Let not female workers lose out

In a disheartening revelation, recent data from a Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS) report underscores a significant setback in the country's pursuit of leveraging its demographic dividend. According to the Bangladesh Sample Vital Statistics 2022 report, a staggering 62 percent of young women aged 15-24 years were classified as NEETs—not in employment, education or training—marking a 2.53 percentage point increase from 2021. While around 40.7 percent of the country's 3.15 crore youths falls under NEET category, a lack of gender parity also becomes evident when we see that the number of male NEETs over the same period decreased by 1.35 percentage points, to 18.59 percent. These alarming statistics not only reflect squandered workforce potential, but also signal serious socioeconomic crises for Bangladesh in the long run.

The factors behind the aforementioned NEET increase can be narrowed down to limited employment and training opportunities for women, pandemic-related dropouts, and lack of overall social and economic security. While the government has done well to bring more girls into education—as evidenced by the country's gender parity rate of 93.6 percent, per the World Economic Forum's Global Gender Gap Report 2023—its efforts to train them for employment fall far too short. But perhaps the biggest hurdles to women obtaining education or entering the labour force are ones hidden behind the data. As we know, the period during and right after the pandemic saw a marked rise in child marriage and, relatedly, a high level of female dropouts. And in general, due to prevalent social norms, it is usually the working mother who must give up her job or education in order to stay home with the children.

We urge the government to take the BBS findings seriously and provide young women with the practical opportunities and social support needed to realise their full potential. Failure to address the rise in women NEET will not only jeopardise Bangladesh's demographic dividend, but may also hinder our progress towards achieving the SDGs and becoming an upper-middle-income country by 2031. We must nurture the talents of our young population in order to chart the path towards long-term sustainable and inclusive development.

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