Research
Impact of Flood on Women’s Sexual and Reproductive Health: An Empirical Evidence from Northern Bangladesh
Context: Women are the most vulnerable in any disastrous situation compared to their male counterpart. It is evident in several studies that among all other natural disasters flood causes immense sufferings for women especially in respect to their Sexual and Reproductive Health (SRH) due to the lower standard of living condition and poor institutional response. Aims: The objective of this study was to understand the reproductive health status of women during the flood. The study also aimed to explore the effectiveness of existing reproductive health care services for women and adolescents during the flood. Methods and Material: We used both qualitative and quantitative method in this study and our sampling procedure was purposive. We used a semi-structured questionnaire to collect data from 46 women in six villages under three different districts of Bangladesh, namely- Faridpur, Shariatpur and Sirajgonj. Moreover, five focus group discussion with the vulnerable women, ten exit interviews of the health care seeking women and five key informant interviews’ of the local health care providers were conducted. Besides, unstructured observation (both participatory and non-participatory) was also conducted in the studied communities. Results: Findings of this study revealed that during flood women suffered more from leucorrhoea TID, pregnancy-related complexity, urinary infection and malnutrition compared to normal time. In contrast, poor responses by the institutions entitled to mitigate disaster-induced vulnerability enhanced sufferings of the victims. Conclusion: Strengthening women-friendly disaster management program and enhancing institutional governance might be effective to reduce women’s SRH vulnerability during a flood.
Engendering Social Exclusion: Evidence from Slum of Narayangonj City Corporation of Bangladesh
Marginalization of certain groups or clans occurs in most societies including developed countries and perhaps it often occurs in under developed countries. Women, especially the slum women are far more excluded than any other groups in the society. It is clearly demonstrated that the number of slum dwellers is increasing day by day with the increased demand for employment opportunity, rapid rural-urban migration and rapid growth of urban population. The current study has expounded the nature of Social exclusion of women in the selected slums of Narayangonj city. Moreover, the study aimed to explore the reasons, causes, dimensions, impacts and pattern of exclusions for different socio-economic groups. This study had a critical outlook in examining the overall social-environment that perpetuated exclusion of women in slum areas. Findings of this study has presented a social exclusion index of three selected slums and a women poverty index in order to critically examine both the exclusion index and poverty index of women extensively. Finally, the study has examined the ineffectiveness/inaction of existing law and rules in protecting the disadvantaged women folk of slums
