Internship Report

On
“Analysis of Rural Finance on women Empowerment in Bangladesh”

Submitted to:
Dr. Md. Shafiqul Islam
Associate Professor
Department of Accounting and Information System
Jatiya Kabi Kazi Nazrul Islam University
Submitted by:
Sadik Hossen
ID# 211325105
Major: Accounting
Department of Accounting and Information System
Jatiya Kabi Kazi Nazrul Islam University

Date of Submission: 30/01/2023

 Letter of Transmittal
Date: 30/01/2024

To,
Md. Shafiqul Islam
Associate Professor
Department of Accounting and Information System
Jatiya Kabi Kazi Nazrul Islam University

Subject: Submission of Internship Report on “An analysis of Rural Finance on women

Empowerment in Bangladesh”.

Dear Sir,
With due respect, it gives me great pleasure to submit my internship report titled " An analysis
of Rural Finance on women Empowerment in Bangladesh" under your supervision, which is
required for the completion of my MBA degree. It is a pleasure to work under your supervision.
Your advice has greatly helped me to complete this report. As you instructed, I left no stone
unturned in completing this report.

I have tried to accommodate that many information and related issues as possible through this
analysis, and I have tried to follow your guidelines as you suggested.

Therefore, I hope that you will appreciate my effort and I shall be grateful if my report is
accepted for the appropriate purpose.

Sincerely Yours,

Sadik Hossen
ID# 211325105
Major: Accounting
Department of Accounting and Information System
Jatiya Kabi Kazi Nazrul Islam University

i
 Letter of Acceptance

This is to certify that Sadik Hossen, ID: 211325105is a student of Jatiya Kabi Kazi Nazrul Islam
University. He completed his internship report, " An analysis of Rural Finance on women
Empowerment in Bangladesh," with my guidance. The data and information presented in this
internship study appear to be reliable. It is then accepted for the internship defense presentation.

I wish his every success in life.

Md. Shafiqul Islam

Associate Professor
Department of Accounting and Information System
Jatiya Kabi Kazi Nazrul Islam University

ii
 Acknowledgement
I am grateful to have this opportunity to express my heartfelt gratitude to the individuals whose
suggestions, experiences, and assistance were essential in preparing and fulfilling this report. I
am thankful to all of my friends and family member as well as to them – for their tremendous
cooperation. In addition, I am thankful to the individuals whose books, working papers, journals,
and related materials have provided me with ongoing assistance in writing this study.

I am especially grateful to Md. Shafiqul Islam, Associate Professor Department of Accounting

and Information System, Jatiya Kabi Kazi Nazrul Islam University, for helping me with all of
the to complete this report. It was difficult to finish my report without his constant supervision.

iii
 Executive Summary
This paper has used secondary source of data i.e. from Bangladesh Microfinance Statistics
(1998-2011) book published by Credit and Development Forum (CDF) and Institute of
Microfinance (InM). This statistical data on MFIs has been collected and published by CDF up
to 2006. In 2007, InM joined with CDF and started publishing this statistical book together. The
paper has used some proxy indicators to show the empowerment of women. The paper has also
measured growth rate of the borrowers, loan disbursement and loan recovery by using
Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR). The paper is focused not only on female borrowers
but also on those borrowers by regions.
Bangladesh is one of the high-density countries of the world. 40% of its population lives below
the poverty level of which rural women are poorer. The rise of the Micro Credit Institution in the
global context is identified as an important phenomenon which has implication for the
development prospects of the poor. The paper was designed to identify the role of Grameen Bank
(GB) and to analyze rural women’s economic empowerment as the outcome of microcredit
interventions. In this regard, exploratory research has been made to focus on the activities and
impacts after receiving micro-credit from GB. A sample size of 100 respondents has been
interviewed through a structured questionnaire, in-depth interview and observation from
Jhenaidah and Kushtia districts. The result shows that the women are more independent and can
engage in decision making process after receiving and using micro credit.
Women’s empowerment is a dynamic process that has been quantified, measured, and described
in a variety of ways. We measure empowerment in a sample of 3,500 rural women in 128
villages of Bangladesh with five indicators. A conceptual framework is presented, together with
descriptive data on the indicators. Linear regressions to examine effects of covariates show that a
woman’s exposure to television is a significant predictor of three of the five indicators. A
woman’s years of schooling is significantly associated with one of two self-esteem indicators
and with freedom of mobility. Household wealth has a significant and positive association with a
woman’s resource control but a significant negative association with her total decision-making
score.
With declining population growth rates in many developing countries, the attention of the
population and development community has shifted away from fertility reduction and toward
maternal and child health (MCH) goals. However, what has not shifted is the belief that women’s

