Household work needs to be recognised as economic activities

Though women constitute half of the total population of the country, their participation in nation building activities remain constrained. This is not because of their incompetence or apathy; the society imposed restriction on them. Institutions along with the patriarchal structure of the society give high value to the males over centuries. They receive better treatment and access to education, nutrition and health care. Women, on the other hand, are commonly viewed in their reproductive roles giving an auxiliary status as economically dependents.
Despite these constraints, there are some developments in the women related social indicators. These developments are also, to a large extent, caused by compulsions for survival such as the familiar claims of increased participation of women in the labour force. The ever increasing pressures to sustain in the context of growing need have pushed women to engage in income generating activities.
The foundation of the economy of a nation largely depends on economic activities, whether paid or unpaid. But the fact is that paid work is counted as part of the economy and unpaid work remains neglected. Unpaid workers are not considered part of the labour force and their work is not considered as income. Unpaid workers thus fail to get the attention they deserve. Women bear major responsibilities for unpaid work which includes cooking, washing clothes, cleaning, taking care of children and the elderly, tutoring children and so on.
The crucial contributions of women are often invisible and are usually provided without assurance of economic return. The invisibility of much of work done by women in the home and the fields add to their low status and ill treatment. Their unpaid work is neither officially recognised by policy-makers, nor recognised as true work. Women remain invisible and unpaid though they are contributing to the society and the state. Household work is perceived as the main work of women. Women spend a lot of time, labor, and devotion to maintain the household. These efforts are not recognised rather are devaluated to continue the traditional domination and power structure in the household. Though women put longer work hours in family, their contribution is not counted in the GDP.  
A nation-wide study conducted by an NGO Unnayan Onneshan says, housewives averagely spend 8.13 hours per day for household work. Considering full-time employment, the research organisation showed that the total engagement of the unpaid workers in Bangladesh might be equivalent to 9.3 million full-time employments per year. In case of monetary value, the total unpaid work might equivalent to nearly Tk 1116 billion per year. Moreover, this amount is equivalent to 10.75 per cent of the GDP for the fiscal year 2012-13. The economic value of unpaid housework of women would have been much higher if the wage of women in Bangladesh would not be comparatively low and the wage deferential between men and women would not prevail.
The patriarchal societal structure reproduces itself with acknowledging and considering men's work economically productive, but women who are engaged in full time housework are not classified like that. Another nation-wide study conducted by the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics in collaboration with the United Nations Population Fund revealed that about 87 per cent of Bangladeshi married women are abused by their husbands.  
The life of a woman in Bangladesh is dominated by patriarchal social customary system. The approach towards women has been opportunistic and contradictory. With the existing institutional barriers along with the hurdles of patriarchal society, women are generally deprived of their traditional means of livelihood. The society should recognise that women are doing the bulk of the work and are not being financially rewarded for doing so. Learning to value women is one of the vital steps that must be taken to create more humane, healthy, balanced, and caring societies. Acknowledging the value of the work carried out by women for their families could be an important start.
Capitalist patriarchy is unable to understand that household activities are very closely integrated to the national economy. Without changing this view, it is difficult to ensure equal rights. If women were ever to go on strike, we would understand more fully the full worth and importance of their work. In fact, families would cease to function if women did not work, which is the precise reason why women can not go on strike. It is important to accomplish qualitative change in the attitudes, values and outlooks of policymakers and the general public regarding household work. Valuing the caring and household work that are essential to a nation can only bring benefits to all.
Needless to say, this also resonates with the need for empowering women in order to ensure the gender balance in society. Women are still deprived of their fundamental rights and living an accursed existence even after 43 years after the adoption of the constitution, which enshrine equal rights and status for every citizen.
To address the issue of unpaid work in Bangladesh, some major changes are required. There is urgency for recognition of the embedded institutional rigidities that reproduces the system, formulate comprehensive social policy and institute holistic social security system. Unless such realities are recognised and responded with appropriate policies, institutional structures and monetary instruments, it will be impossible for achieving real equality in the society.
The writer is a Research Associate at Unnayan Onneshan, a research organisation in Dhaka. E-mail: mustafiz.rahman@unnayan.org