Time women’s unpaid do the job is given formal reputation and respect
The government will take measures to discover 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 job can be attached to the GDP for increased fascination of the country's production and ensuring ladies empowerment," he explained while delivering his speech as the principle guest at a dialogue styled 'Formal Recognition of Women's Unaccounted Contribution'.
The function was organised by Manusher Jonno Base (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, home chores and farm labour in the national account.
How much unpaid and unaccounted domestic work was 49 % of GDP, found a report 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 add the unaccounted household actions in the GDP beneath the program of "build equality with dignity".
"The government has no qualms about the proposals given by the MJF," he explained, adding that the suggestions, which happen to be recognised globally, will be implemented verbatim.
Kamal said he would make an effort to establish the other proposals that are actually yet to get recognition from the global community to the authority concerned.
"I believe sustainable development means girls empowerment and establishing equality between man and female aswell."
At the function, the finance minister requested Hossain Zillur Rahman, chairperson of Brac, to produce a write-up on the unpaid job of girls for presenting in the upcoming finances sessions.
Unaccounted work of women would need to be recognised so that you can implement the sustainable expansion goals, said Shaheen Anam, executive director of the MJF.
A great deal of work done by girls are adding value to the formal sector.
"But such activities happen to be but to get recognition from both the society and the talk about," she said, while urging the government to assess the value of women's unpaid do the job by using the satellite account program that lots of countries have employed.
The accounting system calculates the economical value of household activities that are performed without any financial transactions and subsequently get excluded from the nationwide account.
"The core goal of arranging the event is to boost females' status both at home and society. The traditional thinking procedure for quantifying feminine will be altered if their contribution could be highlighted appropriately."
Women's status in culture is leaner than that of men's and they have been facing inequality.
"For this reason, women deal with tremendous violence both in the home and exterior. In Bangladesh, the fee of domestic violence against girls is a lot too high."
Such ferocity wouldn't normally have reached the extreme level had women got their credited dignity.
Women are doing various kinds of jobs that have a direct link to the financial industry and the informal sector, said Sayema Haque Bidisha, a good professor of economics at the University of Dhaka.
But only 36.3 % of the country's girls are in the labour marketplace.
In contrast, male participants in the labour market is 80 per cent according to the labour survey carried out in 2016-2017.
"Household activities of women is highly recommended and the SDGs also have laid focus on calculating the unpaid job of girls," she explained, adding that the authority worried should create a database to give acknowledgement to the unpaid do the job of women.
She continued to demand day health care centres to help females enter the labour marketplace.
Such initiatives will lower women's engagement in household activities and also play a role in boosting the GDP growth, said Bidisha, also a study director of the Southern Asian Network on Monetary Modelling (SANEM).
Gender budget has been widened within the last fiscal spending plan. "And we should make the almost all of it," she added.
"Recognition of unpaid do the job of females is important to ensure their sociable dignity, proper and equitability," said Selim Jahan, a former director of Human Production Report Workplace at UNDP headquarters.
Of most types of work on the globe, 59 per cent is founded on remuneration and the others is without payment.
Of the remuneration based jobs, 48 % are done by male and the 21 % by females.
"This means, men are receiving priority in remuneration-based gets results. This is significant."
He continued cite the circumstance of women in African countries to help expand his point.
Girls spend 200 crore time each day to bring normal water to perform their household activities. These types of careers, which are done mostly by women, are believed as unaccounted work.
"But, it isn't unattainable to calculate the worthiness of unpaid job," he said, adding that the federal government will come up with some method to combine the contribution of unpaid do the job to the national account.
The government should reflect it while forming monetary regulations, tax and policies, Jahan added.
"Women empowerment should become the fundamental aim of the culture," said Zillur Rahman, likewise an adviser to a good former caretaker government.
Their insufficient recognition should be discovered as a deeper problem of the country.
The government should make investment to ease the responsibility of home activities on women in order that they get the opportunity to participate in more productive work.
"Violence against girls is increasing in our society daily. Recognition to unpaid do the job of women can decrease the violence," Rahman added.
Only 22 % of the feminine students are preparing to enter the labour industry, said Sharmind Neelomi, a professor of economics at Jahangirnagar University.
The ratio is 82 % for the male students.
The urban females are lagging behind the rural ones with regards to entering the labour industry, she said.
"They enjoy better education than the rural ones -- they should be helped to acquire gainful occupation," she added.
The government should take initiatives to make women's unpaid work more noticeable and requested the finance minister to take initiatives to the end, said Khushi Kabir, a rights activist and the coordinator of Nijera Kori.
