https://www.thedailystar.net/news/bangladesh/news/recognise-reduce-and-redistribute-4269976
Unpaid care work must be recognised, its burden reduced, and responsibilities redistributed among families, communities and the state, speakers said at a dialogue on the care economy yesterday.
They said unpaid care work remains largely unrecognised despite the substantial time and labour women devote to childcare, cooking and other household responsibilities, limiting their participation in the labour market and opportunities to develop skills.
They made the remarks at a dialogue organised by the Centre for Gender and Development Studies (CGDS), Dhaka University and UN Women at a DU auditorium.
Economist and academic Prof Sayema Haque Bidisha said discussions on the care economy had been limited in the past but are now reaching the policy level.
“Recognise, reduce and redistribute” should be the key principles for addressing unpaid care work, she said.
If the necessary infrastructure and mechanisms for redistributing care responsibilities were developed, women who wanted to participate in the mainstream labour market would have greater opportunities to do so, she added.
The care economy also has the potential to become a professional service sector, creating employment opportunities for both women and men in Bangladesh and abroad, she said.
Shaheen Anam, executive director of Manusher Jonno Foundation, said the lack of recognition of women’s unpaid work is linked to their position and decision-making power within families.
Her organisation had worked on the issue through a campaign called “Equality through Dignity” and commissioned research by the Centre for Policy Dialogue involving around 13,000 respondents, she said.
One major finding was that if women’s unpaid work were assigned a monetary value, it would be three times what women earn through paid work, Anam said.
Efforts to make unpaid work visible included the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics’ Time Use Survey and Household Production Satellite Account, she said.
The latter showed that unpaid care work would account for around 16 percent of GDP if included in GDP calculations, she said.
However, recognition alone would not transform women’s lives, Anam stressed. Reducing the burden and redistributing care responsibilities were also necessary.
Women should not be expected to become economically independent while continuing to bear the main responsibility for household work, she said.
Care work should be treated as a shared responsibility, she added.
Prof Dr Tania Haque of the Department of Women and Gender Studies at DU, described unpaid care work as an “invisible infrastructure” of the labour market, saying it is effectively a 24-hour job without a retirement age.
Citing an ILO 2024 global estimate, she said 748 million people worldwide were unable to participate in the labour market, including 704 million women, with unpaid care work a major reason.
She also cited research showing that women in Bangladesh spend 6.8 hours on household work compared with 1.8 hours for men.
She questioned a provision in the Labour Act 2006 under which an organisation with 40 women workers who have children below five years must provide a day-care facility.
The provision should be revised, she said, arguing that it could reinforce the idea that care work is primarily women’s responsibility.
Speakers also called for quality, accredited day-care facilities, including community-based services accessible to low-income families.
Mubassira Tabassum Hossain, programme officer, UN Women, said the organisation had worked with BBS on the Time Use Survey and Household Production Satellite Account.
She said the survey found that women spend 5.9 hours on unpaid care work compared with 0.8 hours for men. Women spend most of their time on childcare and food preparation, while men’s care-related activities include transportation, taking children to school and grocery shopping.
The survey also found higher levels of care work among women aged 25 to 44, while women in rural and urban areas reported similar levels of unpaid care work.
The dialogue was moderated by Prof Dr Sanzida Akhter, director of CGDS at DU.
