Bangladesh’s failure to ensure quality childcare services could lead to a steady decline in women’s workforce participation, warned speakers at a discussion on Thursday.
The observation came at an event titled “Quality Childcare Development in Bangladesh’s Workplaces,” jointly organized by the Bangladesh Institute of Labour Studies (BILS) and research organisation LightCastle Partners, with support from ILO Bangladesh, at the Bangladesh-China Friendship Conference Center in Dhaka.
The event presented research findings on the current state of childcare in Bangladeshi workplaces, guidance on national minimum standards, experiences from community-level pilot projects, and recommendations in light of the Bangladesh Labour Act (Amendment Ordinance-2025).
Trade union leaders, employers’ organization representatives, civil society members, development practitioners, and government officials attended the programme.
Speakers noted that while quality childcare is internationally recognised as a crucial prerequisite for women’s workforce participation and increased industrial productivity, significant structural and implementation weaknesses persist in Bangladesh.
Although ILO Convention 156 ensures maternity protection and community-level childcare services, and the country has enacted the Child Daycare Centre Act, 2021, inspection mechanisms for quality improvement remain weak, often rendering the provisions merely a formality, they said.
“If childcare is not recognised as a labour right, women’s labour rights will be endangered,” warned speakers, including Additional Secretary of the Ministry of Labour and Employment Md Humayun Kabir, Bangladesh Employers’ Federation Additional Secretary General Md Saidul Islam, BILS Executive Director Syed Sultan Uddin Ahmed, and SKOP Joint Coordinator Ahsan Habib Bulbul.
They expressed concern that without improving daycare centres and caregiver development, women’s participation in the workforce will gradually decline. The speakers emphasised universalising childcare services by improving quality within existing capacities.
However, they identified the shortage of officers in the Department of Labour Inspection as a major constraint. They also called for increased social cooperation and patronage for developing child daycare centres.
The event presented several policy recommendations, including recognising childcare as a universal labour right, transforming childcare from a facility-based to a service-oriented approach aligned with national standards, integrating childcare into labour rights and social policies, strengthening inspection and institutional coordination, encouraging joint responsibility and partnerships, and professionalizing childcare workers while regulating service quality.
