The government will take measures to recognise the unaccounted work of women in the upcoming budget session for fiscal 2020-21, said Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal yesterday. “We will explore how unpaid work can be attached to the GDP for greater interest of the country’s development and ensuring women empowerment,” he said while delivering his speech as the chief guest at a dialogue styled ‘Formal Recognition of Women’s Unaccounted Contribution’. The event was organised by Manusher Jonno Foundation (MJF), a non-governmental and non-profit organisation, at the capital’s Brac Centre Inn auditorium. A large number of women are not getting recognition for their work such as child-rearing, household chores and farm labour in the national account. The amount of unpaid and unaccounted domestic work was 49 per cent of GDP, found a study by SANEM using 2016-17 labour force survey and 2012 time-use survey. And 40 per cent was by women. MJF has been carrying different awareness campaigns since 2012 to include the unaccounted household activities in the GDP under the programme of “build equality with dignity”. “The government has no qualms about the proposals given by the MJF,” he said, adding that the recommendations, which are recognised globally, would be implemented verbatim. Kamal said he would try to establish the other proposals that are yet to get recognition from the global community to the authority concerned. “I think sustainable development means women empowerment and establishing equality between male and female as well.” At the event, the finance minister requested Hossain Zillur Rahman, chairperson of Brac, to produce a write-up on the unpaid work of women for presenting in the upcoming budget sessions. Unaccounted work of women would have to be recognised in order to implement the sustainable development goals, said Shaheen Anam, executive director of the MJF. A large amount of work done by women are adding value to the formal sector. “But such activities are yet to get recognition from both the society and the state,” she said, while urging the government to assess the value of women’s unpaid work by using the satellite account system that many countries have employed. The accounting system calculates the economic value of household activities that are done without any financial transactions and subsequently get excluded from the national account. “The core objective of arranging the event is to improve females’ status both at home and society. The traditional thinking process for quantifying female will be changed if their contribution can be highlighted appropriately.” Women’s status in society is lower than that of men’s and they have been facing inequality. “For this reason, women face tremendous violence both at home and outside. In Bangladesh, the rate of domestic violence against women is much too high.” Such ferocity would not have reached the extreme level had women got their due dignity. Women are doing many types of jobs that have a direct link to the financial market and the informal sector, said Sayema Haque Bidisha, a professor of economics at the University of Dhaka. But only 36.3 per cent of the country’s women are in the labour market. In contrast, male participants in the labour market is 80 per cent as per the labour survey carried out in 2016-2017. “Household activities of women should be considered and the SDGs have also laid emphasis on calculating the unpaid work of women,” she said, adding that the authority concerned should create a database to give recognition to the unpaid work of women. She went on to call for day care centres to help females enter the labour market. Such initiatives will lower women’s engagement in household activities and also play a role in boosting the GDP growth, said Bidisha, also a research director of the South Asian Network on Economic Modelling (SANEM). Gender budget has been widened in the last fiscal budget. “And we should make the most of it,” she added. “Recognition of unpaid work of females is important to ensure their social dignity, right and equitability,” said Selim Jahan, a former director of Human Development Report Office at UNDP headquarters. Of all types of work in the world, 59 per cent is based on remuneration and the rest is without payment. Of the remuneration based jobs, 48 per cent are done by male and the 21 per cent by females. “This means, men are getting priority in remuneration-based works. This is very significant.” He went on cite the case of women in African countries to further his point. Women spend 200 crore hours per day to bring water to accomplish their household activities. These types of jobs, which are done mostly by women, are considered as unaccounted work. “But, it is not impossible to calculate the value of unpaid work,” he said, adding that the government can come up with some method to incorporate the contribution of unpaid work to the national account. The government should reflect it while forming economic regulations, tax and policies, Jahan added. “Women empowerment should become the fundamental goal of the society,” said Zillur Rahman, also an adviser to a former caretaker government. Their lack of recognition should be identified as a deeper problem of the country. The government should make investment to ease the burden of household activities on women so that they get the chance to participate in more productive work. “Violence against women is increasing in our society day by day. Recognition to unpaid work of women can reduce the violence,” Rahman added. Only 22 per cent of the female students are preparing to enter the labour market, said Sharmind Neelomi, a professor of economics at Jahangirnagar University. The ratio is 82 per cent for the male students. The urban females are lagging behind the rural ones when it comes to entering the labour market, she said. “They enjoy better education than the rural ones — they should be helped to get gainful employment,” she added. The government should take initiatives to make women’s unpaid work more visible and requested the finance minister to take initiatives to this end, said Khushi Kabir, a rights activist and the coordinator of Nijera Kori.
