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Recognition of unpaid care work provided by women in households can help reduce domestic violence, said speakers at a programme on Saturday.
This appreciation can also encourage women's participation in the formal labour market, they further said.
It was also discussed in the programme that a 1.0 per cent increase in female employment could increase economic growth by 0.31 per cent and contribute additional US$ 11.3 billion to the country's GDP in 2021.
The observations came at a webinar titled 'Integration of Care Economy in Policy Formulation', jointly organised by the South Asian Network on Economic Modeling (SANEM) and the Manusher Jonno Foundation (MJF).
Planning Minister MA Mannan addressed the programme as the chief guest.
Moderated by SANEM's Executive Director Dr Selim Raihan, SANEM Research Director Dr Sayema Haque Bidisha presented a keynote paper at the virtual programme.
In the presentation, Dr Bidisha said despite Bangladesh's impressive achievements in different socio-economic indicators, there were still many challenges in terms of women's empowerment.
One area which requires policy attention is women's economic contribution and participation in the labour market, she said, adding, "Women spend a large portion of their time in unpaid care work, especially in the households, which is not recognised properly as economic participation."
Putting emphasis on the 3R approach to recognise the care work, she said, "Recognising the value, reducing responsibilities, and redistributing the work should be on the forefront of the policies to empower women by recognising their unpaid contribution to the economy."
Mentioning that female youth of the country aged 15-29 years spends a mentionable hour of their day in unpaid care work, Dr Bidisha noted that women, who do not participate in the formal labour market, did spend about six hours on average in household activities whereas women in the formal labour market did spend about three hours daily.
If given monetary value, women's contribution in unpaid care work equals around 40 per cent of the total GDP of Bangladesh, she said, referring to a study.
Having children less than five years reduces the probability of women's labour force participation by 2.4 per cent, she added.
Meanwhile, Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD) Executive Director Dr Fahmida Khatun said, women's income gets raised by 2.5 to 3 times if unpaid care work is estimated along with the paid work.
Citing a CPD study, she said around one-fourth of the women were not willing to do any paid job as they believed doing household chores and taking care of children was their primary responsibility.
"So, unaccounted care work is having an impact on women's participation in the labour market and the trend is not just for poorer and less educated sections of the society but also for the women having higher degrees," she said.
Speaking on the occasion, Planning Minister Mr Mannan stressed the need for a holistic approach to recognise unpaid care work, as a large part of the population is unaware of the issue.
Referring that the government has already taken initiatives to recognise care work, he said the solution to remove the stigma lies in having appropriate laws and regulations.
The minister also said that initiatives like mandatory inclusion of three female members at union parishad and one woman vice chairman at the upazila level, and reservation of 60 per cent of primary school employment for women, were a few steps to bring women in formal work.
SANEM's Executive Director Dr Selim Raihan said various empirical works had already been done but the importance of its reflection and implementation in policies was important.
Addressing the institutional challenges to implement the policies is also crucial, he observed.
MJF Executive Director Shaheen Anam in her opening remarks said focusing on the care economy could lessen the burden on women and ultimately ensure their participation in paid and formal work.
Having proper policy interventions for this will also have a positive impact on the national GDP, she said, adding that recognising the unpaid care work would also ensure equality for women.
Additional Secretary of the Social Welfare Ministry Md Saiful Islam, Joint Secretary of the Economic Relations Division Baby Rani Karmakar, Additional Director of the Department of Women Affairs Dr Sheikh Muslima Moon, among others, spoke at the event.