Rural Bangladesh: Women labour force on the rise
Female labour force participation in rural areas has increased significantly in Bangladesh thanks to women's growing involvement in the agriculture sector and urban-rural migration brought on by the global coronavirus pandemic.
In 2016, the female labour force participation rate in rural areas was 38.6 percent. In 2022, it shot up to 50.89 percent, shows the latest edition of the Labour Force Survey that came out last month.
One of the reasons could be the increase in off-farm activities in recent times, which, according to Planning Minister MA Mannan, explains the increase in overall employment in the agriculture sector.
Activities that are related to crops and livestock but occur outside of the field such as processing, packaging and other forms of value addition are termed off-farm activities.
Women are mostly involved in post-harvesting work, said Sheikh Mohammad Sayem, who was a consultant for the latest Labour Force Survey.
The mass lay-offs in garment factories, which mostly employ women, during the pandemic could also explain the spike in rural female labour force participation, he said.
"Those women mostly went back to their villages and got involved with various jobs -- they did not sit idle," said Sheikh Mohammad Sayem, associate professor of agricultural and applied statistics at Bangladesh Agricultural University.
In fact, migration from urban areas to rural regions and other towns has seen a rise, shows the Sample Vital Registration System 2021.
Out of every 1,000 people, eight moved from urban centres to rural areas in 2021, up from 4.7 in 2020. Rural-to-urban migration declined to 30.8 per thousand from 31.3 the previous year, as per the Sample Vital Registration System 2021.
At the same time, female labour force participation in urban areas declined significantly: from 31 percent in 2016-17 to 23.6 percent in 2022.
Sharmind Neelormi, an associate professor of economics at Jahangirnagar University, also attributed the trend to greater involvement in agriculture.
"Usually, a woman in a rural area would not be able to stay unemployed as per the definition of employment," she said.
It is relatively easier for women in rural areas to get into family's economic activities -- be it in farming or non-farm activities, said Rizwanul Islam, a former employment sector special adviser at the International Labour Organisation in Geneva.
It is quite possible that a large number of young women entered their family business when the schools were closed during the pandemic.
The education sector has also emerged as an important employer for women in rural areas, he said.
For several decades, microcredit has played an important role in generating self-employment in rural areas, and a very high proportion of the borrowers are women, according to Islam.
"That has helped rural women to participate in economic activities," he added.
As much as 90 percent of the 4 crore microcredit borrowers are women, according to Mohammad Yakub Hossain, director of the Microcredit Regulatory Authority.
Zahid Hussain, a former lead economist at the World Bank's Dhaka office, said there is not much to rejoice over the statistical increase in rural and overall female labour force participation.
In 2016, the overall female labour force participation rate was 36.3 percent, which increased to 42.68 percent in 2022.
"Women's access to quality jobs did not improve -- they are still lagging behind men in career and access to education and so on because of social norms. They are not reaching the mid-level or managerial level. It is not that they are incapable. This is a matter of concern," Hussain said.
Mustafizur Rahman, a distinguished fellow at the Centre for Policy Dialogue, echoed the same.
The female labour force in rural areas is mostly involved in self-employment rather than wage-related jobs, he said.
The drop in female labour force participation rate in urban areas is not a good sign, said Sayema Haque Bidisha, a professor of economics at the University of Dhaka.
"This is not good for socioeconomic development -- it may create discrimination between the rural and urban areas," said Rahman of CPD, while calling for more investment to create more jobs for women and ensure a good work environment for them.
Bidisha, also the research director of the South Asian Network on Economic Modelling, went on to suggest incentives for the private sector to take on more women in their payroll.
The government should address all fundamental workplace issues for women like childcare, safe transport and so on, she added.
"Unfriendly environments for women's work outside the home and lack of supporting infrastructure like child care and nursing facilities for young mothers are the major reasons for lower urban female labour force participation," Islam said.
There is a shortage of jobs for urban educated women especially white-collar jobs as per their aspiration, which may be reflected in a much higher rate of unemployment for educated women, he added.
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