2013 Best Portfolio
Winner: Andrew Biraj / Reuters
Winner - 2013 Best Portfolio
People rescue garment workers from the Rana Plaza building after it collapsed in Savar, 30 km (19 miles) outside Dhaka April 24, 2013. Rana Plaza, the eight-storey block housing factories and a shopping centre collapsed in Savar, 30 km (19 miles) outside Dhaka, Bangladesh on the morning of April 24, 2013. At least 1,132 garment workers have been killed and more than a thousand injured as the owner forced them to work despite of knowing about the crack in the buildingís pillar. The four garment factories in the Rana plaza building produced low-cost garments mostly for western buyers. The incident is considered to be one of the largest industrial disasters in human history.
Andrew Biraj / Reuters
Winner - 2013 Best Portfolio
People mourn in front of the reamins of their relatives, who died inside the rubble of the collapsed Rana Plaza building, in Savar, 30 km (19 miles) outside Dhaka April 25, 2013.
Andrew Biraj / Reuters
Winner - 2013 Best Portfolio
People mourn for their relatives, who are trapped inside the rubble of the collapsed Rana Plaza building, in Savar, 30 km (19 miles) outside Dhaka April 24, 2013.
Andrew Biraj / Reuters
Winner - 2013 Best Portfolio
A hand of a garment worker is seen inside the rubble of the collapsed Rana Plaza building, in Savar, 30 km (19 miles) outside Dhaka April 25, 2013.
Andrew Biraj / Reuters
Winner - 2013 Best Portfolio
A rescue worker comforts a survivor, who was trapped inside the rubble of the collapsed Rana Plaza building, in Savar, 30 km (19 miles) outside Dhaka April 25, 2013.
Andrew Biraj / Reuters
Winner - 2013 Best Portfolio
A relative of a garment worker check a body as she finds her relative, who is missing after the Rana Plaza building, in Savar, 30 km (19 miles) outside Dhaka April 25, 2013.
Andrew Biraj / Reuters
Winner - 2013 Best Portfolio
Rescue workers, army personnel, police and members of media run after a rumour that a building next to Rana Plaza is collapsing during a rescue operation in Savar, 30 km (19 miles) outside Dhaka April 26, 2013.
Andrew Biraj / Reuters
Winner - 2013 Best Portfolio
A woman cries as she waits for news of her relative, a garment worker who is still missing, after the collapse of the Rana Plaza building in Savar, outside Dhaka May 3, 2013.
Andrew Biraj / Reuters
Winner - 2013 Best Portfolio
People try to identify their relatives, who died inside the rubble of the collapsed Rana Plaza building, in Savar, 30 km (19 miles) outside Dhaka April 25, 2013.
Andrew Biraj / Reuters
Winner - 2013 Best Portfolio
Garment workers attend to a colleague injured by rubber bullets fired by riot police during clashes at a protest aginst the killing of Rana Plaza incident in Dhaka June 5, 2013.
Andrew Biraj / Reuters
Winner - 2013 Best Portfolio
Mustafizur (L) tries to comfort his wife Rebecca, 20, a garment worker rescued from the rubble of the collapsed Rana Plaza building, at the National Institute of Traumatology and Orthopaedic Rehabilitation (NITOR) in Dhaka July 3, 2013.
Andrew Biraj / Reuters
Winner - 2013 Best Portfolio
Workers sort clothes at a garment factory near the collapsed Rana Plaza building in Savar, Bangladesh June 16, 2013.
Andrew Biraj / Reuters
Winner - 2013 Best Portfolio
Garment workers and their family members, who became homeless after a five-story building collapsed off its base in the Begunbari area, wait in front of makeshift accommodation next to the site in Dhaka. Fashion Victims - The garment workers in Bangladesh are meagrely underpaid (about USD 37-38 monthly wage), considered the lowest wage rate in the world. The five million workers provide speedy outputs for the there are 5,170 RMG factories in the country, which make clothes for international brands by employing about 3.5 million workers. The country earns about $21 billion a year from garment export, accounting for roughly 80 per cent of its annual export earnings. The industrial workers of the Bangladesh garment sectors endure unsympathetic working conditions and face discriminations being underpaid than approved basic national wage rate. The conditions mirror the hostile situations the European industrial workers had to struggle a century ago. Ninety percent of the garment workers are women and girls aged above twelve, they are set with the daily tough challenge to execute their work and fend against sexual harassments and physical abuses. Around 2500 had been killed by incidents like industrial fires and collapse of factory buildings, including the Rana Plaza incident, the worldís one of the largest industrial disaster in the span of five years (2005-2013). Police often act brutally to the peaceful protests of the garment workers as they often have to take the street to establish their basic needs.
Andrew Biraj / Reuters
Winner - 2013 Best Portfolio
A woman, Asma, with her child tries to break a barrier after firefighters rescued her sister Jahanara's body at the site where a five-storey building collapsed off its base in the Begunbari area in Dhaka. Jahanara was one of the a low paid garment workers who died in that incident.
Andrew Biraj / Reuters
Winner - 2013 Best Portfolio
Rahela Akhter, a garment worker, tries to resist beating from the police during a protest in Dhaka.
Andrew Biraj / Reuters
Winner - 2013 Best Portfolio
Rahela Akhter, a garment worker, is injured after being beaten by the police during a protest in Dhaka.
