As Bangladesh experiences the growing pains of development, we are getting to see how misplaced our pride has been in cheap labour. According to a report published by the Refugee and Migratory Movements Research Unit (RMMRU), out of the record 13.05 lakh workers who migrated abroad in 2023, half were in the “less-skilled” category. While the number of “less-skilled” workers last year reduced by 23 percent compared to 2022, the numbers of professional and skilled workers increased marginally by 3.8 percent and 2.04 percent, respectively. The still-high proportion of low-skilled labour export represents, among other things, missed opportunities in terms of earning remittances.

Of course, there are other factors—such as dollar price fluctuation, money laundering, and the prevalence of hundi—that can impact annual remittance figures. But the need for skilling up (both domestic and migrant workers) must be recognised if the country’s development is to be sustainable in the long run. The first step towards this would be making efficient use of the existent training centres and also adding to them. The Bureau of Manpower Employment and Training (BMET) primarily oversees the training of migrant workers. As of July 2023, according to Bonik Barta, the BMET was running 110 technical training centres. According to one official, these centres train about 80,000 workers against their capacity of 40,000. But that is nowhere near enough, as many more workers leave the country each year in search of a better livelihood. Meanwhile, officials also cite the unwillingness of workers themselves to undergo training. All this needs to be addressed.

Bangladesh cannot have a prosperous future if we keep relying on low-skilled workers. The country’s migrant workers also deserve better than to be considered a group easy to exploit, which has been the reality in many cases. What else does “cheap” labour imply, after all? We want to see all those in the “less-skilled” category being trained so that the numbers of semi-skilled and skilled workers make up more and more of our exported labour in the coming years.