Exploring the Impact of Childcare Provision on the Opportunities for Women Garment Workers and their Families in Bangladesh

I am applying for the ESRC Grand Union Doctoral Training Partnership (DTP) collaborative doctoral studentship titled
'Exploring the impact of childcare provision on the opportunities for women garment workers and their families in
Bangladesh,' as the project will lead to positive outcomes for women garment workers in Bangladesh. I am applying
for this project as the Readymade Garments (RMG) sector of Bangladesh employs millions of women workers and
they usually have to work overtime in factories which means that they do not have sufficient time to care for their
children; therefore, it is important to find out how childcare impacts their opportunities. The project is also closely
aligned with my skills and qualifications. I have successfully accomplished projects which aimed to find sustainable
solutions for local women and garment workers in Bangladesh. I have outlined relevant qualifications and experience
below.
I completed Master of Arts (M.A.) in Development and Labour Studies from Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) in
India. The M.A. programme focused on contemporary development and labour issues, drawing from the disciplines
of history, economics, sociology and political science. During the M.A. programme I particularly enjoyed the M.A.
course titled 'Women and Work' as this course familiarized me with theories on women and work and helped me
better understand the challenges that women around me face. The reading materials for this course entailed
'Revolution at Point Zero: Housework, Reproduction, and Feminist Struggle' and 'Social reproduction theory:
Remapping class, recentering oppression,' and these books inspired me to write my class assignment on women's
unpaid care work in India. I later on developed this assignment and submitted it for publication, and it has been
published in Journal of International Women's Studies. I am therefore well acquainted with social reproduction
theory and will be able to utilize the theory in the doctoral project as the project requires utilization of this theory.
In terms of work experience I worked at Brac University as Research Associate for the Regulation of International
Supply Chains (RISC) project. The RISC project was led by Copenhagen Business School (CBS), and implemented by
CBS in collaboration with Brac University and Tufts University. The project focused on identifying social sustainability
initiatives in Bangladesh apparel supply chains. In my role I was responsible for conducting interviews with key
stakeholders involved in the Bangladesh apparel industry, and responsible for translating, transcribing the interviews
and analyzing the transcripts. I would also like to add that I gained hands on experience in conducting qualitative
research (including the use of NVivo software) and participated in writing two project reports for RISC project which
have been published by Copenhagen Business School and Tufts University. I also completed an assignment titled
"Civil Society's Perception of the meaning of Sustaining Peace." This study was funded by UN Women and
implemented by Naripokkho (a Bangladeshi women's rights based Non-Governmental Organization), the objective
of this study was to better understand the perspectives of civil society and local populations, especially women, on
sustainable peace. I worked with Naripokkho as a researcher for this study and organized, conducted, transcribed
and translated Focus Group Discussions (FGDs) and Key Informant Interviews (KIIs) with Bangladeshi women civil
society leaders, activists and academics. Furthermore, I am acquainted with both qualitative and quantitative
research methods as I had to complete research methods courses and also submit research papers for my Bachelor
of Social Sciences (B.S.S.) programme in Economics at the University of Dhaka and my M.A. programme in
Development and Labour Studies at JNU.