Roundtable on health insurance for Bangladesh apparel workers held

Chairperson of the Parliamentary Standing Committee for Labour and Employment Ministry Md. Mujibul Huq recently called upon the insurance companies to offer health insurance for low-income earners even as he underscored the national initiative of health insurance coverage for apparel workers and wage earners of other sectors in collaboration with the private and the Government entities.

As per reports, Md. Mujibul Huq made this call while addressing a virtual roundtable on ‘Health Insurance for RMG Workers in Bangladesh:  Designing Policy and Management Structure’ organised jointly by BRAC, Health Economics Unit (HEU) of Health and Family Welfare Ministry, Netherland-based development organisation SNV, Institute of Health Economics (IHE) of Dhaka University and Bangla news daily Prothom Alo, which was addressed amongst others by Mohammad Hatem from the Bangladesh Knitwear Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BKMEA), Central Fund DG Dr. Selina Akter, ANM Saifuddin from the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA), HEI Professor Dr. Syed Abdul Hamid, Progoti Life Insurance CEO M Jalaul Azim, HEU’s Research Director Dr. Md. Nurul Amin, Bangladesh Garments Workers’ League President Sirajul Alam Rony and Gonosastha Kendra’s Dr. Rejaul Huq.

Speaking on the occasion, Dr. Md. Shahadat Hossain Mahamud (HEU Director General), reportedly, maintained the apparel industry already has a systematic and formal structure in collaboration with the BKMEA, Labour and Employment Ministry’s Central Fund, and the BGMEA, which enables the industry to be the initiator of institutional health insurance policy for garment workers’ wellbeing even as he added workers in other sectors could be brought under health insurance in phases.