INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Every night, Ruby Rafiq* lies awake on the cold, hard floor of her small room, worrying how her family will survive the winter
Curled up next to her under a large patchwork blanket donated by a charity is her 13-year-old daughter, Maya.The mother of two waits for her
children to fall asleep before quietly creeping out of the house
Wrapped in a shawl, she heads to the market down by the Buriganga River in Keraniganj, on the outskirts of Dhaka, and waits for men to
worker by day, the crippling cycle of poverty wages, rising inflation and a cost of living crisis has forced Rafiq into sex work by
Then her husband left her and she became the sole provider for her family.Her son, Sakib, 16, would get hungry and started to steal
Soon she fell behind on her rent and took out a loan, which she struggled to pay back
But despite the surge in manufacturing, Bangladesh still has one of the lowest minimum wages in the world, which has remained at 8,000 taka
Photograph: Farzana Hossen/The GuardianIn November, negotiations over a new minimum rate sparked protests across the capital, which quickly
turned violent after the government announced an increase to just 12,500 taka a month; far below the 23,000 taka workers say is needed to
cover basic living costs and keep their families from starvation.Last month, Bangladeshi workers making clothes for the UK high street said
they had been left to steal and scavenge food from fields to feed their children.Rafiq works for a large factory that supplies clothes to
British brands, including Tesco, Matalan and Next
She has never seen the film but finds his grinning green face funny.What is less amusing for Rafiq is that despite working 10-hour shifts,
seven days a week, she is still struggling to make ends meet
And although the new minimum wage was expected to come into effect in December, it has yet to be paid.As their situation gets increasingly
Before she got into the car, Rafiq handed over the cash for safekeeping to a nearby shopkeeper
Then the man who had brought me there told me to return his money and leave
He smashed my face against a table and threw me outside, telling me I was good for nothing
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We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.after newsletter promotionRuby Rafiq
Photograph: Farzana Hossen/The GuardianEvery day after work, Rafiq desperately waits to see if she can get any overtime shifts
(The new minimum wage is only 65 taka an hour.) She uses this money to buy food, since most of what she makes at the factory is spent on
kindling and wood, and starts a small fire to warm her hands
This article first appeared/also appeared in theguardian.com
