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“And the more sad thing is that there is a stigma related to giving birth to a baby girl. If there is a newborn baby girl, the family feels sad, they are just feeling dishonoured that we are making a baby girl.”
Refugee Woman 2019

The main barrier to participation in decision making for this age group was identified as the cultural expectation that children should be seen and not heard. There is no expectation that girls would be allowed to participate in decision making.

Again, there is little expectation that girls in this age group should have any part in decision making. The women said that girls who did demonstrate some outspokenness or leadership are put down and discouraged from expressing their opinions. “If a smart clever girl tries to do something, it is not seen as good, she is shamed and called a bad girl”. Dropping out of school, early forced marriage and pregnancy also present huge barriers for their participation.

The simple fact of danger of harassment on the way to meetings stops girls from participating – their parents do not like them going out alone.

“The more you are left out, the more you become incompetent. … and the child feels that they don’t want to do anything for their life decision. Sometimes because they have been abused kids.”
Refugee Woman, 2019

“Our culture might stop us women and girls to be a leader, but that does not stop me to lead my community, my family and my own self!”
Refugee Woman, 2019

Women reported that there is a cultural expectation that fathers make decisions on behalf of their daughters until they are married, then husbands take on that role. They said that this is very hard to challenge and that women who do are often victims of domestic violence.

Women also take the major responsibility for child-rearing, care for the elderly and disabled, and home duties. This is very time consuming and also precludes them from participating in meetings and training opportunities.

The main barriers identified to the participation of women and girls in decision making, training and other activities critical to the life of their communities were cultural restraints including gender discrimination, other forms of discrimination and disrespect. Once again SGBV and the constant fear of SGBV and harassment, with the severe impacts they have played a major role. Lack of access to formal education or information is a major barrier. Many participants were angry that they had no opportunities to make decisions about their lives and were not allowed to choose their own leaders.

The women described a culture in which traditionally it is men in their community who are consulted about decision making. Women and girls’ opinions, skills and capacities are not recognised or respected. Their ability to participate is also limited by the social norm that women do not leave their houses as freely as men and have all the responsibility for childcare and home duties. Once again, the lack of security in the camps and ubiquitous risks of sexual abuse and harassment are major barriers to women and girls’ participation.

“Women and girls are the victims of eve teasing[1]. They can’t go out freely and can’t attend meetings or any community engagement.”
Refugee woman

Participants identified four major barriers to women’s participation.

1. Discrimination towards women – lack of respect for their opinions and voices
2. Lack of security going to meetings and trainings held in women friendly spaces especially for younger women and girls
3. Lack of access to formal education for women and girls
4. Fathers, elder brothers, and husbands who forbid women and girls from going out, as often for safety reasons as for cultural expectations

“Sometimes women want to go to the women-friendly space, but the parents don’t allow them to go to the space because they are not secure. They are not confident to send them.”
Refugee woman facilitator

When service providers, including UN agencies, INGOs and NGOs wish to consult with the community about issues other than things very specific to women, (such as reproductive health), they make little effort to include women in the broader discussion, inviting known senior men and other influential male refugees, who are sometimes not trusted by the community, and who have very little gender analysis.

^[1] Eve Teasing is a euphemism commonly used in South Asia including in Bangladesh to describe public sexual abuse and harassment of women and girls. It can include both verbal harassment, involving lewd and suggestive comments as well as physical sexual abuse. The government of Bangladesh has legislated against the use of this term but it remains in common use amongst the refugee and local community.

“Women are second class – they even have to eat after the men.”
Refugee Woman, 2019

The situation of these women is in many ways similar to the women 18 – 24 age group. As their children get older and particularly in light of the reduction in rations and services, they are forced to work outside the camp illegally. They reported that the increase in drug use and alcoholism is widespread among men from these age groups, and this puts even more stress on the women to hold the household together, leading to even less time for participation in other activities, even if these were available. They reported depression, suicide and suicidal thoughts.

