Maternity leave is expanding in Bangladesh, but garment workers still struggle for childcare

Bangladesh's Parliament extended maternity leave from 112 to 120 days in April 2026, but garment workers interviewed for this piece describe a harder problem waiting on the other side of that leave: nobody to bring their infants to the breastfeeding rooms factories tout as progress.

Workers like Morsheda and Mina describe daycares too small for the workforce, caregivers who won't make repeat trips across the floor, and children shuttled between grandmothers, paid minders, and older siblings pulled from their own schoolwork. One factory with nearly 2,000 women employed has a daycare for 12 or 13 children.

The industry generates more than USD 36 billion in exports and employs 4.5 million workers, more than half of them women, while a national time-use survey finds women doing seven times the unpaid care work of men. The law requires childcare rooms in large workplaces but says nothing about whether a mother can actually reach hers during a production shift.

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