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An icddr,b study on Wednesday showed that Covid-19 severely affected women working in factories and living in slums, unveiling loopholes in health services.
The Covid-19 pandemic has directly affected the health of women and men, as well as 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 hit hard.
The intervention demonstrated significant improvements in various areas, it added.
icddr,b, in collaboration with the Institute of Epidemiology, Disease Control and Research (IEDCR), the health ministry, and SickKids, Canada, with funding support from the International Development Research Centre IDRC, Canada, hosted the research.
The research findings were revealed at a seminar titled "Strengthening Systems for Pandemic Preparedness among Working Women Living in Informal Settlements in Urban Bangladesh" held at the icddr,b headquarters in the city.
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 and its recovery.
Conducted across icddr,b's Urban Health and Demographic Surveillance System UHDSS sites in Dhaka and Gazipur, and six selected ready-made garment factories located 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 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 refining and embellishing 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 for formal sector workers and 19.60 per cent for informal sector workers.
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