The women in the country have entered the labor market and service sector defying all the obstacles, barriers and managing their own family. However, this huge number of women faces sufferings in every steps of their work life. Even, in this modern age, many people, including their own family members, don’t see their working outside the homes positively.
The women, who work outside their own home town or village, suffer from the crisis of proper accommodation. The women-friendly transport systems haven’t been ensured yet in Dhaka and other cities. The working women’s problem of going to job stations keeping their small children away has been a problem since many days. Discrimination in salary and sexual harassment in work places are common phenomena for them. Even, they can’t enjoy the maternal period leave in many occasions.
According to the Quarterly Labor Force Survey 2023 report for the fourth quarter (October-December) of Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS), the working manpower in the country is currently 71.1 million. Among them, the number of working men is 4 crore 64 lakh and the number of working women is 2 crore 46 lakh.
Accommodation crisis is evident: A section of working women are married, there are also unmarried ones. They are working in various banks, corporate institutions, NGOs, private institutions, government institutions and educational institutions. They come to Dhaka for jobs and most of them face accommodation problems. Currently there are 9 women's hostels in different parts of the country including Dhaka for working women under the Department of Women Affairs. These are located in Nilkhet, Khilgaon, Mirpur-1, Kaliganj in Gazipur, Bara Ashulia in Savar, Chattogram, Rajshahi, Khulna and Jashore. There are 2, 738 seats in these hostels, which is totally insufficient compared to the total number of working women in the country. As it is unsafe, difficult and expensive for a single woman to rent a house in the divisional cities including the capital, many working women stay together in some private hostels and houses. A woman working in a private company named Arohi, living in a flat in Mirpur DOHS, said, “I work in an office in Motijheel. I have to work till 10 pm in my company. Sometimes it is past 11 pm to return home. But when she returns after 11 o'clock, the doorman talks a lot.”
No women-friendly transport: After accommodation, the second biggest problem of working women is transport. Working women can now be seen riding scooters in many places including the capital Dhaka. These women told The Bangladesh Pratidin that because there is no women-friendly public transport in Dhaka, they are forced to ride the scooty despite the risk of accidents. Some of the working women victims said almost every day they are sexually harassed as soon as they board the public transport. Especially at night, when the bus passengers get off on their way home after work, when they find women alone, there are several incidents of attempted rape. Although there is a rule of reservation of seats for women in the country's public transport, it is not followed in practice. Those concerned say that to prevent harassment of women in public transport, installation of closed circuit (CC) cameras inside it, increasing the number of women-friendly public transport, arranging separate transport for women, making nameplates mentioning the identity of bus drivers, supervisors and assistants mandatory, conducting mobile courts to ensure speedy trial are very much necessary. And public awareness activities should be conducted in this regard.
Inadequate facilities of day-care centers: There are 43 day-care centers across the country, including Dhaka, for the children of working mothers under the Department of Women Affairs. Of these, 6 are in Dhaka and 8 for the lower classes people. There are 13 in the district towns and 5 in divisional cities. And there are 11 more for lower and middle class. But many people are unable to keep children even if they want to because they cannot keep children in these centers for a long time. Working mothers complain that these centers do not have enough manpower and are worried about the care of their children. There are also questions about the quality of food. A garment worker of Mirpur-12 said, "I can't keep my son in day care center as I haven’t sufficient money. I hear many factories now have daycare centers. It would be better if we had.”
Fear of sexual harassment: Working women say that apart from public transport, they are often subjected to sexual harassment at their respective workplaces. For fear of job security and public shame, many face this harassment day after day without complaining about it. If someone protest, she lost her job. No one is spared from this harassment, starting from working women in high positions to factory workers. An office assistant of a multinational company, who did not want to be named, told The Bangladesh Pratidin, "In the office, she often has to endure the unpleasant words and views of his boss. In the night often indecent little messages come from the boss.”
Pay disparity is visible: Pay disparity between working men and women has been happening for a long time. According to women working in high positions, even if there is no pay discrimination, they do not get promoted easily because of being women. As per the rules, maternity leave is supposed to be of six months, but some are forced to join work after two to three months. Working women suffer the most from wage discrimination.
Rozina, a construction worker in Gabtali in the capital, said, "We do the same work as male workers and get Tk 200 to Tk 300 less wages than them. No one wants to employ women workers easily. I am forced to work for low wages.”
Sumaiya Islam, executive director of the Bangladesh Women's Workers Center, said, “The contribution of working women to the economy is not considered significantly. As women are contributing to nation building, so the policy makers of the country should come to the realization about the need of their maternity leave and salary increment. It is important to have safe accommodation for working women everywhere in the city. The actual number of day care centers required for working women in the country is not even close to the necessity. The number of women's hostels in the 1990s has not been developed that much even in 2024. As a result, women are not actually contributing to social development as much as they could have done. The government should pay more attention to the plight of working women at the policy-making level.”
(The report was published on print and online versions of The Bangladesh Pratidin on February 9 and rewritten in English by Lutful Hoque Khan)
