Big-name international brands have cancelled billions of dollars in orders because of the pandemic, decimating Bangladesh's most important export industry and hurting in particular rural woman who dominate the workforce.

Making the shirts, pullovers, bras and socks for stores in wealther nations accounts for 80 percent of Bangladesh’s $40 billion of annual exports and has played a vital role in its growth of the past two decades.

More than four million people, mainly women from poor rural villages, are employed in the sector.

But the industry has a reputation for running sweatshops, with workers toiling in unsafe factories without labour protections or a social safety net.

The 2013 Rana Plaza diaster, when the collapse of the garment complex claimed the lives of 1,130 lives, exposed appalling safety conditions in Bangladeshi factories.

Now, with international brands walking away and a government lockdown stopped people in Bangladesh travelling, laid-off workers are complaining of being dumped without any help.

According to BGMEA, International brands have cancelled or held up orders worth $3.11 billion, affecting more than two million workers in the country.