Washrooms for the workers in apparel factories in Bangladesh

Abstract

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.