Journal Article

Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://hdl.handle.net/10361/15707

Browse

Now showing 1 - 4 of 4

Washrooms for the workers in apparel factories in Bangladesh
(Toilet Conference, 2025-02-25) Shajahan, Sadril; Islam, Md. Faizul; Mostofa, Md. Golam; Nourin, Sabrina
This study examines to what extent apparel factories in Bangladesh provide separate washroom facilities to the workers as provisioned in Bangladesh Labor Law and what are the gender dimensions of providing washroom facilities to the workers of Bangladesh apparel industry. The objective of the study is to use firm-level data for providing insights on washroom facilities of RMG workers which can be leveraged by the stakeholders to provide relevant health interventions to apparel workers in Bangladesh, the country which is the second largest apparel producer in the world followed by China. Using the database of Mapped in Bangladesh (MiB) project as developed by Centre for Entrepreneurship Development of BRAC University, this study shows how gender-separated washroom facilities in RMG factories vary in terms of percentages of women workers in those factories. By conducting factory census and interviewing factory respondents, MiB has mapped more than 3700 factories in Bangladesh till November 2024 and has published environmental, social and governance (ESG) data to enhance transparency and traceability across apparel supply chain and to enable accountability among stakeholders. According to MiB, the current female to male gender ratio of workers in Bangladesh apparel factories is 58:42 meaning 58% of the workers are female while 42% of workers are male. Correlating the percentages of female workers with the data on washroom facilities in factories as collected by MiB, this study finds that those factories having lower percentages of female workers (below 30%) also have comparatively lower percentages of gender-separated washroom facilities. Percentages of factories with gender-specific washrooms increase if percentages of female workers remain within the ranges of 40% to 50% and 50% to 60%. Considering the factories with higher percentages of female workers within the range of 60% to 70% or more than 70%, it can be observed that percentages of factories with gender specific washrooms drop again compared to factories having female workers within the ranges of 40% to 50% and 50% to 60%. Thus, the study also finds future research direction to explain these data based on qualitative evidence which can be collected from factory management and workers and can be connected with gender and health issues of female workers of apparel factories. In this research, descriptive statistics were employed to summarize and analyze the characteristics of the dataset. The statistical measures used in the study are frequency distribution and measure of dispersion. These statistical measures provided a clear and concise understanding of the data's structure, enabling the identification of trends and anomalies. All analyses were performed using Excel, ensuring accuracy and reliability. However, the limitation of the study remains for not identifying causative factors which could explain the relation between the percentage of female workers and gender-separated washroom facilities in the RMG factories of Bangladesh.The study calls for further analysis to show gender-separated washrooms can vary in terms of factory types, factory size, and factory locations. The study also recommends for data-driven advocacy with participation of stakeholders and for establishing robust regulations to ensure gender-separated washroom facilities. With the aims to gather literature and evidence on how order deadlines and excessive production targets that can deny workers to have enough washroom breaks, the study envisions the usage of MiB map for possible health interventions from factory level to the community level.
Unboxing the Ready Made Garments (RMG) sector of Bangladesh
(International journal of research in business and social science, 2021-12) Fahim S., Chowdhury; Sadril, Shajahan
The ready-made garments (RMG) sector of Bangladesh has developed immensely under the broad radar of the export market, and its size is beyond imagination. Unfortunately, there has been no study that explores the whole universe of the RMG sector of Bangladesh rather the story of the RMG sector often involves the export market only. The discussion of this paper intends to explore the methodology of unboxing the whole universe of the RMG sector of Bangladesh that includes small and medium-sized manufacturing and processing units that are often involved with subcontracting for other factories (producing for the export market as well as domestic market), are suppliers of the domestic market, are producers of accessories, and are providing backward linkages and associated services. The discussion addresses that along with export-oriented RMG factories there exists an unexplored and unboxed universe of manufacturing and processing units associated with the RMG sector of Bangladesh that contributes to investment, employment, trade, export, and the economy as a whole, all of which remains unaccounted for.
Renewable energy and Bangladesh RMG industry: an exploration on the rooftop solar adoption of RMG factories in the digital platform of mapped in Bangladesh
(2024-02) Shajahan, Sadril; Islam, Md. Faizul; Mostofa, Md. Golam; Roy, Aishwarja
In response to the knowledge gap on solar adoption in RMG factories in Bangladesh, this study pursues the research question to what extent RMG factories in Bangladesh have adopted renewable energy. The study demonstrates the solar panel adoption of RMG based on the factory data of Dhaka district of the Mapped in Bangladesh (MiB), which is a digital platform to showcase information of export oriented RMG factories in all over Bangladesh in order to enable transparency and accountability in Bangladesh RMG sector. The quantitative analysis of the study identifies several features of solar adoption among RMG factories that include large factories are ahead of other types of RMG factories (micro, small and medium) in terms of using solar panels and factories located in standalone building tend to have greater solar adoption than RMG factories located in shared building. Moreover, it has been found in the study that woven factories have more solar adoption than other type of factories. Understanding the solar adoption of RMG industry through this study can aid the policy makers and stakeholders to rethink the renewable energy related interventions at policy level as well as at the firm level of Bangladesh RMG industry. Furthermore, such study can provide future research directions on issues related to renewable energy and Bangladesh RMG industry.
The Ready Made Garments (RMG) workers’ gender ratio in Bangladesh: the case of Mapped in Bangladesh (MiB)
(International journal of research in business and social science, 2021-11-07) Sadril Shajahan, MD.; Islam, Md. Faizul; Choudhury, Afshana; Ahmad, Faria; Chowdhury, Fahim S.
It has been widely acknowledged that female workers account for 80% of the Ready Made Garments (RMG) industry’s workforce in Bangladesh but a number of studies estimated different male to female workers’ ratios ranging from 35: 65 to 55:45. To contribute to such debate, this paper leverage the data of ‘Mapped in Bangladesh’ (MiB) project. While the objective of the MiB project is to enable transparency and accountability in the RMG sector by providing the industry stakeholders accurate, updated and authentic factory data collected through factory census method and published in a digital map; this paper aims to shed light on the male to female ratio of workers employed in the RMG factories of Bangladesh is not 20:80, but it is 42:58 according to the findings from MiB data. Presenting such data, the study seeks to discuss how factory issues can influence the gender composition of RMG Workers. These issues such as factory locations, factory type, factory size and production sections are important to understand the

Browse

Recent Submissions