Rana Plaza - 4 years after
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For the fourth time, people around the world will commemorate the anniversary of the worst industrial disaster, the worst blow to the garment industry. On April 24, 2013 the Rana Plaza building in Savar, close to Dhaka in Bangladesh, collapsed. It housed five garment factories and cost the lives of 1,134 of their workers; more than 2,500 were injured. Tragically, most - if not all - of the deaths and injuries could have been avoided had the garment workers been allowed to evacuate early like other workers in the building.
FashionUnited has put together a timeline of events from that tragic day in April to the most current developments - events like the Dhaka Apparel Summit, Fashion Revolution Day, efforts by the Bangladesh Accord on Fire and Building Safety and the Alliance for Bangladesh Worker Safety, factory inspection reports and other efforts by local and international stakeholders. Will their joints efforts be enough to turn the tragedy around to become a change maker for the global garment industry and its supply chain? Time will tell.
Use the arrows to navigate through the events ordered by date or click on a timeframe (in the grey bar) to learn more.
Following the tragic collapse of Rana Plaza, the most deadly accident in the history of the garment industry, more and more people begun to question how a t-shirt costing as little as 2 pounds could ever be responsibly made.
The tragedy was not only seen as a wake up call for the international fashion industry to band together and protect those most vulnerable in their supply chains - it was also a immediate call to action for Primark, who sourced from New Waves Bottoms, a supplier in Rana Plaza, to take a closer look at its ethics and CSR, to see where it could improve.
Primark was among the first retailers to sign the Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh, initiated by the IndustriALL and UNI Global Union. It was also one of the first to ensure the factory victims and families affected by the collapse receive financial support and food aid immediately following the disaster.
Read more: A closer look at Primark’s stance on responsible fashion
Photo credit: Zakir Hossain Chowdhury / ANADOLU AGENCY