Caring for women's role in growth with paid caregiving

With around half of Bangladesh's population aged 20-54, the nation stands poised for a demographic transformation as younger generations increasingly replace the older workforce. However, the full potential of this demographic shift remains largely untapped, with women's workforce participation at nearly 50 per cent lower than men's. Observing the trend of women's participation, Bangladesh needs to supersede some crucial underlying macroeconomic and socio-cultural barriers to engage them in keeping the country's growth wheels in motion. Additionally, creating a supportive environment for women already in the workforce is critical, including sharing and reducing their disproportionate care responsibilities.

Care work, both paid and unpaid, includes direct and indirect support for children, the elderly, the sick, and those with disabilities, as well as domestic tasks such as cooking, cleaning, and washing. Due to ingrained gender roles, women in Bangladesh bear a substantial share of this unpaid domestic and care work, spending seven times more time than men, as shown by the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics' Time Use Survey. This limits women's economic mobility and is a major reason for their lower workforce participation compared to men. Consequently, women's limited workforce presence stifles both their economic empowerment and national growth. A recent estimate indicates that women's unpaid care work was valued at 14.8 per cent of GDP in 2021. Yet, because this labour is largely invisible and unaccounted for in economic assessments, gender inequality persists unaddressed. Bangladesh's ranking in the latest Global Gender Gap Index reflects this, dropping from 59th to 99th in 2024, with the lowest scores in Economic Participation and Opportunity.

This decline, along with an overall low participation rate for women, may impact the economy at a time when Bangladesh faces challenging political dynamics and economic vulnerabilities. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has joined the World Bank and Asian Development Bank (ADB) in revising Bangladesh's growth forecast, now at 4.5 per cent for the fiscal year 2024-25. This marks a sharp drop from the IMF's earlier 6.6 per cent projection in April, the lowest growth rate in nearly two decades, excluding the pandemic period.

While the increasing inflation rate remains at the core of this economic struggle, Bangladesh is on the verge of diversifying its economic product basket and rethinking its industrial priorities.

The readymade garments sector, which is the largest sector absorbing the unskilled and semi-skilled women in the country, will not be able to accommodate and compensate women in larger numbers in the future ahead. Rather, automation has already hit this sector with lesser requirement of workers.

Bangladesh must therefore rethink its economic priorities and diversify its industrial landscape. The readymade garments sector, the primary employer of unskilled and semi-skilled women for long, may not be able to sustain this role as automation reduces labour demand. The emerging care economy, encompassing all paid and unpaid care services, can play a transformative role here. By providing affordable care services, women can engage more fully in the labour market with fewer social constraints, while new employment opportunities can be created, especially in caregiving roles locally and abroad. Skilled caregivers for children and the elderly, for instance, could also contribute to remittance inflows through international employment.

To enable this, Bangladesh needs to establish robust care policies, systems, and infrastructure to support sustainable economic development and social well-being. Currently lacking in policy and infrastructure, Bangladesh can draw on globally-recognised models such as the 'Care Diamond,' which allocates care responsibilities among households, markets, the state, and community organisations. Presently, much of the care work in Bangladesh occurs within households, often without compensation. Developing affordable paid caregiving services will first require supportive policies, with guidance from frameworks like the ILO's 5R approach.

The 5R framework recommends recognising, reducing, and redistributing unpaid care work, rewarding paid care work, and ensuring care workers' representation through collective bargaining. This approach seeks to reduce inequalities in care, improve caregivers' socioeconomic status, and remove barriers that prevent women from entering the workforce. It further enhances care quality for those receiving services (the 5R Framework for Decent Care Work, ILO).

In addition to policies, developing paid care services also requires robust systems and infrastructure. The demand for affordable caregiving services is growing as Bangladesh's middle-income and dual-income households increase. Specifically, daycare centres, elderly care, and nursing services are in high demand. Strategic investments in caregiver training and service quality will convert this demand into economically viable opportunities, creating substantial employment options, especially for women. Both government and private sector cooperation is needed to develop this budding care economy, which can provide jobs and boost women's labour force participation. Research suggests that a 1.0 per cent increase in female employment correlates with a 0.65 per cent GDP growth in Bangladesh (Rushidan & Rizwanul, 2013).

The care economy holds transformative potential to bridge the gender gap in Bangladesh's workforce. By recognising and investing in care services, Bangladesh can empower women to participate fully in the labour market, alleviating their domestic burdens and unlocking their economic potential. Developing a supportive infrastructure for caregiving services not only fosters new employment opportunities-especially for women-but also enhances the quality of life for families and communities. As Bangladesh navigates economic challenges, this strategic focus on a gender-responsive care economy offers a pathway to inclusive growth, empowering women as vital contributors to the nation's development.

The writer is working as a Senior Associate at Inspira Advisory & Consulting Limited. [email protected]