This sector employed a large proportion of women, which in turn helped in the socio-economic development of the country. Although a significant proportion of garment workers in Bangladesh are young women, few studies have been conducted to date examining their nutritional status and personal hygiene practices.
Aims and Objectives
General Objective
During pregnancy, it is also associated with increased maternal morbidity and mortality, low birth weight, preterm birth, and increased fetal and neonatal death (Black et al., 2013). Therefore, we need to conduct this research considering the nutritional status and personal hygiene practices of women garment workers in Bangladesh.
Specific Objectives
2 Weight, anemia and micronutrient deficiencies are associated with many negative health consequences, such as cognitive problems, reduced work capacity and immunodeficiency responses leading to reduced resistance to infections (WHO, 2001). A recent survey of teenagers in garment factories revealed surprisingly lower energy consumption (27%) than WHO/FAO recommendations (Karim, 1993).
Background Information about Bangladesh
Geography and Population
Socio-economic Situation
The most common source of drinking water in urban areas is a well or tubular well (67 percent), followed by water piped through the house (14 percent), water piped into the yard or plot (9 percent) and a public or vertical crane. pipe (8 percent) (NIPORT et al., 2016). According to NIPORT et al., (2016) the completion rate of secondary or higher education among men and women has generally increased.
Health and Health Care System
Completion of secondary or higher education and the level of education achieved are higher in cities than in rural areas.
Garments industry in Bangladesh
Contribution of Garments Industry in Bangladesh Economy
Participation of Woman in Garments Sector
A few years ago it was quite difficult to find a woman in the workplace, but today it has become a common trend to earn money and contribute to the family as a male member of the family. However, this trend also maximizes their freedom and independence, as they easily contribute to the family and the economy as a whole.
Nutrition Situation in Bangladesh
- Nutritional Status of Bangladeshi Women
- Macronutrient malnutrition
- Poverty and Nutrition
- Socialization and Female Nutrition
- Conditions of the Garments Worker
- Nutritional Status of Female Garment Worker
- Poverty and Health Status of Garment Workers
- Socio-Economic Characteristics of Women Garments Workers
Migration: About 83 percent of women workers in the garment sector are rural to urban migrants (Paul et al., 2000). Rural poverty drives them to Dhaka city to find work in the garment sector (after 2000).
Personal hygiene practices female workers
Living conditions: About 90 percent of garment workers live in slums and squatters in Dhaka city (after 2000, www.nadir.org).
Causes associated with malnutrition
Food insecurity and dietary intake
Food security refers to all people's access at all times to sufficient food for an active and healthy life (Nord et al. 2009). Depending on the classifications obtained with the USDA Food Security Survey, a family with food security may also be classified as high food security or marginal food security. Low food security (LFS) or very low food security (VLFS) food insecurity are two categories of food insecurity.
Marginal food security One or two reported indications - typically of anxiety about food sufficiency or shortage of food in the home. Very low food security Reports of multiple indications of disturbed eating patterns and reduced food intake. He experienced food insecurity at least a few times during that year, of which 5.4 percent experienced VLFS (Coleman-Jensen et al. 2010).
Members of families with very low food security may experience hunger because they cannot afford enough food. 15 A constant link between food insecurity and poor health has been demonstrated in a large number of publications. Several studies have shown that people living in food insecure families are more likely to report poor physical and mental health than those living in food secure families (Stuff et al. 2004).
Current situation Water and Sanitation
The benefits of access to a better source of drinking water can only be fully realized when there is also access to improved sanitation and adherence to good hygiene practices. Beyond the immediate and obvious benefits of people being hydrated and healthier, access to water, sanitation and hygiene, collectively known as WASH, has profound and wider socio-economic impacts, particularly for women and girls. Access to drinking water and sanitation are indeed human rights, as recognized in 2010 by the United Nations General Assembly.
The impact on infant mortality rates is devastating with over 297,000 children under the age of five dying each year from diarrheal diseases due to lack of sanitation, lack of sanitation or unsafe drinking water. Over half of the world's population or 4.2 billion people do not have safe sanitation (WHO/UNICEF, 2019). Worldwide at least 2 billion people use a people who use a source of drinking water contaminated with feces (WHO/ . UNICEF, 2019).
Children under the age of 5 in countries experiencing protracted conflict are 20 times more likely to die from unsafe water and sanitation than from direct violence (UNICEF, 2019). Productivity loss due to water and sanitation-related diseases costs many countries up to 5% of GDP (WHO, 2012). Universal access to safe drinking water and adequate sanitation and hygiene would reduce the overall burden of disease by 10% (WHO, 2012).
