Sabina Faiz Rashid, "Poverty, Gender and Health in the Slums of Bangladesh: Children of Crows" (Routledge, 2024)

Oct 29, 2024

In this engaging discussion, Sabina Faiz Rashid, a professor and health advocate, sheds light on the harsh realities faced by families in Dhaka's slums. She reveals how health disparities persist despite economic growth, especially for women and children. Rashid dives into the intertwined issues of gender, poverty, and health, accentuating the vital role of personal stories over traditional methodologies. She also uncovers the complicated relationship between marginalized communities and law enforcement, highlighting struggles for dignity and resistance amidst systemic challenges.

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Intro

00:00 • 3min

Health Disparities in Dhaka's Slums

03:00 • 18min

Intersecting Challenges: Health, Poverty, and Gender in Dhaka's Slums

21:04 • 2min

Struggles of Women in Poverty in Bangladesh

22:39 • 18min

The Paradox of Policing in Impoverished Communities

40:33 • 2min

Struggles for Dignity: Marginalization and Resistance in Bangladesh

42:39 • 10min

Poverty, Gender and Health in the Slums of Bangladesh: Children of Crows (Routledge, 2024) provides comprehensive ethnographic accounts that depict the daily life experiences and health hardships encountered by young women and their families living in the slums of Dhaka city and the injustices they face.

The analysis focuses on two specific historical eras: 2002-2003 and 2020-2022 and shows that despite recent improvements in employment opportunities and greater mobility for young women, their lives reflect ongoing challenges reminiscent of those faced two decades earlier. While national and global organizations acknowledge the nation's economic and social progress, those on the outskirts of society continue to grapple with enduring poverty. They are excluded from the advantages of economic growth, oppressed by unjust local, national, and global systems, discriminatory laws, and policies. Their struggles go unnoticed as they confront a slew of challenges, including slum evictions, enforced lockdowns, income losses, food insecurity, and ongoing crises related to health, injuries, fatalities, and exploitation and harassment by law enforcement and influential individuals within the slum and the city. After two decades, these obstacles persist, and life remains tenuous, with health severely compromised. This book will appeal to students, academics, and researchers in the fields of Public Health, Medical Anthropology, Gender Studies, Urban Studies, Development Studies, Social Sciences, as well as professionals engaged in urban health and poverty-related work.

Rituparna Patgiri is an Assistant Professor of Sociology at the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Guwahati. Her research interests lie in the areas of food, media, gender and public. She is also one of the co-founders of Doing Sociology. Patgiri can be reached at @Rituparna37 on Twitter.

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