Bangladesh GDP misses a hopping Tk 6.7 trillion or 18.9 per cent in economic value of unpaid work, the womenfolk contributing the highest amount, according to latest official statistics.
Of the total unaccounted-for economic value in terms of gross domestic product, women's share is 16.14 per cent which is equivalent to Tk 5.7 trillion, Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS) survey report shows.
The survey findings, published Tuesday, show that the womenfolk contributed the most in Bangladesh's unpaid works in 2021, estimated at 85.37 per cent of unpaid work.
Among the unpaid works, domestic work is worth Tk 4.0 trillion where the women contribute 85.34 per cent and their male counterpart 14.66 per cent, the report reveals.
Besides, care work is worth Tk 2.7 trillion, with women having contributed 85.41 per cent of the total Tk 6.7 trillion worth of economic value.
The BBS and the UN Women Bangladesh, with support from the global Women Countprogramme and technical assistance from the Asian Development Bank (ADB), launched Bangladesh's official Household Production Satellite Account (HPSA).
Drawing on the Time Use Survey 2021 and the Labour Force Survey 2022, the HPSA estimates the economic value of unpaid household and care work in Bangladesh.
Unpaid domestic and care work-such as cooking, cleaning, laundry, household management, and caring for children, older persons, persons with disabilities, and those with health conditions-is "a critical yet invisible driver of the economy".
Women perform the vast majority of these tasks, which are essential but excluded from conventional economic statistics, the agencies note.
The report launch follows a landmark policy commitment in the national budget 2025-26, wherein the interim government has pledged to include women's unpaid labour in national Gross Domestic Product or GDP calculations, BBS said.
According to the HPSA report, women's contribution in terms of GDP calculation for food and meal management stands at Tk 2.4 trillion, for the childcare stands at Tk 2.2 trillion, and for cleaning and maintaining own dwellings and surroundings is Tk 470 billion.
On the other hand, the men's contribution in terms of GDP calculation for food and meal management stands at Tk 152 billion, for the childcare at Tk 343 billion, and for cleaning and maintaining own dwellings and surroundings Tk 126 billion.
According to the BBS survey, women and men in Bangladesh spend about 2,435 hours annually on average on unpaid domestic and care work. Of this, 79 per cent is spent on unpaid domestic work and the rest on unpaid care work.
Women spend 88 per cent of their time on unpaid work annually (2,146 hours), with 89 per cent devoted to domestic work and 86 per cent on care.
Meanwhile, women spent 7.3 times higher time than the men in unpaid works in Bangladesh, the UN Women-supported BBS survey shows.
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