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conferenceseries.com
Volume 5, Issue 3 (Suppl) Occup Med Health Aff, an open access journal
ISSN:2329-6879 Occupational Health-2017
September 13-14, 2017
.
September 13-14, 2017 | Dallas, USA
Occupational Health & Safety
6th International Conference and Exhibition on
Health insurance for garment workers: A window towards sexual and reproductive health and rights
(SRHR)
Farhtheeba Rahat Khan
SNV, Netherlands
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 is leading to the solution. A collaborative model where the
main stakeholder’s factories and buyer’s 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. At the broader level a sustained international market for Bangladeshi
garment and thus better living for workers.
Biography
Farhtheeba Rahat Khan is a Development Professional with experience backed up by private sector interventions and development sector working realities and
challenges. As the Lead of private sector health project, she undertook studies to understand private sector healthcare market dynamics and simultaneously
worked on the policy front with Ministry of Health and Family Welfare and its directorates in addressing the supply side issues of healthcare market. She has
provided technical assistance for formulation of policy framework, guidelines and accreditation systems in the health training, and emphasized on avenues for
women employment in the health sector. Currently, she is the Team Leader for the ‘Working with Women’ project implemented by SNV, where she is facilitating
interventions in garment factories, following a gender sensitive and gender-specific approach to ensure equity in healthcare service provision for female garment
workers.
Farhtheeba Rahat Khan, Occup Med Health Aff 2017, 5:3 (Suppl)
DOI: 10.4172/2329-6879-C1-034