I first met Lucky Begum in Gaibandha, in the village of Purbo Chandia. She is popularly known as netri (leader) in her area, because she leads the Fulchori Women’s Federation and is always the first to come forward when anyone in her region has a problem, using her networks with different government and nongovernment service providers at the Upazila and District level.
She is also the chairperson of Ujjol Upahar Women’s Group (supported by ActionAid Bangladesh), which has 25 other members, and has been a part of it since 2006. Now, the members of the Ujjal Upahar have become the participants of the Promoting Opportunity for Women Empowerment and Right Project, supported by the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
However, this has not always been her story. Now 36, she first came to the village as a child bride at 17. Mother of three children, her husband is a day labourer. There was a time when it was impossible for them to manage three meals a day. In these circumstances, she joined the women’s group, where she received training and learnt about many issues including unpaid care work, women’s rights, violence against women, etc.
All of this was part of greater initiatives to sensitize the community regarding the redistribution of care roles, especially with regard to men and their understanding of unpaid care work. Now, Lucky Begum’s daily life is not like most other women’s. Her ‘to do list’ consists of tasks including outside and household chores, many of which are shared by her husband.
In addition to redistributing work in the family, particularly with male members, the burden of unpaid care work can be relieved by initiating community level low-cost child care centers. In addition, increasing availability of improved or environmentally friendly cooking stoves (which helps to reduce time use and is healthier) can also be a good option to reduce unpaid care work for women in rural areas.
Over the last couple of years, ActionAid Bangladesh has focused greatly on activities which aim to increase understanding and reduce the burden of unpaid care work on women. These initiatives include supporting female members of the groups to mobilise on women’s rights, supporting sensitisation meetings with spouses, religious and community leaders, market management committees, and inspiring local men to raise awareness around the issue. The community was also mobilised to challenge social norms that cause an unfair distribution of unpaid care work. Men and women filled in ‘Time Diaries’, which showed how much unpaid care work was done each day by women versus men, making the community aware of the disparity.
Feminist economists argue that GDP statistics need to start taking into account care giving and housework if we want to start valuing these things as a society. It is heartening to see that the Ministry of Women and Children Affairs in Bangladesh recently included unpaid care work as third in its Priority Development Agenda 2015. Section 23.10 of the National Action Plan 2013 of the National Women Development Policy also included the need for valuation of women’s household work and its inclusion in GDP. However, there is yet to be an initiative to implement this action plan. The government needs to do more and take steps to value and redistribute unpaid care work to achieve target 5.4 of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals.
In the wake of the 2018/19 Budget to be promulgated by June, it is imperative to recognise unpaid care work and women’s contribution in the informal sector and have it reflected in the budget. Secondly, there is a need for major investment in supporting women and their unpaid care work by establishing child care centers, skills development initiatives for women and girls to move into productive employment, and access to full citizenship without any discrimination due to social, cultural, institutional or legislative barriers.
Farah Kabir is Country Director, ActionAid in Bangladesh