iv
empowerment is key for attaining both health and population goals. Thus, understanding the
relationship between women’s empowerment and maternal and child health (MCH) outcomes is
an increasing focus of demographic and public health research (Basu and Koolwal, 2005, Bloom
et al., 2001, Gupta and Yesudian, 2006, Mullany et al., 2005, Portela and Santarelli, 2003).

v
Table of Contents
Letter of Transmittal.....................................................................................................................................i
Letter of Acceptance....................................................................................................................................ii
Acknowledgement......................................................................................................................................iii
Executive Summary....................................................................................................................................iv
Chapter-1.....................................................................................................................................................1
1.1 Introduction...........................................................................................................................................2
1.2 Origin of The Study...............................................................................................................................2
1.3 Objectives of The Study........................................................................................................................2
1.4 Methodology of the Study.....................................................................................................................2
1.4.1 Secondary Sources:.........................................................................................................................2
1.5 Scop of the Study...................................................................................................................................2
1.6 Limitation of the Study..........................................................................................................................3
Chapter 2.....................................................................................................................................................4
Chapter 3.....................................................................................................................................................5
2.1 Introduction...........................................................................................................................................6
2.2 Economic Development.........................................................................................................................7
2.2.1 Landmark Achievement..................................................................................................................7
2.2.2 Effective Use of Plants...................................................................................................................7
2.2.3 Economic Growth...........................................................................................................................8
2.2.4 Macroeconomic Indicators.............................................................................................................8
2.2.5 Economic Zone...............................................................................................................................8
2.3 Human Development.............................................................................................................................9
2.3.1 Education......................................................................................................................................10
2.3.2 Health and Nutrition.....................................................................................................................12
2.3.3 Employment Skill.........................................................................................................................15
2.4 Social Development.............................................................................................................................17
2.4.1 Women Empowerment.................................................................................................................17
2.4.2 Children Development..................................................................................................................20
2.5 Success in Global Development Goal..................................................................................................22
2.6 Physical Infrastructure Development...................................................................................................24
2.6.1 Power and Energy.........................................................................................................................24

vi
 2.6.2 Communications and Port’s..........................................................................................................26
2.6.3 Fast Track Mega Project...............................................................................................................26
2.7 Agriculture and Food Security.............................................................................................................27
2.7.1 Agriculture....................................................................................................................................27
2.7.2 Food Security................................................................................................................................28
2.7.3 Fisheries........................................................................................................................................29
2.8 Disseat Management and Environmental Protestation and Climate Change........................................29
2.8.1 Climate.........................................................................................................................................30
2.8.2 Environment.................................................................................................................................30
2.9 Digital Bangladesh..............................................................................................................................32

vii
Chapter-1
Introduction

1
1.1 Introduction
Women represent around 50% of the world population, and in many regions of the developing
world, their contribution is immense in all the sectors of development. But still in today’s world,
women’s position is not the same as their counterparts. Due to gender-based discrimination and
socially constructed sub-ordination women have inferior status everywhere in all the aspects of
life i.e. political, economic, familiar or social. In Bangladesh like many other developing
countries women’s access to positions of influence and power is limited. Their occupational
choices are narrower, and their earnings lower than those of men; and they must struggle to
reconcile activities outside the home with their traditional roles. While men particularly among
the poor also find themselves disenfranchised, it is a far more common experience among
women. This experience is rooted in the failure to value women for anything but their
reproductive role. The need for empowerment of women in Bangladesh arises from this harsh
social scenario.