Nutritional status of garment workers in Bangladesh
Most interviewees (53.6%) reported learning about personal hygiene on television; 45.8% of interviewees understood that using safe water in any job counts as hygiene. The hemoglobin level of workers was very low (33.7% of workers had mild anemia, 59.8% had moderate anemia and 6.5% had severe anemia) compared to the national prevalence of anemia. Moreover, the workers' nutritional knowledge was not at a satisfactory level; only 15% of workers had adequate nutritional knowledge.
The observations of this study show that ready-made garments (RMG) made the largest gains in exports to Bangladesh, which has 4,825 garment factories, employing over three million people, of whom 85% of the workers are women. The RMG industry is considered the backbone of the country's economy while playing an important role in the socio-economic well-being of many people at the back door. The most notable feature of this sector is its heavy use of working women; it is estimated that between 70 and 80% of people working in the sector are women (Riaduzzaman, 2017).
In 2015, Hossain studied the perception and practice of eating habits and nutritional status of adolescent girls: a comparative study between garment workers and school-going girls. This study reported that sixty-five percent of girls were short (height for age, <3 percentile of NCHS reference values). About 17% of girls were thin (BMI for age . <5 percentile of NCHS reference values).
Study Area and Period
Sample Size
Data Collection instrument
The respondents were interviewed personally and the questionnaires were filled in by the interviewer based on the response of the respondents. From the number of factors influencing socio-economic conditions, the following factors were selected respectively from each condition for the purpose of the study: age and marital status, family members and earning members, level of education, dietary information, sources of drinking water, washing hands with soap after going to the toilet, use pad during menstruation etc.
Anthropometric Measurements
Weight
Height
BMI
Biochemical Analysis
Personal Hygiene Assessment
Statistical Analysis
The nutritional status and personal hygiene practices of female garment workers are shown by body mass index, hemoglobin level, blood pressure, sources of drinking water, purification of water, washing hands with soap, use of sanitary napkins during menstruation etc. Finally, the associations of nutritional status and personal hygiene with different variables using one-way ANOVA and Chi-square test.
Socio-demographic Characteristics of female garments workers
26 4.2 Nutritional and Biochemical Characteristics of Female Garment Workers 4.2.1 Body Mass Index (BMI): It reveals that as indicated in Table 4.2, BMI was four.
Nutritional and Biochemical Characteristics of female garments workers
Personal hygiene practices of female garments workers
Associated factors of nutritional status
The result revealed that body mass index was statistically significant (p<0.028) with blood pressure of respondents. Another variable such as hemoglobin level was not significantly (p>0.05) associated with body mass index.
Association of sociodemographic characteristics with personal hygiene
The result showed that types of latrines were not statistically significant (p>0.05) with education level, father's occupation, mother's occupation, husband's occupation, monthly family income, etc.
Socio-demographic Characteristics of female garments workers
Nutritional and Biochemical Characteristics of female garments workers
38 reported a similar prevalence of underweight (36%) among garment workers in Cambodia in 2013 according to a small cross-sectional study (McMullen, 2016). In contrast, a recent International Labor Organization (ILO) study conducted in several Cambodian factories found a significantly lower prevalence of 14.3% of underweight among female workers, who were mainly married and therefore older (ILO, 2016). In contrast, a cross-sectional study of 1530 Vietnamese women of reproductive age reported positive associations between BMI and Hb level (Laillou, 2014).
Personal hygiene practices of female garments workers
Associated factors of nutritional status
39 The relationship between education level and BMI, it was found that 2.52% of women educated at primary level were underweight, 43.53% were normal weight, 42.81% were pre-obese and only 11.15% were overweight. After father's occupation, mother's occupation, family types, marital status, husband's occupation, monthly family income (taka), own monthly income (taka) and monthly family expenditure (taka) were not statistically significant significant (p>0.05) between them and most of them were normal weighted. Biochemical correlation and body mass index revealed that only blood pressure is statistically significant.
Associated factors of sociodemographic characteristics with personal hygiene
The information gathered and discussed in the needs assessment report clearly shows the need and extreme importance of this problem to be developed to address the nutritional status of women garment workers. The aim of the current women's development policy is to improve the socio-economic conditions of the disadvantaged women's community in Bangladesh. The amount of the salary must be determined in accordance with the market price of the goods.
Assessment of nutritional status and food intake pattern of the selected adolescent female industrial workers in Bangladesh. Nutritional status, personal hygiene and health-seeking behavior of the employees of British American Tobacco Company, Dhaka, Bangladesh.Bangladesh Journal of Bioethics. 1996. Prospects of Health and Nutrition Interventions in Small Farmers and Landless Workers Development Project (SFDP) Activities. The Journal of Rural Development.26 (1).
Nutritional status of young women working in an urban garment factory. Empowerment, a magazine by Women for Women. The Dynamics of Wage Employment: The Case of Employment in the Garment Industry. Bangladesh Development Studies. Gender imbalance in export-oriented industries in Bangladesh. Network for Poverty Reduction and Economic Governance. The World Bank.
Pre-structured Questionnaire
