Health Impact of Women's Wage Employment: A Case Study of the Garment Industry of Bangladesh

Pratima Paul Majumder
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Pratima Paul Majumder: Senior Research Fellow, Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies (BIDS)

Bangladesh Development Studies, 1996, vol. 24, issue 1-2, 59-102

Abstract: This paper has analysed the impact of women's wage employment on their health. The analysis in the paper shows that the female workers employed in the garment industry of Bangladesh had to pay a high price in terms of ill health to acquire a socio-economic status in the society with their wage employment. A large number of female workers suffered from various illnesses after starting work in the garment industry in spite of the fact that due to wage employment they could afford to buy better food and better accommodation which have a positive impact on health. This is mainly due to overwork, incongenial working conditions and above all because of wide-ranging labour law violations. A bi-variate analysis and a multivariate regression analysis of the determinants of workers' health status shows that gender is a significant variable in this context. The result of the regression analysis further shows that work hour exerts the largest negative influence on the relative probability of having good health. Grave concerns have also been expressed in this paper about the negative impact of garment work on female workers' mental health. Finally, the paper suggests that the introduction of a twoshift working system, the implementation of labour laws regarding employing a qualified medical practitioner and installing fire fighting equipment and the introduction of health insurance and health education programmes would ease the health problems of the female garment workers.

Keywords: Factories; Working women; Clothing; Development studies; Commuting; Headache; Work hours; Workplaces (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: A12 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 1996
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ris:badest:0352

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