SChEMaC 2020 is a survey of 498 women in 23 districts around Bangladesh to investigate how the Covid-19 pandemic and school closures are affecting children.

The growing demand for female labour means that a new form of gender inequality is emerging in the country’s industrial areas where boys are kept in school whilst girls are being sent to work.

New research shows that, among women of childbearing age in Bangladesh, son preference is giving way to a desire for gender balance.