite essential and maintenance is also needed. As an outcome, certain latest jobs might be developed which is led by the automation. Nevertheless, the kind of jobs developed as an outcome of automation needs education and skills. Since this nation has lack of such skilled labour, it will be quite challenging to fill such posts. Although automation improves the quality of job opportunities in this sector, the quantity of the jobs will be lower and not suitable for every job seeker (Alam 2021).

Conclusion

From the above discussion, it can be concluded that due to rise in the technology and inclusion of automation in the textile industry of Bangladesh, the livehood of the workers working in this sector is adversely affected especially the semi-skilled and unskilled workers. It was known that due to automation and less demand of workers at factories, there is a huge threat that the manufacturers might terminate workers especially such unskilled workers. It was also known that majority of labour force working at this sector are unskilled and thus the livelihoods of majority of workers is at danger due to this technological advancement in this sector.

References

Ahmed, S.F., Saha, P. and Haque, S.T., 2020, June. Technology Adoption Dynamics of the Press Workers in Bangladesh. In Proceedings of the 3rd ACM SIGCAS Conference on Computing and Sustainable Societies (pp. 148-159).

Alam, S.M., 2021. Intelligent Automation System for Critical Analysis of Sewing Thread Breakage and Effects to Enhance Productivity (Doctoral dissertation, United International University, Dhaka-1212, Bangladesh).

de Mattos, F.B., Eisenbraun, J., Kucera, D. and Rossi, A., 2020. Automation, employment and reshoring in the apparel industry.

Ehsan, S.M.A., 2021. Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Labor Market in Bangladesh.

Hoque, M.A., Rasiah, R., Furuoka, F. and Kumar, S., 2021. Linkages among automation, job displacement and reshoring: evidence from the Bangladeshi apparel industry. Research Journal of Textile and Apparel.

Raihan, S. and Bidisha, S.H., 2018. Female employment stagnation in Bangladesh.

Rumi, M.H., Bala, S., Shah, A.M., Sayem, M.A. and Abedin, M.M., 2021. Future Tradeoff under Fourth Industrial Revolution in Bangladesh: A Study on RMG Sector. International Journal of Social, Political and Economic Research, 8(1), pp.198-215.

Uddin, S.M.N., Gutberlet, J., Ramezani, A. and Nasiruddin, S.M., 2020. Experiencing the everyday of waste pickers: A sustainable livelihoods and health assessment in Dhaka city, Bangladesh. Journal of International Development, 32(6), pp.833-853.