Dataset Information

Sewing shirts with injured fingers and tears: exploring the experience of female garment workers health problems in Bangladesh.

ABSTRACT:

Background

The ready-made garment industry in Bangladesh not only contributes to the nation's economic development, but has created income opportunities for women, benefiting their whole family. However, these benefits come at considerable cost to the women. This research examines how the work environment and gendered family role in this conservative society affect the health of the female industrial workers.

Methods

A qualitative study employed in-depth interviews (n-20) and focus group discussions with female garment workers (n-4) in two cities of Dhaka district. Further, key informant interviews (n?=?4) with factory doctors, along with eight workplace observations were conducted to explore the lived experience of female workers' health issues. Interview transcripts were coded in Atlas-ti, 5.2. The data were analysed using thematic analysis approach. The themes are illustrated with case narratives.

Results

The female workers reported that their work has led to back and joint pain, continuous headache, eye pain and difficulty in breathing associated with inhaling fabric dust. Inadequate lighting, constantly sitting in one position without back rest and continuous noise from hundreds of machines makes them feel permanently tired. Further, the female workers reported that working in the factory and meeting the expectations of the families at home has doubled their workload. The doctors indicated that the physical work environment, their low job status and the nature of the job affect the health of female workers.

Conclusion

This study found that female workers in the ready-made garment industry face a high risk of health problems. Both government and non-government organizations need to be better involved in designing interventions targeting these women, to protect them from such health risks. In addition, recognition by the whole society of the important role the women play in the economy is needed, so that support by both family and society can be improved.

SUBMITTER: Akhter S

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6341570 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Publications

Sewing shirts with injured fingers and tears: exploring the experience of female garment workers health problems in Bangladesh.

Akhter Sadika S Rutherford Shannon S Chu Cordia C

BMC international health and human rights 20190121 1

<h4>Background</h4>The ready-made garment industry in Bangladesh not only contributes to the nation's economic development, but has created income opportunities for women, benefiting their whole family. However, these benefits come at considerable cost to the women. This research examines how the work environment and gendered family role in this conservative society affect the health of the female industrial workers.<h4>Methods</h4>A qualitative study employed in-depth interviews (n-20) and focu ...[more]

PMID: 30665456

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Project description:Eight in ten female readymade garment (RMG) workers in Bangladesh suffer from anemia, a condition which damages both health and productivity. This study evaluated the effectiveness of a workplace nutrition program on anemia reduction in female RMG workers of Bangladesh. A quasi-experimental mixed method study was conducted on 1310 non-pregnant female RMG workers from four factories. Two types of intervention packages (A and C) were tested against their respective controls (B and D) over a 10-month period. Among factories that already provided lunch to workers with regular behavior change counseling (BCC), one intervention (A) and one control (B) factory were selected, and among factories that did not provide lunches to their workers but provided regular BCC, one intervention (C) and one control (D) factory were selected: (A) Lunch meal intervention package: daily nutritionally-enhanced (with fortified rice) hot lunch, once weekly iron-folic acid (IFA) supplement and monthly enhanced (with nutrition module) behavior change counseling (BCC) versus (B) Lunch meal control package: regular lunch and BCC; and (C) Non-meal intervention package: twice-weekly IFA and enhanced BCC versus (D) Non-meal control package: BCC alone. Body weight and capillary hemoglobin were measured. Changes in anemia prevalence were estimated by difference-in-difference (DID) method. Thematic analysis of qualitative in-depth interviews with RMG workers was performed and findings were triangulated. Anemia was reduced significantly in both lunch meal and non-meal intervention (A and C) group (DID: 32 and 12 percentage points, p: <0.001 and <0.05 respectively). The mean hemoglobin concentration also significantly increased by 1 gm/dL and 0.4 gm/dL in both A and C group (p: <0.001 respectively). Weight did not change in the intervention groups (A and C) but significantly increased by more than 1.5 kg in the comparison groups (B and D). The knowledge of different vitamin and mineral containing foods and their benefits was increased significantly among all participants. Workplace nutrition programs can reduce anemia in female RMG workers, with the greatest benefits observed when both nutritionally enhanced lunches and IFA supplements are provided.

