M Monir Uddin, PhD:More than 4.3 million workers are directly employed in more than 4,600 factories in Bangladesh's ready-made garment sector (Labour Force Survey 2022). More than 84 percent of the country's total export earnings come from this garment industry, where garment factory workers make a direct contribution. Due to this contribution of garment workers, Bangladesh has been recognized as the second largest garment exporter in the world in terms of exports.
According to recent statistics, 55-56 percent of the workers working in the country's garment factories are women, whose tireless work is expanding the country's garment industry. More than 85 percent of these women workers suffer from malnutrition and reproductive health problems, with only a few having access to proper health care. Chronic diseases and nutrition-related problems include gastrointestinal problems (25 percent), anaemia (19 percent), high blood pressure (11.9 percent), and diabetes. Malnutrition is widespread due to low wages and inability to buy nutritious food.
More than 85 percent of female workers face reproductive health problems, which are often ignored. Most workers rely on low-cost, informal (local medical assistant) treatment for medical treatment. GAIN Bangladesh is working to make workers in several garment factories in Savar, Tongi, and Chittagong aware of their health and to educate them about the importance of consuming nutritious foods that are easily available and affordable.
Since 2019, GAIN Bangladesh, with the financial support of Auchan Foundation and VF Foundation, has been working on a project called Strengthening Workers’ Access to Pertinent Nutrition Opportunities (SWAPNO) to eliminate malnutrition and facilitate nutrition services for garment workers in Savar of Dhaka district, Narayanganj, Gazipur and Chittagong districts, and to create a climate-friendly working environment for workers and ensure healthy housing in the changing context of climate change. At the beginning of the project, GAIN officials established close contact with certain garment factory owners and agreed to maintain the physical fitness of the factory workers and eliminate their nutritional deficiencies. Many garment workers often fall ill due to climate change and lack of proper nutrition, which reduces their attendance at work and as a result, not only does the factory's production decrease, but the income of the workers also decreases.
In this situation, the factory owners involved 100 peer educators from their factories with the GAIN Bangladesh SWAPNO Project. Through the SWAPNO Project, a few workers working in the factory are selected based on their skills and comprehensively trained in nutrition. They are called as “Pusti Bondhu” in the factory. Pusti Bondhu is trained and made skilled so that a worker can easily fulfil the nutritional needs of his/her body by choosing a variety of foods in the daily menu within his/her means.
After the Pusti Bondhu are thoroughly trained, each Pusti Bondhu trains 25 of his/her colleagues in a batch. This training is provided during the workers' break so that there is no disruption to their work and the factory's production is not disrupted. At the same time, the officials of the SWAPNO project and the project's associate partner NGO workers also bring all the workers involved in preparing various types of food in the factory canteen under training so that they can prepare nutritious food items by following the correct cooking process. In this way, through training, all the workers of the specific garment factories become aware of nutrition and health and become interested in consuming nutritious food. Also, nutritious food is easily available in the factory canteens.
Through consultation with the SWAPNO Project and the factory owners, a fair price shop is set up inside each factory where various nutritious food items including other essential goods are sold to the factory workers at a price lower than the normal market price. Not only that, but the workers can also get their required food items from this fair price shop throughout the month. At the end of the month, the factory authorities deduct the remaining money from the shop and pay the workers' salaries, and the fair price shop easily gets the money due to the workers from the factory authorities. Thus, till date, about 50,721 workers are collecting their required food items from this fair price shop.
In addition, through the SWAPNO project, a community Pusti center is set up around each factory. This community Pusti center is set up with a grocery store selling food products and these stores have this community Pusti center. Every Friday, a trained Pusti Apa sits in this community center and provides primary healthcare to the community people free of cost, including BMI and blood pressure measurements, as well as nutritional counselling. It is worth mentioning here that under the SWAPNO project, a fair price shop was first started in a factory on a trial basis in 2021 and a community Pusti center was opened in 2022. As the fair price shop and community nutrition center were successfully running within a few days, it was gradually started in 6 factories.
Savar and Tongi are highly populated industrial areas where millions of workers live. Due to the impact of climate change, in this densely populated area, extreme temperatures cause dizziness, fatigue, fever, vomiting and heat stroke, air pollution causes shortness of breath, asthma, irregular and excessive rainfall leads to local waterlogging, skin diseases, itching, diarrhea and stomach diseases due to water pollution, due to which garment workers often fall ill, resulting in reduced income due to absenteeism from work and increasing medical expenses. Considering these, through the CALL project, Pusti Bondhu have been trained on how to cope with the health problems that have arisen in the garment workers' community due to climate change and how to get rid of climate-related health risks.
Pushti bondhu is organizing a campaign at the local community level and providing detailed advice on how to adapt to the adverse effects of climate change, which includes:
Dos and preventive measures:
At the personal level
- Drink plenty of water, drink lemon water if possible, wear light clothes in the heat.
- Rest in a shaded or cool place.
- Use mosquito nets to avoid mosquito bites, keep your home clean.
- Clean plastic waste and water accumulated around the house every day.
- Wash hands with soap before eating and after using the toilet.
- Do not drink contaminated food or untreated water.
- Get regular rest and light exercise to reduce stress.
At the community level
Keep drains and canals clean so that water does not accumulate.
- Dispose of waste from factories and residential areas at designated places.
- Keep in touch with local health workers and environmental activists.
- Take eco-friendly initiatives, plant trees, reduce plastic use.
- Participate in awareness meetings and cleanliness drives.
A study by the SWAPNO project shows that the joint implementation of the above various activities has improved the nutritional status of factory workers and as a result, their attendance rate in the factory has increased due to reduced physical illness, which on the one hand has brought back the pace of factory production and increased the average income of the workers. In the context of climate change, workers have become much more aware of their personal and community level adaptation and above all, the implementation of various activities of the SWAPNO and CALL project and the cooperation of the factory authorities have improved the quality of life of the factory workers. If such initiatives can be taken in all garment factories in the country, the workers' health will improve as malnutrition-related illnesses are eliminated, the factories' production capacity will increase, and the workers' income will increase, which will contribute to improving the quality of life of all workers.
Writer: Project Coordinator
Climate Action at Local Level (CALL) Project, GAIN Bangladesh
