Recognising women's unpaid work in GDP is not just about statistics: Farah Kabir 

On 4 April 2023, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina asked the relevant authorities to bring women's unpaid household work into the calculation of Bangladesh's gross domestic product (GDP). 

Women's "invisible work" at home – meaning household and/or care work, which remains unrecognised and unaccounted for – is considered a barrier to progress towards gender equality and parity. 

Recently, The Business Standard spoke about the matter with Farah Kabir, the country director of ActionAid Bangladesh, which has campaigned and advocated for recognising women's invisible work at home for more than a decade. 

She said that while this is a welcome development, it is important to know that this should "not just be about statistics", but much more. 

Those who perform unpaid household/care work worldwide are generally women, and more so in the Global South. What would be the impact or outcome, hypothetically speaking, once unpaid household work is successfully included in Bangladesh's GDP calculation?

We are very excited. Because our journey of advocating for recognition of unpaid household work exceeds 10 years. We are so very encouraged by the statements of the prime minister and the planning minister.

What do we expect from the outcome? One is recognition. When you recognise that this is, in fact, work, we expect that society and families – all multi-stakeholders really – will start respecting this work. Because we don't want to hear "o bashay boshe ki kore" or  "eta meyer kaaj" again. 

Once there is "a dollar tag" to it [unpaid care work], people will hopefully appreciate what goes into it. 

Secondly, what do you do once you recognise this is important work? The state, the government, the families, the institutions [need to] come forward. To support, you need to recognise that a woman starts a day at sunrise, [and] performs all different pieces of work such as looking after the family, preparing the food, collecting the water, cleaning the house, looking after the elderly and the sick, and teaching the children. 

So after recognition, comes redistribution. The male and the female members in the household will all [need to] learn to share the work. This is number one. And sharing the load will strengthen the family. But it is the state and institutions who have to come forward with other support mechanisms. 

Including unpaid care/household work in the GDP would be the first step in the process towards long-term change, as it will formally recognise and institutionalise the work. 

Due to a limited understanding of the broader impacts of unpaid care work development, the issue is ignored in policy discussions, and therefore policy design and public investment. Fiscal recognition can overcome this barrier and make the case for fact-based national-level advocacy around specific changes, for example, calling for increased or improved availability of childcare options or improving basic social services and infrastructure such as water and sanitation in rural areas, so that women's burden of bringing clean water is reduced, which can reduce women's time in performing unpaid care and domestic work. 

It could have a positive impact on encouraging women's increased participation in the labour market.

Can you tell us how, and to what extent, will this affect gender roles? 

While it may not bring about change overnight, it will create an unprecedented case for greater awareness and advocacy work. Awareness campaigns can now assign a remunerative value to each and every task performed by a woman, building a case for the financial costs to be incurred in her absence, or if she chooses not to do them. 

Can you talk about conservative and/or rural households which continue to limit women's role in the labour market – let alone recognise women's role at home – and continue to overburden them with unpaid household/care work? Can you talk to us about the ways forward to change this at the household level?  

First of all, I would disagree with you that it's a rural setting. It has nothing to do with that. It is the middle class where families limit women working outside. If you're in the lower middle class, you don't have a choice. The woman is already working in the farms and fields side by side with men, the RMG sector, and NGOs. But it's [their work at home] is not recognised.

Now those who can afford to have these values and keep their women at home, that's a separate conversation – but they cannot understand or do not wish to understand the situation of the majority. 

When you're restricting any member of a family from working [outside], you're taking away 50% of the potential and the strength of the household. 

And it is imperative to recognise that women's work never finishes. They are always working. And her work is not recognised, there is no monetary transaction. I'm not saying a mother wants money to look after her children, but it must be fully recognised that she is working to take care of the family. 

What were the challenges or limitations thus far in terms of implementing National Time Use Surveys to calculate women's unpaid household/care work?  

Time Diary Survey expertise was limited when ActionAid Bangladesh started its journey with data collection. Due to the patriarchal social system, the acceptance and recognition of women's unpaid household/care work are still not valued. A mass level of sensitisation was required before starting the time diary data collection.

Partner staff did not have the capacity for the operation and data collection; several training sessions and guidance were needed to collect the data accurately by the enumerators. Participants who contributed the data required support to fill up the information on the time diary.

On 11 April, the planning minister said women's household work will be included in the GDP calculation from the next financial year. How feasible is this timeline? 

There's always an argument to make that you have to get everything correct. But I am someone who believes in starting with what we have. So let us start. If there are serious [shortcomings], then you have to invest in human resources, you need statisticians. 

And this is not something that has to be invented. You need to work with the United Nations Statistics Division. The UN has a structure and you can work with the UN agencies if you want to customise it for Bangladesh. 

You just need to bring in the experts and start the process, but the point here is not about the numbers, right? We will get the statistics and we will be able to show them in a year or two – the real GDP - because we are now going to take into account women's contribution. But what are we going to do for the women and the girls? That's my question, and that's where we want to see the change. 

Some of the Nordic countries and those in the West have recognised women's unpaid domestic work. And they are working to amend gender inequalities pertaining to that – is there a model country/economy you would recommend for Bangladesh to follow or take note of, and why? 

Nordic countries are known for their effective policies to support women and men to balance work and family responsibilities. They provide good examples of how policy can make a difference in terms of shared responsibilities, including the promotion of men's engagement.

Their social programs are designed to take into account the caregiving work, especially when it comes to childcare, therefore their parental leaves make room for more paternity leave and there is ample childcare support provided by the government. 

While the Nordic countries are wealthy developed nations and may not serve as an immediate example, we can definitely learn the principles from them and try to start doing the basics.

The common argument is that looking at developed nations is not realistic. Yes, we're not a developed country, but we are aspiring to become one, right?