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

Gender dimensions of labour migration in Dhaka city’s formal manufacturing sector
support, as opposed to approximately 60 per cent of their counterparts
in other manufacturing units. A large number of the latter group
(nearly two fifths) depend on domestic maids to look after their
children. Male workers, on the contrary, depend overwhelmingly on
family members for childcare. The lack of childcare facilities in many
of the emerging mega cities poses a big problem for women’s
employment outside the home and for their occupational mobility. It
cannot be assumed that families will continue to provide such services.
Regarding the problem of theft, which is a major concern in urban
Bangladesh, nearly 10 per cent of female garment factory workers, as
opposed to 20 per cent of their male counterparts experienced theft
in their place of residence while out for work. Incidence of theft is
even higher in the case of male workers of other manufacturing units
than their female counterparts. In the absence of responsible family
members and relatives, who can look after the house during working
hours, male workers who live in mess are more susceptible to theft
than female workers.
In meeting their day to day needs and those of their families,
female garment factory workers face intense competition. A large
number of helpers (unskilled workers) and operators (skilled workers)
live in low rental accommodations, where they have to share latrines
and bathrooms with 16 to 22 boarders on average and cooking gas
burners or heaters with 10 to 15 families. In the city proper (Karailer
Math in Mahakhali and Kalapani area in Mirpur) they live in high
room crowding with an area of nearly 3 square metres for each person
in a semi-durable type of structure at the cost of Tk 600 per month,
which constitutes nearly a half and the total salary of the operators
and helpers respectively (Afsar, 1998a). Here they share two or three
latrines and five or six gas burners or heaters with 10-15 families.
These arrangements make them vulnerable to pay cuts as they are
often 10-15 minutes late in arriving for work. They generally lack
cemented bathrooms or a covered space and running water facilities
for bathing. 13 Not only do workers have to pay for collecting water
from the few tubewells that are found in the area, but time travelling
to these wells further increases women’s existing workloads.
As the first generation of workers in a metropolis that is poorly
planned and equipped with cost-effective amenities to meet the needs
of the poor, female garment factory workers would appear to pay a
higher price to surmount the odds in the settlement process than do
their male counterparts. Nonetheless, they seem to be surviving
relatively well in the highly competitive formal sector and have
achieved the status of independent earners. This was unthinkable for
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