Executive Director of the Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD) Mustafizur Rahman speaks at a dialogue on "How much Women Contribute to the Bangladesh Economy: Results from an Empirical Study" jointly organised by CPD and Manusher Jonno Foundation (MJF) at a hotel in the capital yesterday. To his left is Mustafa K Mujeri, director general of the Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies, and to his r
ight are AB Mirza Azizul Islam, former finance adviser to a caretaker government; Debapriya Bhattacharya, distinguished fellow of CPD; AHM Mustafa Kamal, planning minister; Shaheen Anam, executive director of MJF; and Fahmida Khatun, research director of CPD. Photo: Star The value of unpaid household work of Bangladeshi women is equivalent to as much as 87.2 percent of last fiscal year's GDP, says a study conducted by the Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD). The government should focus on changing the estimation practice of System of National Accounting so that women's unaccounted activities are reflected in the GDP, suggests the study titled Estimating Women's Contribution to the Economy: the Case of Bangladesh. The study, commissioned by Manusher Jonno Foundation (MJF), was launched yesterday at a programme in a city hotel with the aim of raising the status of women in society. Women's unpaid activities are considered non-economic and thus remain outside the traditional framework of GDP estimation, said Fahmida Khatun, research director of CPD, and also co-author of the study. “A large chunk of women's unpaid activities remains unaccounted in the economy,” she said. “As a result, macroeconomic policymaking can be misleading and discriminatory towards women.” The CPD has used two methods in conducting the research: the replacement cost method and the willingness to accept method. Based on the replacement cost method, the estimated value of women's unpaid work is equivalent to 76.8 percent (Tk 594,845 crore in constant prices) of the GDP in FY 2013-14. Advertisement Based on the willingness to accept method, the corresponding estimate was equivalent to 87.2 percent (Tk 675,398 crore in constant prices) of the GDP in FY 2013-14. These figures are 2.5 to 2.9 times higher than the total of women's paid services, says the study. Replacement cost is a method which measures how much money one would pay monthly if s/he were to hire someone to do the household chores instead of doing them by himself or herself. In willingness to accept method, the value is calculated on how much money one wishes to pay for all unpaid works that s/he does daily, considering the types of work, education, age and time spent for the works. The study, conducted in collaboration with Manusher Jonno Foundation, is based on a comprehensive survey of 13,640 individuals aged 15 years and above. Of these 8,320 are female and 5,320 are male residing in 5,670 households across 64 districts. The household survey was conducted during March-May 2014. “It is a pioneering research. Policymakers will get a lot of insights from the study,” said Dr Debapriya Bhattacharya, distinguished fellow of CDP. Women's work generally remains "unrecognised, unpaid, unmeasured and invisible", he said. The study also says the time spent by a female person (aged 15 years and above) on unpaid activities is about three times higher than that of a male person. On an average, a female person spends around eight hours on unpaid activities a day while a male spends around three hours. A female member of a household undertakes around 13 unpaid chores daily while a male does only around three chores. The study also suggests the government undertake programmes which may contribute in decreasing the workload of women in the household. “For example, increased accessibility of drinking water, natural gas for cooking and setting up of Day-care centres for children can reduce the workload and time of women. “This in turn can help them either to make their contribution to the economy more visible or to have their own personal time,” said Fahmida. The study says wage discrimination against women works as one of the main reasons for their lower contribution in the national economy. It urges the government to take legal measures for eliminating wage discrimination against women in all sectors. AB Mirza Azizul Islam, a former finance adviser of a caretaker government, stressed the need for creating more employment for women in the formal sector. “Women's contribution to the economy will increase significantly if we can create wage-based employment for them,” he said. Mustafa K Mujeri, Director General of Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies, said the value of women's contribution to the economy is obviously underestimated in the country. Planning Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal said the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics would consider including the unpaid works of women in GDP calculation. The government will also address the discrimination of wages between women and men in the upcoming 7th five-year plan, he said. The study is a part of a campaign titled “Equality through Dignity” which aims to create awareness about women's contribution to the economy as well as sensitising the media to portray women in a positive way, said Shaheen Anam, executive director of MJF. Study findings on women's freedom to spend earned money About 51.7 percent of women who are involved in paid work have the freedom to spend their earned income. Nearly 41 percent need to discuss this with their family member while 7.2 percent need to seek permission. These phenomena are more common in rural areas. Among the women who are involved only in household works, one-fourth wish to be involved in paid works. Interestingly enough, the willingness is higher in rural areas ( 28.9 percent) than in urban areas (19.8 percent), according to the study. About 60.4 percent women, who do not want to be involved in paid works, said they did not want to work outside of their homes as “their families do not like” such jobs. It is noteworthy that this perception is more common in urban areas. Women who are currently unemployed but would like to have jobs are mostly looking for part-time jobs (72.4 percent) while women in urban areas prefer 'full time jobs'.
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