Bangladeshi women are forced to spend 1.2 hours in formal employment while spending 5.9 hours in unpaid domestic work, affecting the country’s economic productivity and growth.
In contrast, men spent 6.1 hours daily for employment and relevant work, according to the Time Use Survey (TUS) 2021 conducted recently by Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS).
Economists said that since the government has failed to create adequate job opportunities for the women, the huge inequality in terms of employment status is persisting in the country despite a better economic progress.
The BBS's Labour Force Survey 2016-17 showed that the labour force participation rate was 36.3% for women and 80.5% for men.
According to the TUS 2021, women spent 4.6 hours in unpaid domestic works and 1.2 hours in unpaid care works at their homes daily.
On the other hand, men used only 0.6 hours a day in unpaid domestic work and 0.2 hours in unpaid care work.
It, however, showed that men remain behind women in the "production of goods for own final use" category as the male spends 0.6 hours a day while women use 0.8 hours for the job.
In socializing and communication as well as community participation and religious practices, both men and women use almost similar time daily - 2.2 hours and 2.1 hours respectively.
For culture, leisure, mass media and sports activities, men spend 2.6 hours and women spend 2.7 hours a day, the BBS survey said.
It showed that both men and women use the highest time in self-care and maintenance (including sleeping and recreation) in their daily life -males 11.3 hours and females 10.9 hours daily.
In terms of employment and relevant activities, both men and women in urban areas are ahead of the rural areas, the TUS 2021 said, urban men use 6.6 hours and women 1.6 hours a day.
In rural areas, men use 5.9 hours in employment and relevant work and women utilize 1.1 hours a day.
