Why women cleaners deserve recognition in city planning

During the still hours of the morning before daylight, some women in Dhaka take to the streets to perform a vital task. They sweep roads, drains, and clear open areas of rubbish to keep the city healthy and habitable. They do not alter great destinies, perhaps, but they frame everyday life in meaningful ways, yet their work goes unobserved, although it is worthy of appreciation.

These women keep our city clean, safe, and clear for its constituents, despite the challenges they face due to climate change. In Dhaka, the rising heat makes every outdoor task a test of endurance and determination. Studies have found that dehydration and health stress are common among women engaged in informal work, such as waste picking and street cleaning, who often spend long hours at dangerous levels of heat exposure. However, they continue doing what they must, no less dutifully.

Since garbage buildup leads to disease, clogged drains during monsoons and cause traffic hazards, these women address these risks before the city begins to stir. The dimensions of their work correspond to the Women, Peace and Security (WPS) agenda, which maintains that peace is not merely the absence of war, but daily security, order, and communal nurturing. Yet, urban resilience and climate adaptation scholarship hardly recognises such women. The silence highlights how their work is unseen and left out of planning. 

Last year, Transparency International Bangladesh organised a programme titled “Inclusive Solid Waste Management: Experience and Voices of Waste Workers,” where women waste workers articulated demands for maternity care, night shift safety, hygiene facility access, fair recruitment, and improved links to city decision-makers. These are not excessive demands, nor are they disproportionate to humane working conditions, or the dignity of their work.

Another point worth noting is climate change’s impact on women. Women carry the burden of climate hazards 14 times greater than men because they are the key agents in responding to those hazards. The National Action Plan on climate change should prioritise the health of women and children, and take into consideration community-based adaptation actions. Such recognition at the national policy level can be strengthened through the inclusion of street cleaners in planning and resource allocation.

In fact, there is evidence that women at the grassroots are leading the way to climate adaptation interventions by creating seed banks, agri-resilience, and promoting and practicing safe birthing during natural disasters, as health and food security are at risk. This shows that community-based female action has value and that women acting outside formal authority can make a real difference to climate resilience. 

This notion is directly applicable to the women street cleaners in Dhaka. Although they do not directly organise climate-resilient projects, their daily work keeps dangers at bay and ensures environmental well-being. Therefore, they should be integrated into climate action plans. They need to gain tangible benefits and clear standards of recognition and be valued in accordance with the Women, Peace, and Security principles. This would make their contributions meaningful.

Urban planning should also incorporate these women. Policy interventions can include shaded rest spaces, vending sites, or cleaning points with water facilities, portable toilet stalls, shelter, providing kits of protective equipment and access to healthcare during heatwaves.

By recognising and empowering the women who are sweeping Dhaka and keeping it clean, the city will demonstrate its commitment to values founded on dignity, equity and interdependence.

But recognition cannot, of itself, be the end of the line. Real inclusion would mean that women cleaners are considered in the vision of Dhaka as a smart, climate-resilient, and peaceful megacity. With the government aggressively pushing to realise ambitious projects for greener roads, digital services and inclusive growth, it is time to simultaneously integrate the potential of women cleaners in city planning. Trees planted along their morning routes, water stations to keep them hydrated, and sanitation facilities would be much more than infrastructure; these would be a true demonstration of care and respect.

WPS agenda expands the vision of what “peace” means, challenging states to see peace as everyday actions that are safer and fairer for both genders. In Bangladesh, such visions led women to join peacekeeping, disaster resilience and grassroots leadership. Extending this culture to the women street sweepers is a natural next step. In acknowledging them, Dhaka can demonstrate a new definition of humanity, security, and prosperity.

Major Shajeda Akter Moni is deputy director at Research Centre of Bangladesh University of Professionals (BUP).

Views expressed in this article are the author's own. 

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