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

Gender dimensions of labour migration in Dhaka city’s formal manufacturing sector
in the absence of public education campaigns on the spread and
prevention of STDs and HIV/AIDS.
V. Policy implications
The above discussion on migrant women workers’ coping
mechanisms in the urban labour market and society suggests some
important areas for policy interventions. One area is housing and
shelter, including the efficient delivery of basic amenities. Public sector
housing so far has provided only 1 per cent of the urban housing
needs. Hence, the informal private sector provides the bulk of housing
needs, while the formal private sector is confined to upper-middle
and high-income housing. There is only one hostel for working women
run by the Department of Women’s Affairs for the middle-class
working women of Dhaka city. At a very limited scale, Nari Uddyog
Kendra (NUK) started hostel schemes for low-income female garment
factory workers. It has two rented structures accommodating a total
of 200 women with facilities of food, education, skills development
and recreation. However, as it charges Tk 700 (Tk 300 for food and
Tk 400 for room rent), it is not often affordable by helpers or
unskilled production workers in garment factories who earn Tk 500
per month, on average. During field work it was observed that helpers
are the most transient category, and are often denied accommodation
by their relatives, on account of inadequate monetary contribution.
Hence, they have to move from one relative to the other in search of a
house or look for a steady co-worker or single working cousin to live
in sub-let arrangements. Thus, while there is a general need for lowincome
housing in urban areas, low-cost hostel facilities for working
women, particularly unskilled garment factory workers, demand
urgent policy intervention.
Often planners and policy makers are hesitant to develop lowcost
housing, fearing that this might “pull” more migrants from rural
to urban areas. Hence, many governments in developing countries
(e.g. Bangladesh) try to discourage migration by adopting resettlement
policy in urban areas and diverting investment for rural development.
Such policies do not necessarily prevent rural-urban migration. For
example, in India out-migration is higher from those districts that
have better agricultural performance. Similarly in Ecuador, efforts to
improve living conditions through integrated rural development have
been successful, but fail to reduce rural-urban migration significantly.
Values generated by modernization and increased aspirations cannot
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