Is RMG becoming unattractive to rural women workforce?

One of the key contributions that the readymade garments (RMG) industry has made over the years is the empowerment of women (some even tend to claim that the industry has liberated the country's womenfolk). The non-governmental organisations (NGOs), with the Grameen Bank (GB) playing the lead role, started the job of empowering the women in rural areas. From the early 80s, the RMG industry lured the rural women to come out of the shell, migrate to major urban centres, including Dhaka, and take up employment in RMG factories. And it has achieved a resounding success.
The procession of rural women seeking jobs at the RMG factories became longer and longer.  The RMG industry now employs more than 4.0 million people. More than 80 per cent of  them are said to be women.  
The very sight of women workers marching in their thousands towards their workplaces in major RMG hubs in Dhaka city early in the morning elates many minds. Despite the low wage and other small benefits the poor RMG workers are entitled to, they hide all their difficulties and pains behind the smiles they always wear either on the streets or at their workplaces.  
But the jobs in RMG industry do not apparently attract any more the rural women like the previous time mainly because of low wage and poor workplace safety. They are entering the farm labour market in large numbers these days. And those who can afford recruitment expenses are taking up jobs abroad.
According to the latest labour survey conducted by the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS), in 2010, out of the estimated 25.6 million farm labourers in the country, 10.5 million were women, meaning that 6.7 million women joined the farm labour market over a period of ten years. During the last 22 years, more than 276,000 female workers took up jobs abroad. The share of women in total Bangladeshi remittance earners is still very low. But there has been an uptrend in recent times.
The question is: will the RMG industry start facing labour shortage soon? Since unemployment rate is high in the country, the industry is unlikely to face any major shortage of labour. But such a possibility cannot be ruled out.
The RMG industry is losing its shine to the female workers, mainly because of the low wage. The farm sector has emerged as a very prospective alternative sector of employment for rural womenfolk. With more and more male farmhands migrating to urban centres to take up better paying jobs or rickshaw pulling, a void has been created in the rural farm labour market. The women have started to fill up the vacuum since the daily wage of a farm labourer is higher than the average daily wage of a RMG worker.
Even a female domestic help, who works as a part-timer in at least three houses every day, earns more than a RMG worker and gets free food the quantity of which, most of the times, is found to be enough to feed other members of her family.
There is no denying that skilled female hands in RMG industry get handsome wages. But their number is not that large. Most RMG workers find it hard to make both ends meet with what they get at the end of the month as wage. They, in fact, lead a sub-human life. In most cases, five to six female RMG workers share a small room in shanties and the rent is also too high. After meeting all their personal expenses a little amount is left for sending to their village homes for the sustenance of their poor parents.
The way the cost of living in urban centres has been going up even the middle income people are finding it hard to meet the minimum living expenses. Under the circumstances, the urban life has lost most of its appeal to the poor people, including the RMG workers.
If the work of a farm labourer pays more than the job at a RMG factory, why should not a rural woman go back to her village home and stay there? The going back to the root at least save her cost of accommodation and transportation. What is more important is that far from the hustle and bustle of an urban centre, she would lead a tranquil life among her near and dear ones.
However, even if a section of rural women goes back to their village homes and take up other employments, the contribution of the apparel sector to the empowerment of women would remain as valid as before. The transformation in the case of poor rural women would continue as before.
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