Rana Plaza Tragedy: No justice, no peace of mind 9yrs on  

On April 24 2013, when Nurbanu went to work at her factory in Rana Plaza in Savar, she had no idea her life was about to change forever.

Nurbanu is among the 2,500 who were injured when the building collapsed. Although the survivors might consider themselves luckier than the 1,100 who died in the tragedy, Nurbanu is not so sure of this.

"I escaped death that day, but received serious injuries to my spine and other parts of the body. I do not know whether the life I am leading now is even worth calling a life," she told The Business Standard while standing near the memorial erected in the memory of victims of the collapse on the ninth anniversary of the tragic event.

Nurbanu has not received any compensation yet and her husband also left her after her life-changing injuries.

Nurbanu's story was one of many.

On the morning of 24 April, survivors, families of victims and different labour organisations started to gather at the site of the tragedy to remember the day and pay homage to the victims.

They placed wreaths at the temporary memorial which stands as a reminder of the one the major industrial disasters in the country.

Speak to any of those present at the memorial site and a familiar story of the calamity that followed the catastrophe would come to the fore.

Hajiron Begum, who comes to the site very often with a photo of her son, still does not know what fate befell him. His body is still missing.

She remembers how her son, Md Shamim, rushed to work on that fateful only to never return to her, his wife and two children.

The survivors, families and different organisations demanded exemplary punishment to those who were responsible for the tragic incident.

After paying tribute to the victims, Rafiqul Islam Sujan, president of the Savar, Ashulia and Dhamrai Regional Committee of the Garment Workers Coordinating Council, comprising 27 labour organisations, demanded speedy trials of the perpetrators.

He also demanded building a hospital for workers at the site of Rana Plaza after acquiring the land, permanent rehabilitation of the survivors and declaring 24 April as the mourning day of the garment sector.

Khairli Mamun Mintu, organising secretary of the central committee of the Garment Workers' Trade Union Centre, told TBS, "If things go like this, there is a doubt whether the victims' families will be able to get justice in their lifetime."

Arabindu Bepari Bindu, president of the central committee of Bangladesh Revolutionary Garments Workers Federation, said it could not be called an accident, but rather it was murder.

If the owners of the factories in that building had not forced the workers to join work on that day, many lives would not have to embrace such cruel deaths.

For now, everyone affected finds themselves helpless, including Nurbanu.

"Now I am a burden on my parents with my three children. How long will I be a burden to my parents? Does the government have no responsibility towards us?" she asked, exasperation written on her face.