Occupational Health & Safety

Biography

Biography: Farhtheeba Rahat Khan

Abstract

Statement of the Problem: Healthcare costs usually stand in the way to access quality health services by the poor, especially when there is no structured govt. support to bear the financial burden. In Bangladesh 66% of the expenses are out of the pocket. The support services available even for rural poor is not available for the urban garment worker due to long and confined working hours. So who should provide the support? What modalities are feasible?  Methodology & Theoretical Orientation: Health Insurance can reduce the financial burden. A new insurance scheme for garment workers was introduced; collaboration between an insurance company and a healthcare service provider was built.  The premium was set as BDT 500 per worker with an annual coverage of BDT 15,000. This was piloted in 3 factories. Findings: Workers started accessing the services under the cashless transaction modality. The highest service accessed annually by a single worker amounted to BDT 5500, and the lowest being BDT 650. This information was enough to convince the workers of the benefit received with a minimal annual premium-pay of BDT 500. In the first year, the insurance premium was paid by the donor funds, but in the second year the factories and workers are sharing BDT 200 and now buyer and brands are coming forward to support the initiative. Conclusion & Significance: The question which I raised in the problem statement is leading to the solution. A collaborative model where the main stakeholders factories and buyers join hands in ensuring healthcare, especially SRHR, in a more affordable manner for workers – because it is a cyclic effect – if the worker is healthy, she is productive and less absent from work, leading to meeting shipments and orders by factories, which in turn leads to buyer retention and at the broader level a sustained international market for Bangladeshi garment and thus better living for workers.