Rasul Sardar, son of late Mubarak Sardar of Bharatpur village in Monirampur upazila of Jessore district., He could not go to school due to poverty. At a young age he used to raise cows and goats in the next house for a monthly wage of only 10 taka and three meals a day. Rasul Sardar got married at the age of 24 and has 2 sons and 1 daughter.
His wife worked as a labour in the Akij Mill at local area. There she gets a daily wage of 200-300 taka. A local labor chief said him that some workers will be hired to lay new lines of rural electricity. Rasul Sardar took a job as a laborer under Meherpur Palli Bidyut Samiti in return for a monthly wage of Tk 12,000 through that local Labor Sardar. The dream was that if he worked here for a while, his financial crisis would go away. But that dream was shattered on December 21, 2015 in a workplace accident. Get seriously injured in a head-on collision with a vehicle coming from the opposite direction while driving with rural electricity poles, electric wires and various equipments. Later he had to choose a life of permanent disability.
After the accident, he went to different places for treatment and lost his savings and became indebted to a lot of money. At one stage, he stopped getting treatment due to lack of money. Even after being injured in a car accident, he could not think of what to do without getting any money or assistance from the work of the owner or the contractor. He eventually found out about the Safety and Rights Society through one of his neighbors and found out that an organization called SRS provides legal assistance to workers injured in accidents at work. When the owner decides not to pay any compensation, the legal unit of SRS filed suit against employer and the contractor through the Blast Khulna unit.
At first the learned labour court pronounce a verdict 125000/- on behalf of petitioner.After a long legal battle, the owner was bound to pay 20,000 / – in installments to the labor court . According to the judgement the employer and contractor deposited 100000/- in court. Finally Rasul sarder received a cheque of 100000/- from the learned labour court
After 6 long years of accident, Rasul Sardar is very happy to get compensation for accident at work. “Even though the money I received is very small, I am happy to get justice,” he said. He added that if the SRS had not contacted to them , they would not have known how they would be compensated.
Congratulation to Rasul Sardar on regaining his rights after a long 8-year legal battle. Hopefully with this compensation money Rasul Sardar and his family will be able to solve at least some of their difficult problems.