Project description:BACKGROUND:Women in Bangladesh experience high rates of Intimate Partner Violence (IPV). IPV is more prevalent against income earning women compared to their non-earning counterparts, and Workplace Violence (WPV) is also common. Such violence is a violation of women's rights, and also constrains them from contributing to their personal growth, household, community and the economy at large. There is limited evidence on what works to prevent IPV and WPV amongst garment workers. This paper describes an evaluation of HERrespect, an intervention which aims to reduce IPV and WPV against female garment workers in and around Dhaka, Bangladesh. METHODS:The trial employs a quasi-experimental design, with four intervention and four control factories. In the intervention factories a randomly selected cohort of married female line workers, a cohort of male line workers, and all middle management staff received the intervention. The intervention strategies involved (1) gender transformative group-based training for workers and management staff; (2) joint session between workers (15 female and male) and middle-management staff; (3) factory-wide activities; (4) awareness raising among top management; (5) factory policy review and development and 6) a community based campaign. For the evaluation, a cohort of randomly selected female workers and a cohort of selected management staff have been established. All workers (n = 800) and management staff (n = 395) from these cohorts were interviewed at baseline using two different questionnaires, and will be interviewed in the endline, 24 months post-baseline. Intention to treat analysis will be used for assessing the impact of HERrespect, comparing the intervention and control factories. DISCUSSION:To our knowledge this is the first study that seeks to evaluate the impact on IPV and WPV, of group sessions with female workers, male workers, and management; factory-wide campaigns and a community intervention among female garment workers in Bangladesh. Apart from informing programmers and policy makers about intervention effectiveness in reducing IPV and WPV against female garment workers this study will also present evidence on an intervention tailored to the situation in the garment sector, which makes HERrespect scalable. TRIAL REGISTRATION:ClinicalTrials.gov NCT03304015, retrospectively registered on October 06, 2017.

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Project description:BackgroundThe prevalence of intimate partner violence (IPV) is high (54%) in Bangladesh. Moreover, female garment workers report higher rates of IPV and are also vulnerable to workplace violence (WPV). Experience of violence puts women at increased risk of developing depressive symptoms, which are related with low self-esteem, lower life satisfaction and lower productivity. To our knowledge, there has been no previous research on depression among female garment workers and its connections to IPV and WPV in Bangladesh. This paper aims to address this gap by studying the relationship of IPV, WPV and depression among female garment workers.MethodsThe data for this paper comes from a cross-sectional survey of female garment workers (n = 800) conducted as baseline survey of a quasi-experimental study known as HERrespect. Survey data were collected during September-December, 2016 among randomly selected female garment workers from eight garment factories in and around Dhaka city. Structural equation modelling was conducted to explore the relationship among IPV, WPV and depression.ResultsThe findings show high rates of any IPV (69%); WPV (73%, experienced or witnessed) and depressive symptomatology (40%) among female garment workers. The analysis of pathways shows that IPV impacts a woman's experience of WPV and work related stress leading to the development of depression; while WPV had direct and mediated pathways to depression. Experience of controlling by their husband leads to WPV and increased work related stress, and thus leads to depression. It also reveals that a worker's ability to mobilize resources in emergency, however, increased self-esteem and reduced work related stress.ConclusionThis study shows the pathways through which experience of IPV and WPV lead to development of depressive symptoms among female garment workers. The link between women's ability to mobilize resources with self-esteem and work related stress indicates the need for socio-economic empowerment of women and may suggest that combined intervention to address IPV and women's empowerment could be successful in dealing with WPV and mental health.

Project description:BackgroundThe ready-made garment (RMG) sector is a significant contributor to the economic growth of Bangladesh, accounting for 10% of the country's GDP and more than 80% of its foreign exchange earnings. The workforce in this sector is predominantly made up of women, with 2.5 million women working in the industry. However, these women face numerous challenges in carrying out their culturally-expected household responsibilities, including childcare, due to severe resource constraints. As a result, the children of these working women have a higher incidence of malnutrition, particularly stunted growth. This study aims to identify the factors that contribute to stunting in children under the age of five whose mothers work in the RMG sector in Bangladesh.MethodsThe study collected data from 267 female RMG workers in the Gazipur district of Bangladesh using a simple random sampling technique. Chi-square tests were used to determine the associations between the factors influencing child stunting, and Multinomial Logit Models were used to estimate the prevalence of these factors.ResultsThe study found that the prevalence of moderate and severe stunting among the children of RMG workers living in the Gazipur RMG hub was 19% and 20%, respectively. The study identified several significant predictors of child stunting, including the mother's education level, nutritional knowledge, control over resources, receipt of antenatal care, household size, sanitation facilities, and childbirth weight. The study found that improving the mother's education level, increasing household size, and receiving antenatal care during pregnancy were important factors in reducing the likelihood of child stunting. For example, if a mother's education level increased from no education to primary or secondary level, the child would be 0.211 (0.071-0.627) and 0.384 (0.138-1.065) times more likely to have a normal weight and height, respectively, than to be moderately stunted.ConclusionThe study highlights the challenges faced by working women in the RMG sector, who often receive minimal wages and have limited access to antenatal care services. To address these challenges, the study recommends policies that support antenatal care for working-class mothers, provide daycare facilities for their children, and implement a comprehensive social safety net program that targets child nutrition. Improving the socioeconomic status of mothers is also critical to reducing child malnutrition in this population.

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Dataset Information

Sewing shirts with injured fingers and tears: exploring the experience of female garment workers health problems in Bangladesh.

Background

Methods

Results

Conclusion

Publications

Sewing shirts with injured fingers and tears: exploring the experience of female garment workers health problems in Bangladesh.

Similar Datasets

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