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In a reversal of the respect that the elderly would have expected as part of their culture, in the harsh conditions in the camps older women are often seen as a burden and discriminated against. Their wisdom is no longer sought or respected, leading to depression and despair. They are not even considered to have a role in decision making. If they are given a role it is that of childminding while their adult children work.

“First they spend their lives caring for their own children, then they end their lives caring for their grandchildren, they have no other life.”

Women who are known to be LBTI are stigmatised and marginalised. This places a very big additional barrier to participation in decision making.

This group is also stigmatised and marginalised. Additionally, those with physical disabilities are often unable to move in the camps due to lack of transport, wheelchairs and other aids, and the condition of the roads and pathways. Women and girls with mental illness are ignored, shamed and at times confined to their homes. These situations effectively prevent women with disabilities from any form of participation.

These women experience all of the barriers to participation listed above, with the additional stigma and burden of being a single mother.

While livelihoods and jobs should not affect this age group, many young girls who are forced to drop out of school do informal work, There are many cases of exploitation and sexual abuse of young girls engaged in this work.

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Many girls in this age group are forced by circumstance to find work. Most of this is illegal and dangerous, for example foraging in rubbish tips or cutting bamboo shoots outside the camps. There is a high level of rape and sexual harassment in these situations. However, there is very little opportunity for these girls to gain access to training or stable livelihoods inside the camps. “They are too young to work, but not too young to be forced into marriage”.The women discussed the need for income generation and training for girls who are not able to attend school.

There is also significantly increased child marriage as families feel they cannot support their daughters. Child labour is common as families seek any means to access extra income.

The women discussed the fact that in all nine camps there has been a lot of vocational training courses provided by the NGOs. However, there are no markets in the camps for the goods they produce and they are not allowed outside. “They teach us how to weave, but we have no money to buy thread so we cannot produce anything”. “Even if they make something, who will buy from them?”.

They also reported that the training certificates they are given are not recognised outside the camps. It was agreed by all of the women that the only sustainable solutions to livelihood and jobs are work rights, alongside permission to leave the camps and transport to available work. Without viable, legal livelihood opportunities, the women are dependent on humanitarian aid, which is shrinking because of “the reductions” and inadequate to cover basic needs.

“And also refugee women doesn’t report about SGBV cases at the workplace because they are afraid that this won’t help because they are refugees and also the employer may blackmail her that ‘if you report to police they might arrest you because you are working here illegally’. So women have to keep silent.”
Refugee Woman, 2019

As can be seen, there was a major focus on cultural or religious restraints including gender discrimination, sexual harassment at /or on the way to, and at work and risk of exploitation, corruption, physical and sexual abuse (Including rape by employers). These issues were all exacerbated by a lack of resources, education, and opportunities. They also linked the lack of livelihoods to lack of education for girls and noted the endemic SGBV risks that contribute to already limited education for girls.

Participants acknowledged that there are limited livelihood opportunities for all people in the camp, but that additional barriers to livelihoods for women and girls include discriminatory gender norms and the ubiquitous risks of SGBV when women and girls move around the camps. The women noted a few short-term opportunities but no long term, safe options for them or for the males in their families.

“In (X) camp – there are [a] factory of soap-making, computer training centre, sewing training centre but these training centres only provide training for 3 months. So, for 3 months they have a good life. First 3 months provided the training and a stipend (used to be 3000 per month – now 3,500 and then 3 months paid on what they produce and then [they] have to leave.”
Refugee woman facilitator

The lack of means to earn income legally, with limitations on available aid, places great financial stress on all groups, and this has both predictable and unintended consequences. Negative consequences include increased family separation as families seek to obtain an additional ration card to access more aid, and men marrying a second wife to access further dowry payments. There is also a black ‘economy’ of ration goods, as some groups are forced to exchange a portion of their aid for assistance in obtaining or transporting it and to supplement their diets with fresh food and vegetables.

