The Management, Operation And The Socio-Economic Status Of Women In Some Selected Sea Food Industries

Abstract

The study was conducted in five seafood industries of Khulna region with a view to assess the status of the industries and the socio-economic condition of female workers. It was observed that most of the seafood industries were established after 1980 while only Bangladesh sea food indo ltd. was stablished in 1969. These seafood industries received financial support from Sonali Bank, Agrani Bank and National Bank. The layout plan of these industries were well designed and each industry had two floors while only Bagerhat sea food indoltd. had one floor. On the ground floor, there were all necessary sections such as receiving, processing, storing etc. while laboratory, office rooms, general store room, staff room, prayer room etc. were facilitated in the first floor. All the five seafood industries were private company headed by Board of Directors. They were the owners of the company and decision making authorities for over all development of the company. All the five seafood industries had at least two ice plants which produced block and flake ice and mitigated the ice requirements through the year. Chemical fire extinguisher, gas and sand were used as the fire control equipment for safety of the employers, products and overall industry. Most of the industries had at least two generators bought from different countries (UK, Japan, Germany and South Korea) while Bangladesh sea food indoltd. had only one generators bought from UK The highest number (7) of compressors found in Bangladesh sea food indo ltd., Southern foods ltd. and MU sea foods ltd. while Bagerhat sea food indo ltd. had the lowest numbers (5) and Delta fish ltd. had 6 compressors. Compressors were imported from India, Japan, England, Denmark and Russia. Production practices of frozen raw materials were almost similar in the five industries. Shrimps and prawns such as Bagda (Penaeus monodon), golda (Macrobrachium rosenbergiii, Harina (Metapenaeus monoceros) and Chaka (Penaeus indicusy and white fishes such as Tenualosa ilisha, Labeo rohita Calla calla etc. were mainly used as raw materials. Processing by contact plate freezer were usually carried out by all the five industries. Besides, Bangladesh sea food indo ltd., Bagerhat sea food indo ltd. and Delta fish ltd. had IQF and MU sea foods ltd. had air blast freezer. These industries used higher concentration (20 ppm) of chlorine water initially for processing and reduced the concentration to 5 ppm Cl, until panning or at the IQF stage. All the five industries used Ultra Violet ray to treat water. The types of pack for frozen products were done depending upon buyer's requirements. Most of the industries carried out manual or semi-auto process of carton binding except Bangladesh sea food indo ltd. where cartonbinding was done automatically while in Southern foods ltd. and MU sea foods ltd., carton binding was fully manual. All the five industries had more than two cold storages for storing frozen products. The highest capacity was found in Bangladesh sea food indo ltd. (650 ton) while lowest in Bagerhat sea food indoltd. (220 ton). In the seafood industries investigated women usually worked in all sections. Survey results found that majority of female workers were found to be young and 55% covered the age limit of 15-29. Amongst women workers, 88% were muslims and the rest were hindus while only 2 were christians. 55% of the female workers were divorced and oppressed by their husbands. 57% of them were illiterate while 23% were literate. 68% of the female workers had single family. 36% had families consisting of 3-4 members and 26% had 5-6 members of their families. Most of the female workers (88%) were of rural origin. 66% of female workers were recruited by contractors and 21% were recruited as causal employee. 78% of the female workers had to work for 8-12 hours a day. However, in comparison to hard work by the male workers, their incomes were very poor and ranged between 1400-2400 taka per month. The overtime rate was also low and varied between day and night The paying system was very irregular and 94% of the female workers did not get payment regularly. 81% of the female workers were unsatisfied with their jobs and for this job mobility among the workers was high. 77% of the female workers changed industry to obtain better salary. 80% of the workers received training. 60% of female workers were the primary earner of their families, 33% contributed to family earning while only 7% played a key role in family decision making. Near about 100% female workers claimed that the management and co-male workers of the industry behaved very roughly with them. However, the overall status of the five seafood industries related to quality of seafood products were very high.