Prevalence of Suicide Thoughts and Behaviours among Female Garment Workers Who Survived the Rana Plaza Collapse: An In-Depth Inquiry

Humayun Kabir, Myfanwy Maple, Md Shahidul Islam and Kim Usher
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Humayun Kabir: School of Health, Faculty of Medicine and Health, University of New England, Armidale, NSW 2351, Australia
Myfanwy Maple: School of Health, Faculty of Medicine and Health, University of New England, Armidale, NSW 2351, Australia
Md Shahidul Islam: School of Health, Faculty of Medicine and Health, University of New England, Armidale, NSW 2351, Australia
Kim Usher: School of Health, Faculty of Medicine and Health, University of New England, Armidale, NSW 2351, Australia

IJERPH, 2021, vol. 18, issue 12, 1-15

Abstract: The Rana Plaza building collapse occurred on 24 April 2013 in Savar, near the capital city of Bangladesh, killing more than 1130 garment workers and injured about 2500, mostly females. Those who survived face ongoing challenges, including socio-cultural constraints, economic hardship, post-traumatic stress disorders (PTSD), depression, and critical health issues, which may lead to suicidal ideation and death. The aim of this article is to explore why and how female garment workers who survived the Rana Plaza collapse are now at risk of suicide thoughts and behaviours, and suicide death. Unstructured face-to-face interviews were held from April to July 2018 with 11 female garment workers who survived the Rana Plaza building collapse. Interviews continued until data saturation was reached. The interviews were tape-recorded and transcribed verbatim while simultaneously being translated into English from Bengali/Bangla. Transcripts were coded and thematically analysed. The study found that all participants were living with multiple risk factors of suicidal ideation (including low socio-economic status, poverty, social stigma, psychological distress, and trauma) which the participants directly linked to the collapse of the Rana Plaza building. Our analysis uses the three-step theory of suicide (3ST, Klonsky & May, 2015) to understand female Rana Plaza survivors’ suicide risk. Female survivors’ overall vulnerability requires urgent attention while taking the socio-cultural setting of Bangladesh into account. In addition, a lifelong caring system (combining financial security and free healthcare) needs to be initiated to accommodate the female survivors with mainstream society to avoid possible future suicides. They require long-term social and economic security and psychological support.

Keywords: female garment workers; Rana Plaza collapse; trauma; suicide; Bangladesh; qualitative study (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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