Pandemic severely affected working women in slums and factories: icddr,b study

An icddr,b study released on Wednesday showed that COVID-19 severely affected women working in factories and slums, exposing significant loopholes in health services.

The COVID-19 pandemic directly impacted the health of both women and men, along with maternal, newborn, and child health, nutrition, mental health, and overall well-being, according to the research.

Over 90 per cent of working women in Bangladesh are employed in the informal sector, which was particularly hard-hit.

The intervention demonstrated significant improvements in various areas, the study added.

icddr,b, in collaboration with the Institute of Epidemiology, Disease Control and Research (IEDCR), the Ministry of Health, and SickKids, Canada – with funding support from the International Development Research Centre (IDRC), Canada – conducted the research.

The findings were disseminated at a seminar held at the icddr,b headquarters in Dhaka city, titled "Strengthening Systems for Pandemic Preparedness among Working Women Living in Informal Settlements in Urban Bangladesh."

The event brought together key stakeholders to discuss the findings and policy implications of the Women RISE study.

The Women RISE study, led by Dr Sohana Shafique, employed a sequential mixed-methods implementation research approach to examine the experiences of working women in informal settlements and factories before and during the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as during the recovery phase.

Conducted across icddr,b’s Urban Health and Demographic Surveillance System (UHDSS) sites in Dhaka and Gazipur, and six selected ready-made garment (RMG) factories in Gazipur, the research focused on understanding how gender, work, and health intersect in low-resource urban contexts.

The project applied systems thinking and gender-transformative approaches at the micro, meso, and macro levels to co-create and evaluate a tailored intervention package aimed at strengthening pandemic preparedness.

Dr Tahmeed Ahmed, Executive Director of icddr,b, said, “We should be careful now that the waves of COVID-19 are increasing again, providing us with further opportunities to refine and improve what we have been doing.”

Dr Sohana presented the study’s key findings, highlighting the vulnerabilities faced by working women in slum communities and factories, existing systemic gaps in urban health services, and the positive impact of the targeted interventions.

Knowledge regarding respiratory infection exposure routes increased by 29.59 per cent overall, with a 36.28 per cent rise among informal sector workers. Knowledge of symptoms improved by 24.71 per cent overall, showing a 31.61 per cent increase among formal sector workers and 19.60 per cent among informal sector workers.

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