Bangladesh’s care economy cannot be built on child labour

We talk endlessly about Bangladesh's economic rise, such as GDP growth, industrial expansion and export earnings. Yet a second economy runs quietly beneath it all: the care economy. It is sustained by the people who feed our children, care for our elderly and keep our households functioning.

Recent national data values the sector at nearly 18.9% of GDP, which amounts to trillions of taka worth of labour that has long gone unrecognised, uncounted and unpaid. It is a labour market and, like any other, it can be formalised, professionalised and transformed into a genuine source of employment. Done right, Bangladesh could create millions of stable, dignified jobs through certified caregivers, trained household staff and elder-care professionals, all backed by fair wages, contracts and legal protections.

The sector remains largely unregulated and invisible, and nowhere is that failure more apparent than in our continued reliance on child domestic workers.

A generation ago, domestic help in Bangladeshi homes looked different. It was common for a poorer relative to live with a family, based on an implicit social contract: food, shelter and often an education in exchange for help around the house.

That contract has quietly dissolved. As urban life has grown busier and more transactional, families have become less willing to take on the long-term responsibility that came with hosting a relative. What many households now seek is efficiency — labour that is quick, inexpensive and undemanding. So, when they need help, they increasingly turn to the most vulnerable labour pool available: children from impoverished rural families.

We tell ourselves this is generosity, that we are giving a child a better life than the one they would have in their village. But beneath that narrative, we have traded social responsibility for labour that is cheap and easy to control.

"If I do not hire this child, how will their family eat? I am feeding five people back in the village."

This is a common justification offered by employers. It is perhaps the most dangerous justification of all because it allows us to see ourselves as saviours while benefiting from underpaid child labour. A child's wage should never be a household's primary source of income. Employing a child instead of an adult suppresses a family's earning potential and traps it in poverty for another generation.

If the genuine aim is to support a struggling household, employers should hire an adult family member at a fair wage instead. Data from the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics and Unicef show that child labour is rising, now affecting 9.2% of children aged five to 17.

Bangladesh has had a Domestic Workers Protection and Welfare Policy since 2015. But without enforcement, home inspections or meaningful penalties, it exists largely as a document rather than a protection. Meanwhile, thousands of child domestic workers continue to endure long working hours, isolation, verbal abuse and, in some cases, physical violence, while being deprived of both education and childhood.

When we hire a child instead of an adult, we are not practising charity. We are choosing our own convenience over a child's future.

Recognising the care economy as part of our national wealth is an important first step, but that recognition means little if the sector continues to rely on the exploitation of children.

To change this, three things need to happen.

First, formalise the sector and staff it with adults. Fair, standardised minimum wages that reflect the true value of care work would go a long way towards reducing reliance on child labour.

Second, turn the 2015 policy into enforceable law. That means introducing meaningful penalties for households and agencies that employ underage children, alongside effective monitoring and enforcement.

Finally, we must stop using poverty as an excuse. Supporting struggling families means helping parents earn enough to keep their children in school, not shifting the burden of survival onto a 10-year-old.

Countries that have formalised domestic and care work have shown that the sector can become a significant source of employment, particularly for women, while raising household incomes. Bangladesh's care economy is one of its largest untapped economic opportunities. But it cannot be built on the backs of children. Bringing this work into the formal economy should mean replacing self-serving notions of charity with dignity, decent work and rights.

Nusrat Jahan Puthee is a contributor. 

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