https://imcjms.com/public Ibrahim Medical College Journal of Medical Science https://imcjms.com/public/registration/journal_full_text/17 Tue, 02 Aug 2016 08:11:43 +0000 Ibrahim Med. Coll. J. 2008; 2(1): 4-8 Key words: health care, supply-side effect, access, productivity. Address for Correspondence: Md Aminul Haque, Assistant Professor, Department of Population Sciences, University of Dhaka     The growth of export in the Ready Made Garment (RMG) sector from 1993 to 2004 showed that in 1993 it amounted to 61.4 percent of the country’s total export income, and by 2004 it was 78.05 percent. This indicates how rapidly the export of the RMG has grown4,5. In between this period, the level of employment has increased from some 10,000 to approximately 1.5 million today with a simultaneous increase in the manufacturing industry. As such, it was felt relevant to evaluate the overall health conditions of the female garments workers in Bangladesh as well as the health-care access to find out the relationship between the health care facilities of the female workers and its effects on overall productivity. Materials and Methods A semi-structured questionnaire was used for collecting information on the garment workers. It consisted of different sections, namely, socio-demographic, economic, health care facilities and access, unit production of garment pieces. Questions with predictable possible answers were pre-coded while some questions were kept open to get in-depth views of the respondents on several issues. The female workers working in different types of garment factories in Dhaka, Chittagong, Narayanganj and other districts of Bangladesh were selected. The working pattern and environment were similar in the garment factories of all districts. The types of the Garment Factories (GF) were knitting, dyeing, finishing etc. There are 3000 listed (approximate) GF in Dhaka city. The GF were selected randomly. The required numbers of female workers were selected by using the lottery method. A total of 300 female workers were randomly selected, which was taken from 1300 female workers out of four GFs.  Data cleaning, validation and analysis were performed using the SPSS software. Results In Dhaka, respondents came from all over the country, highest (16.3%) being from Barisal, age ranged from 15 to 19 years (56.0%) and 59.3% were in the unmarried adolescent group, mostly (58.4%) with primary education perhaps as a consequence to the Bangladesh Government’s free female education policy. About half (53.7%) of the respondents had to take care of their parents and brother/sister (49.0%). They also were taking care of the husband, father and mother  in-law, mother, children, husband and father (14.3%). The average income of the respondent was Taka 1791 ranging from Taka 900 to 3800 (Table-1). Table-1: Distribution of the respondents by monthly income No. of respondents £ 1000 13.7 49 1501-2000 51.7 55   Half of the respondents had 1501 to 2000 taka monthly income followed by 1 of 5 with more than Tk 2001. Almost one third respondents’ income was within 1001 to 1500 taka or less. The lowest income of the respondent was Tk 900 and the highest income of one respondent was Tk 3800 per month. Most respondents (62.3%) lived with their relatives and majority of the respondents (76.4%) (> 5 persons in a room) lived in polluted housing conditions, which are harmful for women, particularly those in their adolescence. It was observed that the respondents woke up very early in the morning (5:00 to 6:00 AM) and were busy until 12:00 midnight. It implies that the respondent’s life style was always under pressure and strenuous for their health. A total of three categories of garment jobs were included and among them 64.7% were found in the sewing section which was hard work and prone to sickness. Other sections were the finishing section (21.3%) and working as helpers (14.0%). Table 2 showed that the average number of products produced per day by the garment respondents were 1016 pieces ranging from 600 to 1600 pieces. Almost two-thirds (63.6%) of the garments worker produced 1000-1200 pieces per day. The average duration of over time work of the garment respondents was 3.83 hours with a range from 3 to 5 hours and almost all of them (92.6%) had to do over time work up to 4 hours. Table 2: Distribution of the respondents by per day product Frequency <1000 31.1 191 >1200 5.3 300   In this study, 1 of 4 (36.7%) respondents were not sick during the past one month whereas almost 1 of 2 (45.3%) were sick at least one time. Most of the women became sick (one time) in a month and suffered from physical weakness (81.0%), followed by vertigo & headache (49.1%), gastric pain (33.0%), pain in body (27.0%), common cough cold (22.3%), back pain (22.0%) and other diseases (such as  palpitation, frustration, dysentery, asthma, weight loss, holitosis, night sweating, painful eyes and itching). Most of the female workers suffered from physical weakness probably due to poor nutrition. It was observed that 64% of the workers faced abrasion, pricking, hand cutting, and fracture while working in the factories. It is seen in Table 3 that 43.7% respondents receive treatment from pharmacies followed by government hospitals (31.0%), non government hospitals (9.7%), kabiraj (9.3%) and homeopathy (6.0%).  Only savlon and paracetamol (98.0%) were supplied from the factory. There was no provision of doctors and also no provision of health care services to meet any emergency. Only three categories of persons were given some health care facilities at the factory- floor in charge (36.0%), store keeper (34.7%) and supervisor (28.7%). In this study it was found that majority of the respondents mentioned (86.7%) that they had provision of leave during family member’s sickness. The respondent could avail this leave without pay. They did not get any support or allowance during treatment of complicated diseases and emergency treatment of other family members. The respondents had no health education in the GF, no maternity leave, and no provision for breast feeding was available in the working place. Table-3: Distribution of the respondents by healthcare facilities Frequency Pharmacy 43.7 93 Non Govt. Hospital 9.7 28 Homeopathy 6.0 1 Total 100     Figure 2 shows per day hour loss mentioned by the 300 respondents expressed in hours and production loss for illness expressed in pieces. A significant positive correlation was found between hour loss and production loss for illness. The value of Pearson’s correlation coefficient was 0.9283 and it was significant (p<0.001). Therefore, there was a linear association between hour loss and production loss for illness in the study population. Fig-2: Correlation between hour and production loss for illness by the respondents         1.  Health Service Report of Bangladesh Garments Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMES). Dhaka, 2005. 3.  Majumder PP and Begum S. Upward Occupational Mobility Among Female Workers in the Garment Industry of Bangladesh. Research Report No. 153, Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies (BIDS). Dhaka, Bangladesh, 1997. 5.  Survey on Health Status of the Workers Employed in the Garment Sector of Bangladesh. Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies (BIDS). Dhaka. April-August, 1998. 2026 Ibrahim Medical College. All rights reserved.