Beyond Infrastructure: Exploring Gendered and Social Barriers to Use Communal Bathing Spaces in Rohingya Refugee Camps

• In Event: International Migration Section Refereed Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (60 minute): 29. Other topics

Abstract

The Forcibly Displaced Myanmar Nationals (FDMNs) has taken shelter in Bangladesh following the military aggression in the Rakhine State in 2017. A total of 33 camps were established for the Rohingya people in the Cox’s Bazar district. Along with other enmities, WASH facilities have been provided in the camps by the humanitarian agencies. Following the international camp settlement guideline, communal bathing spaces have been constructed to ensure their hygiene needs. The present study aimed to examine the utilization of these communal bathing facilities and identify the difficulties in using these facilities.
Following a qualitative method, five Focus group discussions (FGDs) were conducted with male and female Rohingya refugees. Also, five Key informant interviews (KIIs) were collected from NGO personnel and Rohingya leaders.
The findings revealed that only 26.8% of the Rohingya people use the common bathing spaces. Inadequate facilities, like access to water, lack of age, gender, and disability inclusion, and the social norms of the Rohingya community are the major contributing factors to this limited usage.
Women and girls in the Rohingya community are especially reluctant to use communal bathing space. Infrastructure upgradation, hygiene education programs, gender-sensitive approaches may play a crucial role in addressing the identified challenges.

Authors

• Sarmin Akther, University of South Florida

• Ahmed Jubayer, Research Fellow (Public Health Division), Bangladesh Institute of Social Research (BISR) Trust, Bangladesh