reasons. This restricts their limited opportunities to access work or to attend livelihood training. Some women do who work, including as volunteers with NGOs, face risks of sexual abuse and harassment, verbal abuse and intimidation as they are perceived to be breaching social and religious norms by engaging in paid work outside the home, even when they are the sole family support. The women’s analysis highlighted the importance of understanding the multiple and complex barriers faced by women in accessing livelihoods in the camps. While social and cultural norms in relation to women’s roles were clearly identified as a factor that must be considered, it was neither the sole nor primary factor, as all groups also emphasised the high risks of SGBV related to women and girls livelihoods. These include high risks of trafficking, the high risks of rape and sexual abuse by employers including of very young girls working as maids. For many women and their families’, it was the terror of rape and sexual abuse which is the major barrier to women and girls working.

“Society and respective leader don’t allow them to do any job or work. Because of safety concern issue [that] they will be sexually assaulted. When they do any job, society reject them…nobody [will] marry them that’s why parents don’t allow.”
Refugee woman

Women are even further disadvantaged as ‘women are not accepted by society to have a job’. (Refugee man)

The few jobs available to women also put them at very high risk of sexual abuse at the hands of their employers, including while working with NGOs in the camps.

“Sometimes women need the livelihood activity, and they go to the organisation and share with them. People give the negative proposal, if you do sex with me, I will give you opportunity. Some of the supervisors the NGO [say this].”
Consultation facilitator

Because there are few formal livelihood opportunities in the camps for men, and even fewer for women there is an inevitable movement of people seeking work outside the camps. However, the insecurity of work outside the camps results in serious exploitation and risk of arrest for those individuals who willingly, or who are forced to work outside the camps.

“Their daily earning would be BDT300-400($3-$4USD). They are in cultivation, collecting woods. Refugees go to Chawkbazar [in Chittagong] and charcoal factory. There are good number of refugees earning in Chittagong until they are caught. Women do not go so willingly. They will go when they are promised jobs, marriage and good life [but end up in forced prostitution] .”
Male facilitator

Barriers to safe livelihoods include lack of education and skills development for females and males, discrimination, a lack of suitable work for people with a disability, discrimination against the LBTI community, and an unfair, preferential allocation of available jobs by the influential male refugee community members. ��

“Who have relation with influential male refugees, they get job. Most of the young men are unemployed. For getting a job, huge bribe money have to be paid to influential group.”
Refugee man

The major work opportunity for older women is to care for their grandchildren. It was mentioned that they are seldom if ever given opportunities for livelihood training, despite having many skills, both due to cultural reasons, and as long term survivors in the camps.

Some elderly women and men and divorced (‘abandoned’) women are forced to beg.

Unless they elected to keep their sexuality hidden, stigma and marginalisation exclude LBTI women from training and job opportunities.

Lack of access to education, marginalisation and structural barriers all combined to exclude women with a disability from job opportunities, even though some of them have high levels of skills and knowledge. “They might be very good at weaving or know a lot but [because they have a disability] no-one listens to them”.

This group was identified as one of the most impoverished and vulnerable groups, facing enormous challenges to keep themselves and their children alive. For reasons cross-cutting all of the themes, they were unable to access training or safe and legal jobs.

Unsafe shelter was discussed as the major problem for all age groups including young girls. Refugees cannot afford to rent homes by themselves so are forced to share housing often with strangers.�� Children left alone while their parents work, and who cannot attend school are at high risk. There are no safe spaces where the children can go to play. It was noted that unclean or distant water points and inadequate or poorly managed drains and sanitation in the camps significantly increase disease and safety risks in the camps, particularly for children.

Women discussed how the reduction in health services and the decrease in the number of hospitals had a major impact on babies and young children. Camps are so widely spread that they reported that children with fever sometimes went into shock during the long journey to a hospital and that some people had died because they could not access medical care. Vaccination programs receive supplies to match the number of registered refugee children, but because unregistered refugees and people from the host population also access the hospital, some children are not vaccinated. The low level of food rations is affecting the health of all children, with cases of malnutrition starting to appear.

