Dhaka: Research shows that Bangladeshi women spend almost six hours in ‘unpaid care work’ everyday, besides five hours in productive work.

The study reveals men spend disproportionately less time in care work - just one hour, against 8 hours in productive work in a day. Interestingly, combining the two types of work - care and productive - tells us women spend a greater amount of time in work overall in a day (11 hours) compared to men (9 hours). Sleep and resting times are similar for both men and women.

The findings of the research were released at a discussion on ‘National Sharing of Research Findings on Unpaid Care Work and Kite Festival’, held at Nabab Nowab Ali Chowdhury Senate Bhaban of Dhaka University on Tuesday.

ActionAid Bangladesh and the Centre for Gender and Social Transformation (CGST) of BRAC Institute of Governance and Development (BIGD) carried out the study on rural women and men in Lalmonirhat and Gaibandha over a one-year period from November 2013 to October 2014.

The study compared the time spent on different categories of activities by gender, age, marital status, education and occupation. The objective of the study was to assess the amount of labour that goes into ‘care’ work and to demonstrate the unequal responsibility and burden borne by men and women, mostly the latter, in the provision of this kind of work.

The research titled, ‘Pattern of time use of adult women and men in rural North Bangladesh: 2013-2014’ shows that women in Lalmonirhat spend on average 1.5 hours more time in care work, 0.7 hours more on productive work, and 1.5 hours less on leisure compared to women in Gaibandha.

Men in Lalmonirhat also spend more time in productive work (by 1 hour) compared to men in Gaibandha.

Women spend more time in productive work in summer (March-June) and   men spend more time in winter (Nov-Feb). Both men and women spend less time in productive work during the rainy season (July-October) when time for leisure is abundant.

Another interesting finding is that in both areas, women spent less time in care work and more time in productive work as they get older and more and more past child-bearing age, or as children grow up  and require less and less attention.

Married women spend more time in care work and less time in productive work compared to widowed or separated women. Women with a little bit of education spend more time in care work and less time in productive work compared to women with no education, says the study.