Women's Employment - United Nations Research Institute for Social ...

Gender dimensions of labour migration in Dhaka city’s formal manufacturing sector
of their income for their own treatment in cases of illness as well as
that of other family members. Moreover, spending on clothing,
sandals, cosmetics, transport and tiffin amounts to about 10 per cent
of their total expenditures. Hence, women often find they have to
borrow from their co-workers, relatives and friends in order to meet
their overall expenditures. The irregularity and, in some cases, nonpayment
of wages exacerbates the problems of indebtedness. Women
workers of garment factories are in a more disadvantaged position in
this regard than are male workers, who have greater opportunities to
augment their income through acquiring higher skills or part-time
jobs because of their greater scope for mobility and lesser burden of
household chores.
The study also provided some insight into how remittances form
part of the family livelihood strategy. The majority of remitters (more
than 90 per cent) sent money for both family maintenance and
education of siblings (Table 14). This finding is consistent with studies
from other countries which demonstrate that consumption
expenditure alone constitutes between 80 and 90 percent of poorer
migrants’ remittances (Afsar, 1995:260; Connell et al., 1976:98;
Prakash, 1978:110; Hugo, 1978:273). In a country like Bangladesh,
where half of rural households fall below the poverty line, the priority
placed on consumption expenditure can be viewed as consonant with
the “basic needs” approach to development without which the families
of migrants would have been worse off (1995: 260). Remittances sent
by sample respondents for both family maintenance and education
can be seen as making a positive contribution to achieving sustainable
development through investment in human resources. It suggests that
labour migration is not only adopted as a strategy for individual
income maximization, but also to strengthen the human resource base
of the sending families.
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