Unpaid Care Work in Bangladesh: Policies, Practice and Evidence

This review examines selected policies and plans of the Government of Bangladesh and available research in Bangladesh in response to the need to address unpaid care work - the work, mainly done by women and girls, of caring for others (often called reproductive work), at the policy level. Its purpose is to look at whether and the extent to which unpaid care work is addressed in existing national laws, Government policies and research in Bangladesh. The review was undertaken as part of a collaborative project on ‘Gender, Power and Sexuality’ involving the Institute of Development Studies (IDS) in the UK, SMERU in Indonesia, and the Centre for Gender and Social Transformation (CGST) in Bangladesh, that aims to ensure inclusion of unpaid care work on the national and global policy agendas. The findings from the review reveal that unpaid care work has primarily featured in a limited way, and mostly as background noise both at the research and policy level in Bangladesh. The search for pathways to women’s empowerment in Bangladesh has focused on women’s participation in paid work and this is reflected in both policies and research. In this regard, unpaid care work has mainly featured as a constraint to women’s participation in paid work. Although rarely addressed directly in policies or in research to date, some very recent changes indicate the creation of new spaces in policies for the emergence and recognition of unpaid care work

Diverging stories of son preference in South Asia: a comparison of India and Bangladesh

In Bangladesh, overall sex ratio has declined from 109.6 (males/females) in the 1950s to 100.3 in 2011. Unlike countries with female deficits, the improvement in sex ratio has extended to the under‐5 age group. This has happened in a context where per‐capita income has grown modestly but poverty continues to be widespread. Thus the story of “missing women” is evolving differently in Bangladesh than from India where decline in overall sex ratios has been accompanied by worsening of child sex ratios. In this paper we explore the hypothesis that improvement in child sex ratios in Bangladesh is due to a shift in parental preferences about sex composition of families in a society undergoing rapid socio‐economic change. Using a combination of quantitative and qualitative data, we find that parents are less likely to discriminate between sons and daughters than in the past with respect to survival and investments in human capital. These changes indicate a weakening of patriarchal structures and cultural norms around fertility intentions and sex composition of families. In comparison to India, it is speculated that the diverging story of sex preference in Bangladesh could be related to the timing of introduction of sex selection technology and the role of the state and civil society in the two contexts.Lopita HuqNaila Kabeer Simeen Mahmu

Does dowry improve life for brides? A test of the bequest theory of dowry in rural Bangladesh

In recent years, dowry levels in Bangladesh have risen to previously unforeseen levels—sometimes three or four times a family’s total assets. Some recent economic writings suggest that dowry functions as a bequest or pre-mortem inheritance, implying it persists because it is “good for the bride.” Using panel data from an adolescent study in rural Bangladesh, this Population Council working paper explores the association between dowry and the prevalence of domestic abuse to test the bequest theory of dowry. Contrary to the prediction of the bequest theory, married females who paid dowry at marriage have a higher likelihood of reporting domestic violence compared to those who did not. In addition, the relation between dowry and abuse is highly level-specific: respondents who paid small dowries report much higher levels of abuse than those who paid large dowries. In fact, paying no dowry is just as protective, if not more so, in terms of preventing abuse as the largest dowry payments

Marriage considerations in sending girls to school in Bangladesh: Some qualitative evidence

This working paper analyzes parents’ decisions about girls’ schooling in the context of marriage through in-depth exploration of case studies in two rural areas of northern Bangladesh. The villages are sites of a long-term community study from 1991 and 2002, a time when significant changes were underway, partly as a result of new school incentive programs introduced in 1994. The data show that the rise of dowry demands, a relatively recent practice that is barely a generation old among Muslims in these areas, asserts an important and independent influence on marriage decisions and indirectly influences decisions about schooling. The influence of programs such as secondary school scholarships for girls is best viewed in the context of familial concerns about marriage and dowry

The Power of Relationships: Love and Solidarity in a Landless Women's Organisation in Rural Bangladesh

This article examines the significance of social relationships in women's lives and their relevance to processes of women's empowerment. In Bangladesh, traditional structures limit women's social interaction to their immediate family and maintain male responsibility over them. However, here we look at the example of Saptagram – a social mobilisation organisation particularly focused against gender injustice towards rural landless Bangladeshi women – and how by providing relationships beyond the private sphere it engendered bonds of friendship and loyalty amongst its beneficiaries. Difficulties with systems and its inability to recruit a new line of leadership led to its apparent failure at one point. Yet, despite this, by providing knowledge of rights, respect, courage to stand up for one's beliefs and a sense of wellbeing through working alongside people in the villages, it inspired an enduring solidarity amongst the women it served which led to its eventual resurrection