Andrew Biraj / Reuters
Winner - 2013 Best Portfolio
The body of Moushumi, a garment worker, lies on the floor of a hospital after a devastating fire at a garment factory in Savar, outskirts of Dhaka November 24, 2012. A fire swept through Tazreen Fashion factory in the Ashulia industrial belt of Dhaka, on the outskirts of Bangladesh's capital killing more than 100 people, the fire brigade said on Sunday, in the country's worst ever factory blaze.
Andrew Biraj / Reuters
Winner - 2013 Best Portfolio
Relatives mourn the death of a garment worker after a fire occurred in a garment factory in Savar November 25, 2012. A fire swept through Tazreen Fashion factory in the Ashulia industrial belt of Dhaka, on the outskirts of Bangladesh's capital killing more than 100 people, in the country's worst ever factory blaze.
Andrew Biraj / Reuters
Winner - 2013 Best Portfolio
A worker visits a burnt garment factory after a fire swept through a garment workshop, killing more than 100 people in Bangladesh's worst-ever factory blaze, in Savar.
Andrew Biraj / Reuters
Winner - 2013 Best Portfolio
Tahera Begum, 25, who survived a devastating fire in a garment factory, lies inside her slum room in Savar November 30, 2012. Begum, an operator of Tazreen Fashions garment factory, escaped the fire which killed more than 100 workers on November 24. According to Begum's husband, she became mentally ill and lost her memory after escaping the fire.
Andrew Biraj / Reuters
Winner - 2013 Best Portfolio
Shilpi, who was rescued from the rubble of the collapsed Rana Plaza building, stands inside the Centre for Rehabilitation of Paralysis (CRP) in Savar June 4, 2013. The rescue worker had to amputate a part of her arm to rescue her. The April 24 collapse of the Rana Plaza complex, built on swampy ground outside Dhaka with several illegal floors, ranked among the world's worst industrial accidents killing 1,132 workers.
Andrew Biraj / Reuters
Winner - 2013 Best Portfolio
Mustafizur (L) tries to comfort his wife Rebecca, 20, a garment worker rescued from the rubble of the collapsed Rana Plaza building, at National Institute of Traumatology Orthipedics and Rehablitation (NITOR) in Dhaka July 3, 2013. The rescue worker had to amputate a part of her arm to rescue her. The April 24 collapse of the Rana Plaza complex, built on swampy ground outside Dhaka with several illegal floors, ranked among the world's worst industrial accidents killing 1,132 workers.
Andrew Biraj / Reuters
Winner - 2013 Best Portfolio
20-year-old seamstress Runi Akhter, a survivor of the rubble of collapsed Rana Plaza Building, stands in front of her slum house with relatives in Savar June 4, 2013. Akhter used to work in Phantom TAC Ltd garment factory in Rana Plaza. She is now unemployed and shares a two-room slum house with eight people, including her parents and two young children.
Andrew Biraj / Reuters
Winner - 2013 Best Portfolio
Garment workers and leaders shout slogans as they protest against the deaths of their colleagues after a devastating fire in a garment factory in Dhaka.
Andrew Biraj / Reuters
Winner - 2013 Best Portfolio
A boy fills up empty cigarettes manually with locally grown tobacco in a small bidi (cigarette) factory at Haragach in Rangpur district, Bangladesh. According to a 2012 study by US-based NGO, Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, over 45,000 people in Bangladesh are employed in manufacturing inexpensive cigarettes known as bidis and this number includes "many women and children working in household based establishments where they make low wages and live in poverty." A 2011 research paper about bidi workers in Bangladesh, published in the journal Tobacco Control, says that working conditions can involve poor ventilation and exposure to tobacco dust, which can cause a range of health problems including respiratory and skin diseases. International attention has been focused on workers' safety in Bangladesh since the disaster at Rana Plaza, a garment factory complex which collapsed in April, killing 1,132 workers.
Andrew Biraj / Reuters
Winner - 2013 Best Portfolio
A child paacks up cigarettes in a small 'bidi' (cigarette) factory at Haragach in Rangpur district July 13, 2013.
Andrew Biraj / Reuters
Winner - 2013 Best Portfolio
Andrew Biraj / Reuters
Winner - 2013 Best Portfolio
Karim, 7, poses for a photograph as he works in a small bidi (cigarette) factory at Haragach in Rangpur district, Bangladesh.
Andrew Biraj / Reuters
Winner - 2013 Best Portfolio
Pari, 6, fills up empty cigarettes manually with locally grown tobacco as she works in a small bidi (cigarette) factory at Haragach in Rangpur district, Bangladesh.
Andrew Biraj / Reuters
Winner - 2013 Best Portfolio
Children fill up empty cigarettes manually with locally grown tobacco in a small bidi (cigarette) factory at Haragach in Rangpur district, Bangladesh.
Andrew Biraj / Reuters
Winner - 2013 Best Portfolio
Workers fill up empty cigarettes manually with locally grown tobacco in a small "bidi" (cigarette) factory at Haragach in Rangpur district, Bangladesh.
Andrew Biraj / Reuters
Winner - 2013 Best Portfolio
Children fill up empty cigarettes manually with locally grown tobacco in a small "bidi" (cigarette) factory at Haragach in Rangpur district, Bangladesh.
Andrew Biraj / Reuters
Winner - 2013 Best Portfolio
Workers fill up empty cigarettes manually with locally grown tobacco in a small 'bidi' (cigarette) factory at Haragach in Rangpur district, Bangladesh.
Andrew Biraj / Reuters
Winner - 2013 Best Portfolio
A boy carries a stack of cigarettes as he works in a small 'bidi' (cigarette) factory at Haragach in Rangpur district, Bangladesh.
Andrew Biraj / Reuters