The upcoming budget will give priority to participation of women in the labour force, seeking to ensure gender balance in societal and economic fronts. The government feels that women’s participation rate must be raised and more females should join the mainstream economic activities for a speedy economic growth, people involved in preparing the budget documents told the FE. The budget speech to be placed on June 02 will set a target of 10 per cent rise in labour force participation of women in the next five years beginning July next. The government apparently took the issue seriously as female participation is on the decline as per the latest labour force survey released early this year. The survey, conducted in 2013 by the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS), says participation of women in labour force is 33.5 per cent, down by 2.5 percentage point from its previous survey of 2010. In 2005-06, the female labour force was just above 29 per cent and in 2002-03, the same was just 26 per cent, according to labour force surveys conducted by the BBS. This fall has been attributed by many to lack of employment opportunities for women and their security at work places. Absence of women-friendly working atmosphere is one of the key reasons for it. The people, familiar with the development at the Finance Division, said the government now wants to raise the female labour force participation at least to 44 per cent from the current level of below 34 per cent. They believe that increased female labour force participation will help boost the economy by one percentage point. However, the next budget is expected to give some incentives for creation of female employment in the country. These include fund disbursement to female entrepreneurs at a much lower rate of interest. Other incentives also include setting up of new child care centres and welfare funds across the country to facilitate the working female workers. The government also will encourage setting up of juvenile clubs across the country to motivate the youth female force. The budget is expected to provide some measures to stop violence in households and industrial units and ensure friendly atmosphere for the female working people.
