Sending workers abroad: Ground reality belies govt’s tall claims

Every year Bangladesh is sending quite a large number of expatriate workers, but remittance from them the country receives could be much higher if these workers would have been skilled or semi skilled. According to a report yesterday, more than a million workers went to different destinations last year and since these workers are less skilled, Bangladesh is not getting the desired remittance.
The ratio of skilled workers with ‘less’ skilled workers is disappointing: it is one in five. This is a serious drawback and the government is entirely responsible for this very poor scenario. For several decades, the importance of vocational training has been discussed in public spaces, but there is hardly any development in this regard.
The bulk of workers who go abroad are domestic helps, janitors, gardeners, farm workers, and shepherds who cannot expect higher wages. Still, these less skilled workers are not usually kept for a longer time, says a survey by the International Organisation for Migration (IOM). The study has revealed that the skilled workers send money to their wives on average for ten years before returning home but the less-skilled workers send money for six years.
While the percentage of skilled workers such as garment workers, drivers, mechanics, heavy machine operators as well as people who work in the manufacturing sector is about 17.76, the percentage of semi-skilled workers like tailors, construction workers, and light machine operators, is much less, about 3.26 per cent. The rest, about 78.64 per cent, are less skilled.
Therefore, it is a tremendous failure on the part of the government to provide institution training of driving, repairing and maintaining the engines of cars and other vehicles, tailoring, training in light machine operating to jobless people who can earn their livelihood not just in foreign countries but also in the homeland. Besides the failure in creating a skilled and semi-skilled workforce, the government has also conspicuously failed to create an environment in the country where workers can go abroad hassle-free and provide necessary help and safety to them once they are in foreign lands.
Like in every sector, the government claims tall regarding sending workers abroad, but the ground reality is depressing.