JUSTICE still remains elusive in the events that the collapse of the Rana Plaza brought forth with it when the eight-storey building, which housed five apparel factories and a private bank, came crumbling down on the Savar outskirts of Dhaka on April 24, 2013, leaving at least 1,136 people dead and more than 2,000 wounded, some permanently disabled. The event has so far been a strong pointer to a few issues, but mainly the failure of the justice delivery system, mostly caused by the prosecution. It has been 11 years and the 19 cases filed in connection with the death of the workers, the building collapse, the violation of the building code, worker safety and damages have still been pending with the court. Of the three criminal cases, the homicide case filed by the state and the murder case filed by the widow of a worker have been stuck in witness production failure. The third case over building code violation filed by the state has stalled after a High Court stay order. The 11 cases filed by the Department of Inspection for Factories and Establishments have been pending with labour courts. The labour court has yet to begin trial in the 11 cases as the police could not carry out the warrant for the arrest of the accused absconding.
The court in October 2018 dismissed the money suit filed by the widow of a deceased worker seeking damages as the plaintiff, who has remained traceless, was absent from the hearing. Three public interest litigation writ petitions, one filed jointly by Ain O Salish Kendra and the Bangladesh Legal Aid and Services Trust and two other petitions filed by two lawyers, and a rule that the High Court issued on its own in connection with the payment of compensations to the Rana Plaza victims have been pending with the High Court for 11 years. While the cry for justice of the survivors of the disaster and the members of the families of the deceased as well as the accused is still heard, especially around the anniversary of the disaster, with all this going on, most of the survivors continue to live in economic hardship as many could not complete their treatment, many have been left unfit for work and many could not get on any job. Almost no survivors and members of the families of the deceased could also be properly treated and rehabilitated in a decade. Yet, on another front, worker safety in the apparel industry has certainly improved to an extent since the Rana Plaza collapse, but it still continues to fall short of expectations.
The Rana Plaza disaster and its consequent legal proceedings on having reached their resolution could very well mete out justice and offer a direction for the government to decide a meaningful compensation for workers in industrial disasters as well as improve worker safety. All this has not happened, but they must happen without delay.