Ministry of Finance committed to formally recognise women‍‍`s unpaid care work in the GDP

In a landmark move, the Bangladesh government has announced that women’s unpaid household and caregiving work will soon receive official recognition and be included in national GDP calculations for the first time.

While presenting the national budget for the fiscal year 2025–26, Finance Adviser Salehuddin Ahmed highlighted this significant policy shift. “Alongside women in the workforce, countless women contribute tirelessly as homemakers. Their invaluable efforts often go unacknowledged. Today, on behalf of the government and the people, I offer them our deepest respect and gratitude,” he said.

He further stated that the government would take procedural steps to quantify and incorporate the economic value of these unpaid contributions using financial benchmarks.

Globally, unpaid care work forms a vital yet invisible backbone of economies. A 2018 report by the International Labour Organization estimated that 16.4 billion hours of such work are done daily worldwide - equivalent to 2 billion full-time jobs and nearly 9% of global GDP.

A 2024 study by the Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies (BIDS) found that in 2021, unpaid domestic and caregiving work by Bangladeshi women was worth Tk 5.3 trillion - approximately 14.8% of the country’s GDP. In stark contrast, men‍‍`s unpaid labour represented just 2.8%.

The study revealed deep gender imbalances: women spent 4.6 hours per day on household work compared to men’s 0.6 hours, and 1.2 hours on caregiving versus men’s 0.2 hours. Overall, 24.5% of women’s daily time went into unpaid labour, compared to only 3.3% for men. Meanwhile, men devoted 6.1 hours per day to paid or self-employment, while women averaged just 1.2 hours.

BIDS calculated these contributions using the daily wage rate of unskilled workers - Tk 37.5 per hour in rural areas and Tk 43.5 in urban areas. However, the researchers noted that these calculations underestimate the value of women’s work, as they exclude skilled, emotional, and caregiving aspects. Including these factors would raise the estimated value of unpaid female labour to 18.5–19.6% of GDP.

This initiative marks a critical step toward recognising the economic role of women in households and advancing gender-inclusive policy frameworks in Bangladesh.