1.2 Origin of The Study

The internship program is one of the requirements for the MBA program, and it will help you
become acquainted with real-world business operations. After completing all of the MBA
program courses, each student must have to submit a report. I have also prepared a report on the
basis women empowerment of Bangladesh.

1.3 Objectives of The Study

 To identify the role of micro credit as a strategy for empowering women in Bangladesh.
 To describe the ability of women as micro credit beneficiaries to take part in decision
making process at the family level.
 To examine their economic empowerment considering ability to increase their income
level.

1.4 Methodology of the Study

Methodology plays an important role in any research. Appropriate methodology enables the
researcher to collect valid and reliable information and to analyze the information properly to
draw a clear-cut conclusion. The study used both qualitative and quantitative methods and 03

2
different data collection instruments. The research is a survey based exploratory research which
was conducted using primary data. To collect primary data for the study several methods such as
questionnaire, in-depth interview and observation as well as Focus Group Discussion (FGD)
were used. Collected data was analyzed and interpreted through statistical techniques. Secondary
data are used for the reanalysis of previously collected and analyzed data. Secondary sources
were simply published books and articles by scholars. In this study, Jhenidah and Kushtia
districts have been selected for some reasons. Several numbers of micro credit institutions
especially selected GB is working and providing micro credit to landless women, divorced
women, and widow women for many years. By collecting a list from regional GB Manager and
officers’ two branches were selected from GB. Among 5000 micro credit recipients
approximately 2% households were the sample size of the study. The sample size (100) was
selected randomly by simple random sampling method using random number.:
1.4.1 Sources:
In this thesis paper, I have used secondary data. In particular, this study uses Bangladesh
Integrated Household Survey (BIHS) 2015 data which is very rich one of the nationally
representative survey data in Bangladesh.2 BIHS collects detailed data on (a) agricultural
production and practices, (b) dietary intake of individual household members, (c) anthropometric
measurements of all household members, and (d) data to measure

1.5 Scop of the Study

Although empowerment has now become a familiar and much used term, an adequate and
comprehensive definition remains elusive. One problem is that empowerment is a “latent
phenomenon” that is not directly observable: its aggregate results or effects may be visible but
the internal dynamism is difficult to examine. Empowerment is also often seen only partially, as
women’s increased autonomy and freedom. However, empowerment also implies additional
responsibility; responsibility which may not.

1.6 Limitation of the Study

In many poor economies including Bangladesh, non-governmental organizations (NGOs)
pioneered micro-credit programs for the poor to uplift their economic conditions. Following
NGOs, government organizations have also started such programs mainly to monitor NGOs
activities and have introduced such programs on a limited scale. Many of these programs mainly
target women because more often than not financial markets are restricted for them and they

3
have fewer bargaining powers over wage in the labor market. Their role in the decision-making
process is also very restricted specifically in the rural areas. The Grameen Bank (GB) of
Bangladesh is perhaps one of best examples to provide collateral free loans to the poor people for
small scale production operations. Over 90% of GB’s clients are women. The GB believes that
every human being has some potentials to contribute to the economy and its assumptions became
quite correct when GB see that loan recovery rate for the women is quite satisfactory than their
male counterparts.

Prior works on microcredit (Pitt & Khandker 1998; Pitt et al. 1999; Pitt et al. 2003; Pitt 2000)
find that the effects of credit program participation vary significantly across the genders in the
programs. Pitt and Khandker (1998) find that consumption expenditure increases 18 Tk for every
100 Tk borrowed by women, but only 11 Tk for every 100 Tk borrowed by men. Pitt et al.
(2003) find that provision of credit to women significantly improves the conditions of health and
nutrition for both boys and girls, while provision of credit to men has no significant effect. These
empirical observations imply that women empowerment may have increased bargaining power
within the household in many areas such as production, use of income, enjoying leisure time.

