The time spent on unpaid care work for most Bangladeshi women has been disproportionately high compared to men. This further limits women in the economic, social, and political sectors.
Action Aid Bangladesh and Dhaka University Debating Society has organized ‘Action Aid-DUDS National Debate Campaign 2018’ a nationwide debate competition to ensure the recognition, redistribution and reduction of unpaid care work.
The organizers said the month long event will be held in 8 divisions from September during a press conference at Dhaka University on Saturday morning.
Students from almost all public and private schools are participating in the debate campaign.
ActionAid Bangladesh Deputy Manager, Sariful Islam began the press conference with a speech on the subject of unpaid care work.
Sariful Islam said: “Household chores, cooking, raising children, washing dishes and clothes, collecting firewood, cleaning the house, fetching water and even taking care of the elderly or sick falls under unpaid care work.”
“ActionAid Bangladesh has been working with the Bangladesh government since 2011 conducting surveys and various projects regarding unpaid care work,” he added.
Bangladeshi women spend almost 12 years of their life in the kitchen in this country. According to a study titled “Incorporation of Women’s Economic Empowerment and Unpaid Care Work into regional polices: South Asia”, released in December 2017 by ActionAid Bangladesh, women in Bangladesh spend over six hours a day doing unpaid care work while their male counterparts spend just over an hour on such activities.
Sariful said, in reality household chores are not considered ‘real work’ and does not fall within the organized market economy, and thus do not get counted in the national income.
ActionAid Bangladesh Project Manager Helal Uddin mentioned, the government needs to be aware of this issue. He said: “Currently, women spend more time working than men. This puts a lot of pressure on women, lagging them behind economically, socially and politically.”
The debate competition has been organized in Khulna University on September 15 where students from school, college and universities have participated.
Another event will be held in Dhaka at Dhaka University and in Mymensingh on September 24, Monday. Later the competition will be organized in Rangpur, Barisal, Sylhet and Chittagong.