Add women's invisible labour to GDP: MJF

Elaborating on the importance of including women's unrecognised household work in national GDP, Manusher Jonno Foundation (MJF) yesterday held a dialogue with senior journalists of various national media outlets.

MJF in their press release said that they believe that violence and discrimination against women will be reduced if they have higher status in the family and community. Highlighting women's contribution is one of the ways to raise their status. 

MJF has launched a campaign titled “Equality through Dignity” to make the general population aware of women's contribution, and now the time has come to truly realise this goal by giving women the recognition they deserve.

Women's household work is not included in the GDP, and this dialogue was organised to let journalists know how women's contribution can be accounted for.

Journalists spoke on how policymakers can be made more aware on this issue. “This work should be recognised legally. It must be considered a national issue,” they said.

Executive director of MJF, Shaheen Anam moderated the programme while Banasree Mitra Neogi, gender adviser of MJF and Sayema Haque Bidisha, professor of economics at Dhaka University shared their knowledge on the matter.

Women's work can be termed “invisible labour”, as despite working for 16-20 hours on average every day performing about 45 tasks, their contribution goes completely unnoticed, said speakers.

Journalists from sixteen TV and print media houses attended the dialogue.