'Hartal' a curse for the Economy

'Hartal' called for political and non political reasons have become inevitable and it is being used very frequently as an extreme democratic right. Historical use of such important tool gifted us several incredible achievements i.e. independence of the country and return of the democracy. This tool speeded up our unity since language movement in 1952 and end up with independence of Bangladesh by 1971. But, the 'hartal' calling trend did not stop there and as time went away, this constructive tool turned into destructive tool for the nation as a whole. Most of us do believe that this is no more an effective tool to press and realize demand of public. Information from business and trade organizations shows that a day-long 'hartal' costs the country around USD 500 million (FBCCI) from our GDP and our export oriented clothing sector being the backbone of export economy suffers for around USD 45 million (BGMEA) from the export earnings. Though our resilient people working hard to recover the losses done and trying keep our GDP and export figures in shape. But there are several other losses, which cannot be expressed in financial term such as death tolls of citizens, injuries, educational lossand physiological-psychological disturbance in home along with great image destruction globally.It is also true that there are several groups who earns and tries to earn benefits from 'hartal' and they are: political leaders and parties, traders stocking goods to raise price, terrorists, corrupt businessmen and a large group of people who are hired for the political mass gathering. Bangladesh Textile Today (BTT) team lead by Abrar A Apu, MSc have tried to dig out cause and effect of 'hartal' on our clothing & textiles manufacturing industry.