About

Securing Rights is a five-year project funded by Global Affairs Canada (GAC), implemented by Oxfam in collaboration with six local partners in Dhaka, Bangladesh. The Securing Rights project’s ultimate outcome is increasing the well-being of women domestic workers in Dhaka, Bangladesh, who are one of the most marginalized and disadvantaged groups in the country. The project has two strategic pillars (in line with the project’s two intermediate outcomes) that work together to achieve the shifts in power relations needed for transformative change. First, it promotes a supply of skilled domestic workers and improves the leadership and collective organizing capacity of domestic worker networks and groups to claim their rights to decent work. Second, it supports partners, including Women’s Rights Organizations (WROs) and domestic worker networks in undertaking evidence-based advocacy for influencing relevant policy implementation and working to change the negative social norms in relation to domestic workers, including the recognition of domestic work as a profession under the law and generating a demand for skilled domestic workers.

Goal

Increased well-being of women domestic workers (DW) in Dhaka, Bangladesh.

Why this Project?

More than 10.5 million people are employed as domestic workers in Bangladesh, out of which approximately 90% are women.

• At least 277 domestic workers have died due to violence on the part of their employers from 2008 to 2013. In addition;
• 47% have experienced physical abuse and face the threat of being expelled from work;
• 63% are forced to do work/jobs beyond their physical abilities;
• 17% have experienced sexual harassment;
• 40% perceive their workplace as insecure; and
• 68% of women domestic workers report being frustrated with their current circumstances.

Funded by: