With recognition comes decision-making power

The lack of recognition of women's unpaid work in Bangladesh is something that has fortunately begun to be discussed. This was highlighted yet again at a press conference on Sunday marking the International Day of Rural Women. While it is a good sign that we have begun to at least talk about the issue, we are far from monetising unpaid work and giving these women the due recognition for their valuable labour.

According to a joint study published by the Centre for Policy Dialogue and Manusher Jonno Foundation in December 2015, 89.5 percent of women are employed in the informal sector "with varying and often unpredictable earning patterns." The results of the study were eye-opening: it estimated that the value of women's unpaid household work amounted to nearly 77 percent of the country's GDP in 2013-14. Furthermore, the rate of women working in the informal sector is much higher than the world average, according to ILO, which largely explains why much of their labour remains unrecognised.

The consequences of unremunerated work have been far-reaching for rural women. It has resulted in the deprivation of their social status and severely limited their decision-making power in the household. The fact that 93 percent of landless women are not availing the benefits of the Vulnerable Development Group (VGD), a safety net programme assisted by the World Food Programme—as reported in a Bangla daily yesterday—gives rise to new concerns about the effectiveness of existing initiatives which are supposed to help uplift women from poverty.

The government should think about forming a satellite account, as recommended by researchers and economists, to show women's contribution in the economy. And it is imperative that programmes targeted at rural women are implemented properly and funds used efficiently.