What is the informal garment sector? ‘Informal factories’ are companies not officially registered in Bangladesh producing garments for the local and sometimes the Indian market. There are an estimated 7,000 informal factories across Bangladesh, and because they are not registered, these factories are not subjected to safety controls. In fact, these factories are not subjected to the nationwide fire and buildings safety assessments. The working conditions and facilities are of much lower quality than most formal export-oriented factories. In most of these garment factories, there are no labor inspectors, and the factories receive much less attention from the international community. Many factories are non-compliant with regards to anti-child labor legislation.
©Claudio Montesano Casillas
An informal garment factory located on the outskirts of the center of Dhaka.
©Claudio Montesano Casillas
Young garment workers have fun during their two hour lunch break. Most of the boys and men working at the informal production factories come from rural areas.
©Claudio Montesano Casillas
A garment worker at his working place measures pieces of leather that will be used for jeans’ labels.
©Claudio Montesano Casillas
A young garment worker at his working station. His work consists of stitching labels to blue jeans.
©Claudio Montesano Casillas
The polluted landscape outside the factories located in Keraniganj, Dhaka, Bangladesh. Unregulated clothing production has contributed to the extensive water pollution and leaching of toxic chemicals into Bangladesh waterways.
©Claudio Montesano Casillas
A young worker at her working station removes extra stitches from blue jeans.
©Claudio Montesano Casillas
An old Chinese Zheijang Sendo sewing machine. Nowadays, the price of this machine is around 25 dollars.
©Claudio Montesano Casillas
Shanta (11) works in an informal garment factory for one year. She is originally from the Madaripur District, Bangladesh.
©Claudio Montesano Casillas
A pile of jeans stored in a room inside an informal factory in Bangladesh.
©Claudio Montesano Casillas
Informal factory workers animatedly discuss work production at Keraniganj in Dhaka, Bangladesh.
©Claudio Montesano Casillas
Young garment workers at their work station. Due to huge workloads, young workers are not able to pursue any basic education.
©Claudio Montesano Casillas
A wholesale distributor showroom of men’s pants produced at an informal factory in Old Dhaka, Bangladesh.
©Claudio Montesano Casillas
A wholesale distributor of men’s shirts in Old Dhaka. The wholesale distributors are in charge of selling overstocks directly to the public.
©Claudio Montesano Casillas
Landscape behind the informal garment factories at Keraniganj in Dhaka. This district hosts hundreds of informal factories.
©Claudio Montesano Casillas
Young garment workers having a shower inside their factory. Due to their heavy workload, they eat, shower and sleep inside these factories.
©Claudio Montesano Casillas
Fashion mannequins outside a shop in Old Dhaka, Bangladesh.
©Claudio Montesano Casillas
A young garment worker. The common activities for children at informal factories are embroidery work, cutting/trimming, cutting thread, printing, making labels/tags/stickers, packaging, machine cleaning, weaving, hand stitching, dyeing, decorative work (such as adding sequins, decorative stones), button stitching, knitting, washing and button coloring.
©Claudio Montesano Casillas
A female garment worker at her sewing station. On a daily average, a worker can sew more than a thousand pieces.
©Claudio Montesano Casillas
A young garment worker enjoys his lunch break while listening to music.
©Claudio Montesano Casillas
A young garment worker brings black jeans from his factory to a wholesale shop in Old Dhaka.
©Claudio Montesano Casillas
Among informal factories, the safety standards are very low. Most of the factories do not have emergency exits, fire safety plans or extinguishers.
©Claudio Montesano Casillas
A shy garment worker.
©Claudio Montesano Casillas
An electrical panel board. Most factories are at risk of fire accidents due to poor wiring and electrical safety standards and basic awareness.
©Claudio Montesano Casillas
A female garment worker stands amidst children’s clothes. Due to a lack of child care facilities, most young children spend their time with their mothers at the workplace.
©Claudio Montesano Casillas
A supervisor poses in front of garment workers. The busy period for the informal sector is the period between October and January every year.
©Claudio Montesano Casillas
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On my second day in Bangladesh, I accidentally visited an informal factory for the first time. I engaged myself in a “tourist tour” in Old Dhaka, and I did not know these factories were part of it. The factories I saw did not correspond with my idea of a factory - a shiny, well-organized place with large-scale production. Ever since, I have been curious to know more about this underground world and have tried to portray the world beyond the label.
Inside these factories, garment workers work six to six and a half days per week from dawn till far after dusk for a minimum wage. Therefore, the workers from these factories sleep inside or rent rooms next to these factories. They come from villages to cities, seeking employment and dreaming of a better life.
A room with 15 sewing machines could be considered an informal factory in Bangladesh. In these factories, the majority of workers are boys and men. Women cannot commit to the same working hours due to their responsibilities at home, and they are not allowed to sleep next to a man who is not a relative. Traveling at night is also dangerous for them.
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Claudio Montesano Casillas
Claudio Montesano Casillas is a documentary photographer born in Cuernavaca, Morelos, Mexico. He established his roots in three separate cultures, Mexican, Italian and Swiss, and he has developed an ability to both recognize and capture the richness of people, cultures and their respective evolution. Currently, he is based in Dhaka, Bangladesh. See more at his website, or follow him on Instagram.
He received his BA in Communications from the Università degli Studi di Trieste in 2006; MsCom in Corporate Communications and Minor in Management at the Università della Svizzera Italiana (USI) in 2013; and MA in Photojournalism & Documentary Photography at the University of the Arts London (UAL), London College of Communication in 2014.
