Public lives, private water: female ready-made garment factory workers in peri-urban Bangladesh

In Dhaka city and its fringe peri-urban sprawls water for domestic use is an increasingly contested commodity. The location of our research, Gazipur district, bordering the growing city of Dhaka, is the heartland of Bangladesh’s Ready Made Garments (RMG) industry, which has spread unplanned in forme...

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Autores principales: Joshi, Deepa, Haque, S., Nahar, K., Tania, S., Singh, J., Wallace, T.
Formato: Capítulo de libro
Lenguaje:Inglés
Publicado: Springer 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://hdl.handle.net/10568/117317
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author Joshi, Deepa
Haque, S.
Nahar, K.
Tania, S.
Singh, J.
Wallace, T.
author_browse Haque, S.
Joshi, Deepa
Nahar, K.
Singh, J.
Tania, S.
Wallace, T.
author_facet Joshi, Deepa
Haque, S.
Nahar, K.
Tania, S.
Singh, J.
Wallace, T.
author_sort Joshi, Deepa
collection Repository of Agricultural Research Outputs (CGSpace)
description In Dhaka city and its fringe peri-urban sprawls water for domestic use is an increasingly contested commodity. The location of our research, Gazipur district, bordering the growing city of Dhaka, is the heartland of Bangladesh’s Ready Made Garments (RMG) industry, which has spread unplanned in former wetlands and agrarian belts. However, unlike Dhaka, the almost fully industrialized peri-urban areas bordering the city, like many other such areas globally, function in an institutional vacuum. There are no formal institutional arrangements for water supply or sanitation. In the absence of regulations for mining groundwater for industrial use and weakly enforced norms for effluent discharge, the expansion of the RMG industry and other industries has had a disproportionate environmental impact. In this complex and challenging context, we apply a political economy lens to draw attention to the paradoxical situation of the increasingly “public” lives of poor Bangladeshi women working in large numbers in the RMG industry in situations of increasingly “private” and appropriated water sources in this institutionally liminal peri-urban space. Our findings show that poorly paid work for women in Bangladesh’s RMG industry does not translate to women’s empowerment because, among others, a persisting masculinity and the lack of reliable, appropriate and affordable WASH services make women’s domestic water work responsibilities obligatory and onerous.
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spelling CGSpace1173172023-12-08T19:36:04Z Public lives, private water: female ready-made garment factory workers in peri-urban Bangladesh Joshi, Deepa Haque, S. Nahar, K. Tania, S. Singh, J. Wallace, T. water supply gender equality women factory workers empowerment water, sanitation and hygiene social aspects households domestic water poverty periurban areas In Dhaka city and its fringe peri-urban sprawls water for domestic use is an increasingly contested commodity. The location of our research, Gazipur district, bordering the growing city of Dhaka, is the heartland of Bangladesh’s Ready Made Garments (RMG) industry, which has spread unplanned in former wetlands and agrarian belts. However, unlike Dhaka, the almost fully industrialized peri-urban areas bordering the city, like many other such areas globally, function in an institutional vacuum. There are no formal institutional arrangements for water supply or sanitation. In the absence of regulations for mining groundwater for industrial use and weakly enforced norms for effluent discharge, the expansion of the RMG industry and other industries has had a disproportionate environmental impact. In this complex and challenging context, we apply a political economy lens to draw attention to the paradoxical situation of the increasingly “public” lives of poor Bangladeshi women working in large numbers in the RMG industry in situations of increasingly “private” and appropriated water sources in this institutionally liminal peri-urban space. Our findings show that poorly paid work for women in Bangladesh’s RMG industry does not translate to women’s empowerment because, among others, a persisting masculinity and the lack of reliable, appropriate and affordable WASH services make women’s domestic water work responsibilities obligatory and onerous. 2022 2021-12-31T23:50:11Z 2021-12-31T23:50:11Z Book Chapter https://hdl.handle.net/10568/117317 en Open Access Springer Joshi, Deepa; Haque, S.; Nahar, K.; Tania, S.; Singh, J.; Wallace, T. 2022. Public lives, private water: female ready-made garment factory workers in peri-urban Bangladesh. In Narain, V.; Roth, D. (Eds.). Water security, conflict and cooperation in peri-urban South Asia: flows across boundaries. Cham, Switzerland: Springer. pp.67-88. [doi: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-79035-6_4]
spellingShingle water supply
gender equality
women
factory workers
empowerment
water, sanitation and hygiene
social aspects
households
domestic water
poverty
periurban areas
Joshi, Deepa
Haque, S.
Nahar, K.
Tania, S.
Singh, J.
Wallace, T.
Public lives, private water: female ready-made garment factory workers in peri-urban Bangladesh
title Public lives, private water: female ready-made garment factory workers in peri-urban Bangladesh
title_full Public lives, private water: female ready-made garment factory workers in peri-urban Bangladesh
title_fullStr Public lives, private water: female ready-made garment factory workers in peri-urban Bangladesh
title_full_unstemmed Public lives, private water: female ready-made garment factory workers in peri-urban Bangladesh
title_short Public lives, private water: female ready-made garment factory workers in peri-urban Bangladesh
title_sort public lives private water female ready made garment factory workers in peri urban bangladesh
topic water supply
gender equality
women
factory workers
empowerment
water, sanitation and hygiene
social aspects
households
domestic water
poverty
periurban areas
url https://hdl.handle.net/10568/117317
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