Kichu Kori Na

A phrase that says everything

This is part of an ongoing series drawn from my PhD thesis, "Globalization, Internal Migration and Gender Relations: An Explorative Study on the Women Working at the Ready Made Garment Factories in Dhaka", submitted to the University of Dhaka in 2013. The research was a comparative study of women's migration and work in two different parts of Bangladesh – Netrokona and Khulna. These posts are an effort to share that research experience beyond academic walls.

Ask a housewife in Bangladesh what she does. Across all social classes and regions, the answer is almost always the same: 'kichu kori na.' I do not do anything. I do not work.

Ask her husband the same question about his wife. His answer is invariably the same. 'Temon kichu na. Ghor Shongshar kore' — nothing serious. She takes care of the household.

She cooks. She cleans. She raises children. She tends to the elderly. She manages the household from dawn to night. And yet – she thinks she does not work. The husband also sees it as routine, mundane — nothing significant otherwise.

These answers do not describe what she does in a day. They are a statement about how her work is valued — constructed and perceived through popular judgment. Cultural construction of womanhood, motherhood, and sexuality drives a woman into the nature of work she is engaged in — mostly informal, mostly invisible, mostly unpaid. A woman's productive, reproductive, and community work is most often considered as 'no-value work' — though society expects her to render all of it. Women absorb this strong social perception so deeply that they fail to see their own work as a worthwhile effort. And that is perhaps the most serious consequence of this perception — caught in a web of no-value work, a woman eventually fails to see any worth in herself.

Chakri and Kaaj: The Distinction

There is a very strong social perception of doing 'Kaaj' and doing 'Chakri' in Bangladesh that cuts across regions. Inherently attached to men, Chakri denotes prescribed work outside the home. A Chakri is strongly associated with a social status that one acquires with his own ability, qualification, and usually through a competitive process. Chakri has a particular schedule, certain written terms and conditions, benefits, and also career prospects that make it different from 'Kaaj' that does not constitute these attributes. Kaaj is considered a loosely set work with terms that do not require specific knowledge and skill. It is mostly associated with the physical ability of doing a work. The mind-body dichotomy is prevalent in labeling work as Chakri and Kaaj — corresponding to men's work and women's work to some extent.

Kaaj thus has a gendered tone, though men also do Kaaj — as day laborers, construction workers, and through similar kinds of work. However, the social values attached to such work are gender specific. Women's household work is always considered Kaaj — without any social, monetary, or economic recognition. Men's Kaaj, on the contrary, is not considered 'no value work.' A rickshaw puller or van puller is considered to be doing 'men's work' in spite of the little amount he earns in a day — because his work is a social utility performed outside the home. A woman doing the same kind of physical work inside the home receives no such recognition. Her work is seen as an extension of her primary domestic role — expected, invisible, and unvalued.

The Darwan and the Dress Code

The intersection of status and work is perhaps best illustrated by a simple example from everyday life. A darwan — a security guard — doing his job in a prescribed uniform, with fixed working hours and a defined set of duties, is considered Chakri. The same person doing the same job informally — without a uniform, without fixed hours, on a loose verbal agreement — is doing Kaaj. The work is identical. The person is the same. What changes is the social framing. And that framing determines everything — the status, the recognition, and the value attached to the work.

In Bangladesh, a woman's social status is not governed by the type of work she herself does — but by the type of Chakri her husband or father does. Her own work, whatever it may be, is secondary to that.

Men's Chakri, Women's Kaaj, Women's Chakri

Doing Chakri is a masculine concept in Bangladesh. It is considered a must for a man after reaching a certain age — a social prerequisite and expectation to be fulfilled before entering into marriage. This expectation comes from socially and religiously set norms that make man the caretaker, protector, and provider of woman. Men's Chakri is thus a socially valued role. Women's Kaaj is a socially expected role. And women's Chakri — if it is allowed at all — is a socially challenged role.

Women's Chakri, if permitted, roams around the familiar paths of teaching and nursing — work that does not transgress the men-women work binary at large. Any gross deviation from this by women is questioned and challenged. The dominant male perception strongly mediates women's perception of Chakri. This was true in 2010 when I conducted my research — and recent evidence suggests it remains largely true today. Bangladesh scored 49.4 out of 100 on the World Bank's Women, Business and the Law index in 2024 — unchanged from the previous year. The shift is happening. But it is slow. And it remains contested.

The RMG Crossing

In rural areas, women and young girls' work options become limited to doing household work, helping in the agricultural field, or working as domestic helpers in a few better-off households in the village. Since these options are also very narrow, one of the most prevalent ways of coming out of poverty is to migrate and work as a domestic helper in a city household. Even the shift of geographical location – from her village to the city – could not convert her work or kaaj into chakri. But the RMG industry changed the equation. When women entered the garment factories and began earning a salary, they crossed from Kaaj territory into Chakri territory. So it is not the geographical location but the social locating of work that largely defines its value – and for the first time, these women's work was being located in a space and manner that carried social recognition, a fixed salary, and a career. That crossing – from invisible, unvalued work to formal, salaried employment – is where the question of empowerment becomes real and complicated. Because it was not the work itself, but the social perception around the work – that becomes one of the determinants of empowerment.

What This Tells Us

Kaaj and Chakri. Two simple words. But the distance between them – in social value, in recognition, in a woman's own sense of her worth – is enormous. This was one of the most revealing findings from my interactions with the women and their families. Empowerment sounds simple. But it is highly contested and deeply layered. Social perception about women's work shapes – to a very large extent – the way a woman values her own work and perceives herself. A woman who crosses from Kaaj into Chakri not only changes her social status but also her gender relations at home. This shift may be contested and slow. But it is real. And for a woman who has spent her life being told – and made to believe – "Ami kichu kori na" (I do not do anything) – it is everything.

Life Between The Interviews

For those interested: Key references used in this research

Agarwal, B. (1998). 'Bargaining Power and Gender Relations.' Journal of Peasant Studies. Vol. 25.

Banerjee, N. (1999). 'How Real is the Bogey of Feminization?' In T.S. Papola and Alakh N. Sharma (eds), Gender and Employment in India. Vikas Publishing. New Delhi.

Selim, R. (2009). Domestic Workers in Bangladesh. Bangladesh Institute of Labour Studies. Dhaka.

World Bank. (2024). Women, Business and the Law 2024. World Bank Group. Washington DC.