The domestic garment makers are out of scope of the BRAC’s Digital RMG Factory Mapping Project – but it can be hard to walk away.

Even though the current scope of the project is confined to factories involved in export, if there’s any doubt about if garments are for the export or domestic market then factories are still inspected.

One MiB coordinator kept getting calls from Field Officers about which RMG factories fell under the scope of the project. The Field Coordinator went with a Field Supervisor to Aganagor Union, Keraniganj, where there are a number of multi-story buildings housing a large number of small, separately-owned factories.

Keraniganj is well-known for manufacturing garments for the domestic market, but the team wanted to explore if any were linked directly, or indirectly, to exports.

Around 50 small factories were checked and found to be making clothes for the local wholesale market. These factories are to be excluded from the future map.