It has been three years since the Tazreen fire incident which left some 112 dead and hundreds more injured due to smoke inhalation and fire. We find the lack of progress in compensating the victims disturbing and utterly reprehensible. Victims have received no meaningful financial assistance despite the formation of a Trust Fund where the retailers and brands were supposed to make contributions, but have refrained from doing so. What does that say about corporate social responsibility of these foreign brands and their commitment to a safe working environment for workers who produce these garments for the international market? 

We are informed that what little compensation victims received ranged from Tk 50,000 to Tk 150,000. This can hardly be construed as meaningful compensation when taking into account the cost of treatment and loss of livelihoods for those affected. While the Rana Plaza incident caught the international media spotlight and much has been done to do the right thing, one cannot say so for the Tazreen factory fire victims. Are the lives of these workers worth less than those who suffered a similar fate in the Rana Plaza incident? Why the double standards? 

How long must workers continue to die or get injured because of errant factory owners and their supervisors? Who will enforce the laws that have been enacted to bring the criminals to book and set examples of them? These are questions that demand an answer because although much has been done in the last few years to improve safety at the workplace, the issue of compensation appears to have taken a backstage. Just because the spotlight is no longer on the Tazreen tragedy does not mean we can forget about what happened there.