As above, and it was reported that many children of this age could not attend school because they had to work to assist provide their families with basic goods. Again this was seen as a contributing factor to early marriage.

“If these girls are raped and become pregnant .. because they are too small and get damaged…often they need to spend a long time in hospital and their families cannot afford this.”
Refugee woman, 2019

The reductions in humanitarian aid are leading to a much higher rate of child and early marriage and its consequences, including girls too young to give birth, bearing children. The loss of hospitals and distances which need to be traversed to reach them means that very young pregnant girls are not getting the prenatal support (or nutrition) they need. Girls are also beginning to show signs of malnutrition. Young girls often are allocated the task of collecting water, and this puts them in danger of harassment as they move through the camp and wait in queues. Teenage girls are reacting to the pressures and showing signs of anxiety and depression or going out of the camp to work illegally in places that expose them to a high risk of sexual exploitation.

Participants discussed problems in being able to get enough rations and cash to survive. They were often requested to provide sex to landlords.

“The owner’s brother asked her ‘You are a refugee, how you are rented the house?’, so she said ‘Your sister already know about this’. So the police offer said ‘OK, you can stay our house rental period if I ask to sex with me you can continue stay in the house’.”
Refugee woman, 2019

It was discussed that only having a UNHCR card as identity made women very vulnerable to this sort of abuse, as the landlords thought they could abuse them with impunity, and there is a high level of difficulty in securing rental accommodation.

The women reported that at times they could not get enough food for their families, or medicine or transport. While they did have access to local hospitals, they discussed being sexually abused by guards and medical personnel.

“… sometimes the Doctors do the harassment – This is really happen!”
Refugee woman, 2019

Often women could not afford medication and this forced them to take and to remain in employment where they were being sexually abused but saw no alternative.

“These women are of childbearing age, and there is no affordable health care for them, so things go wrong.”
Refugee woman, 2019

Women reported that there was only short term shelter available for women fleeing violence. This was also not safe, with many cases of rape and harassment in the shelter.

“They are advised to go and find a job, but if they do, there is no one to look after the children. They just have to leave them in an unsafe space while they work. After one month the women have to leave and often return to their abusive husbands because they have nowhere else to go.”

Reductions in energy provision and Infrastructure have been exacerbated by the reductions of services. In the dry season, women and children often queue all day to find that there is no water when they get to the front of the queue. Some are having to scavenge for food. The standard of housing is deteriorating because of a lack of building materials. Inadequate charcoal supply means that if a family cannot reach the few filtered water pumps, they are not able to boil the water they drink unless they leave the camps to forage for firewood. These conditions are forcing many women to work illegally outside the camps. Others are resorting to survival sex as a means to feed their families. The inadequate supply of all basic provisions is causing stress, family conflict and mental health problems, and women reported a large increase in suicide and suicidal thoughts. The large increase in drug and alcohol use and its impacts was a major theme. Women reported that while it is mainly a male problem, some women were also using drugs and alcohol, and so the impacts cut across all age groups. It is having an extremely negative effect on family life, causing an increase in DV, and using scarce family resources. Younger children are taking the example of their older siblings, and starting to take drugs at an early age. This all increases the burden of responsibility already carried by the women. The lack of building materials is leading to constantly decreasing standards of shelter, made worse in the wet season, and increased insecurity in the refugees’ homes.

As already marginalised and stigmatised groups, the participants saw the situation of these women as very similar. They experienced additional difficulties because of the reduction in humanitarian aid to those living in families and suffered more SGBV when trying to fulfil their most basic needs. It was reported that even if they could acquire building materials often there was no one to assist them to repair their houses. The elderly and those with disabilities were often isolated because of the poor state of roads and pathways.

There are no specialised physical or mental health care services available to this group, many of whom have been in exile for years. They have a lot of health issues but cannot afford to get help.

As already marginalised and stigmatised groups, the participants saw the situation of these women as very similar.