The overall purposes of the survey were including the followings:

• • To examine how employment opportunities (particularly in the garment sector) and expanded access to education have affected the lives of Bangladeshi women today;

• To examine how employment and education affect a woman’s marriage conditions (and whether she marries a close relative), her status within the household, and the health and education of her children; and

• To examine how garment workers obtain job in the garment sector and what factors affect their careers in the garment sector.

Sample size: 800 households near the EPZ (“near” households) plus 400 “far” households farther from EPZ (i.e. not within commuting distance). The “near” villages should be within commuting distance (where it is possible for a garment worker to live at home and travel daily to the garment factory). One way to ensure this is to contact several factories and ask which villages the factory buses visit to pick up workers. Then randomly select villages from the set of reported pickup locations. The “far” villages should be in an area that’s otherwise similar to the “near” villages (in terms of wealth, other employment options, social structure), except that it’s not within commuting distance to the EPZ.

Census: In each selected village we first conducted a census to create a list of all baris (compound) in that village. Every bari was visited quickly and asked only a few quick questions:

1. How many households (i.e. different families) are living within the compound, and the basic relationships between the different households in the same bari
2. How many garment workers are in the bari, and which factory do they work in 
3. How many females living in the bari (mothers, daughters, daughters-in-law) were born between 1975 and 1980, and their marital status 
4. And how many members of the bari are married to their first cousin.

Mitra and Associates has carried out the following activities:

• designing the survey methodology; 
• developing sample frame and drawing of samples; 
• developing, testing and finalizing of instruments; 
• preparation of Survey modules with tentative length of each Household head 15 pages, Spouse/female head 15 pages, Married female Supplement 4 pages, Garment worker supplement 6 pages; 
• household listing/mapping and data collecting; 
• ensuring quality of data; 
• analyzing, and submitting clean data set.

The survey was sponsored and funded by the University of Colorado, USA.