Source: Daily Trust
Several people do not regard any task done within the home and not paid for as work, no matter how tedious or long it takes. That is why it is common to hear people saying 'that woman is not working" even if she works from morning till night and someone who goes out to do something even if for a few hours and comes home, but receives wages or pay at the end of the month or any other time frame is said to be working.

Unpaid care work is mostly carried out by women and girls and is not recognized nor valued as work in many places .Unpaid care work refers to those tasks and activities towards caring for the household such as cooking, cleaning, fetching water, firewood, looking after the children and other household members, and voluntary community work, and in which the person doing all these is not paid.

In other words unpaid care work is done for no pay, involves serving or caring for people and their wellbeing, involves time and energy and mostly done under a social or contractual obligation like marriage or other relationships.

A woman called Habiba for instance said when she wakes up in the morning, after her morning prayers, it is all work and work till she sleeps at night; from cleaning to cooking, washing clothes, bathing and feeding the children to others chooes. "I do everything in the house even when I am sick or tired because in our culture, it is a taboo for men to cook or hold children. I break firewood with my child tied to my back after working all day, my husband is willing to help but he is afraid people may make fun of him or say I have bewitched him when they see him doing household chores or caring for the children while I do other things."

Country Director of ActionAid Nigeria, Dr. Hussaini Abdu said findings from its multi-country programme in four countries focused on women's unpaid care work show that in poor rural and urban areas women work longer hours than men, spend more time on unpaid care work and subsistence agriculture, and have less time to engage in paid work and social and cultural activities.

Because these activities are seen as just women's work even when the women and girls have a lot to do, they don't get any help from the males in the household. In many homes where couples work, and the women do more hard jobs in their paid work during the day, when they return home, they start working all over again in their unpaid work, and must do everything alone. Even when their husband have been at home all day, or have returned from work and are not doing anything. They do not help the women in spite of their suffering because of cultural stipulations, see it as the God given role of women or for fear of what people will say. The combination of all these becomes a very heavy burden for the women, affects their health, and they do not have time to rest or do other things for themselves.

According to the ActionAid International Report 'Making Care Visible' launched last month in the country "Care is around us everywhere - from the mother who takes care of her children, to the wife who cooks her family's meals, the eldest daughter who helps with the housework, and the widow who works in the community kitchen.

"These different caring activities are essential to maintaining our societies and across the world are primarily done by women and girls. When this work is carried out in the person's own home and is unpaid, it is not reflected in national statistics or economic analyses, despite its centrality to our day-to-day wellbeing. It is perceived to be less valuable than paid work and it is ignored and not considered to be "work" even by the women and men who engage in and benefit directly from these activities. In part because it is invisible in national statistics and less valued, local and national authorities generally fail to design social and economic policies that can reduce women's primary responsibility for unpaid care work."

The report which is compiled from the research it carried out with partners in four countries over an 18 month period and working with women from 10 rural and urban communities in Nigeria, Uganda, Kenya and Nepal to track their unpaid care work says while all women regardless of class, race, caste and ethnicity are expected to provide care as part of their roles as mothers, wives, and daughters, women living in poverty are disproportionately affected by this responsibility.

"Unpaid care is more difficult to do in the context of poverty as basic amenities, and access to public services are lacking. Further, the income needed to purchase goods and services to undertake care work may not be available. Women must then rely on their own labour to provide the care that is required. Many women living in poverty carry the dual responsibilities for both unpaid care work and earning an income or subsistence farming. Women's responsibility for care leads to the violation of their basic human rights to an education, political participation, decent work and leisure. It contributes to persistent gender inequalities."

The report also showed women sleep for shorter hours in this country than men.

Dr. Abdu said the time women spend doing unpaid care work and subsistence farming increases poverty and has negative impact on their well being. Adding, "It is not simply a women issue but a developmental issue."

Women's Rights Programme Manager of ActionAid, Patience Ekeoba said findings from the report reveal that, "in Nigeria, women living in Jiwa, Abuja spend more than an hour collecting water. In Gaube and Kuje women spend on average four hours per day on childcare and four hours on subsistence agriculture, leaving them only 43 minutes to spend on paid work. In comparison, a small sample of men's diaries shows that men spend only three minutes per day on childcare and six hours per day in paid work."

She said: "We have been socialized to think 'these roles are for women', 'these are for men' but this has to change . When you try to bring about attitudinal change some see it as trying to bring in foreign culture. But it shouldn't be so, we should try to strike a balance by reducing the burden of women. We see situations where the girls are cooking and boys playing football."

It is not just in the rural areas that men see doing unpaid care work as a taboo, it is common in the cities and some educated men still have the misconception. Some women are not helping matters and even stop their husbands from helping them, believing they are fulfilling cultural or religious obligations. Some men till date do not think they have any responsibility in carrying their children except if they want to do it for pleasure.

Unpaid care work by women and girls need to be valued by both women and men, the community and Government . When it is recognized, women and girls will get more help from others around. There should be increase in early child care services for women in both rural and urban areas. There is need for men to be more involved in unpaid care work. There is also need for attitudinal change or change from the perception and belief that unpaid care work is only women's work from the household, community and government and just as the report said "a more collective responsibility for care provision across actors from women and men, the community and the government would help to respect, protect and fulfill women's rights."

Government and local leaders should recognize, reduce and redistribute unpaid care work so that women do not have to carry this unequal work load. Government can also help by funding public services that will support women living in poverty and carrying a far too heavy responsibility for unpaid care work.

• Nigeria