Women empowerment is a multi-faceted concept while microcredit is one of the important

indicators to enhance female empowerment (Malhotra & Mather, 1997; Johnson 2005; Kabeer
1999). Earlier empirical investigations find that microfinance can play a substantial role to
empower women both economically and socially (Malhotra & Schuler, 2005; Pitt & Khandker,
1998; Pitt, Khandker, & Cartwright, 2006; Armendáriz & Morduch, 2010; Anderson & Eswaran,
2009; Bardhan & Klasen, 1999). A few studies find no impact (Banerjee et al. 2013) or adverse
impact of microcredit on women’s decision-making power, specifically where loans are
controlled by the husbands (Goetz & Gupta 1996; Rahman 1999; Leach & Sitaram 2002). A
good number of studies find that the economic impact of microfinance empowers women mainly
through increase in income which also raises bargaining power within a household. Others argue
the social impact of microfinance on women’s empowerment with greater autonomy in decision-
making, and political and social inclusion.

Both academia and policy makers have identified microcredit is one of the useful strategies to
alleviate poverty. It’s a structured program under which small amount of loans 3 are granted to

4
poor persons without collateral. This loan is provided to the jointly liable poor group members,
especially to the poor women, for self-employment and income generating activities. Smith and
Eric (2007) state that Muhammed Yunus established Grameen Bank in Bangladesh in 1976
which has been shifted into a formal bank in 1983 through a special law. Now it has become one
of the largest microfinance organizations in Bangladesh.

Collateral is essential to get credit facilities in formal banking system in Bangladesh. However,
rural poor especially women have little to offer as collateral. When Grameen Bank model of
microcredit has been introduced in Bangladesh, only then poor people were allowed to get loan
without collateral. The inherent capacity of the poor people has been recognized and they are
quite capable to earn money. Through the model of microfinance, a huge number of
underprivileged poor especially women are able to take self-employment, creating self-
confidence, and increasing awareness. Following Grameen Bank model microcredit, the others
organizations such as in Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee (BRAC), Association for
Social Advancement (ASA) etc. have been established aimed for reducing poverty in
Bangladesh.

Population density of Bangladesh is one of the highest in the world. About 168 million people
live here and almost half of them are women (World Population 2014). United Nations
Development Program (UNDP 2014) states that the number of female- headed-households living
below the poverty lines is significantly higher than that of male-headed households in
Bangladesh. Even though, women constitute almost 50% of the total population, they enjoy
unequal status in every aspect in life compared to men. They are mainly confined in domestic
work, while men are exclusively working in the public domain like politics. Sebstad and Cohen
(2000) mentions that women have limited control over household resources due to heavy
domestic workloads and low level of education that cause them to vulnerable situation.

5
 Chapter 2
Concept of empowerment and context of Microfinance
with reference to Bangladesh

6
2.1 Empowerment
Eyben et al. (2008) states that empowerment is basically regarding the power within themselves.
It facilitates people to accomplish courageous things they never thought themselves to be capable
of doing and the power that comes from working along with others to claim what is correctly
theirs. Empowerment broadens poor people freedom of choice and action, expanding their assets
and abilities and enabling them to participate in, negotiate with, influence, control and hold
accountable institutions that affect their lives. On the other hand, Empowerment is a process, by
which people learn to think critically about their own situation and possibilities, and see things in
a different way. Empowerment implies that individuals and organized groups are able to assess
their world differently and to understand that vision by changing the relations of power that are
keeping them in doing tasks.

2.2 Economic empowerment of poor women

Eyben et al. (2008) explains that economic empowerment means capacity of poor women to
participate in, contribute to and benefit from growth process and recognizes the value of their
contributions. It also makes it possible for them to negotiate a fairer distribution of the benefits
of growth. At the same time people thinking beyond immediate survival needs and thus able to
recognize and exercise agency and choice.

Kumar et al. (2015) shows that the financial sustainability emphasizes women’s own income,
generating activities. Women’s entrance to savings and credit gives them a greater economic role
in decision making process. When women control decisions regarding credit and savings, they
will optimize their own and the welfare of households. The investment in women’s economic
activities will improves employment opportunities for women.

2.3 Social empowerment of poor women

Eyben et al. (2008) define social empowerment as taking steps to change society so that one’s
own place within it is respected and recognized on the terms on which the person themselves
want to live, not on terms dictated by others. Empowerment comes in as a 9 process whereby
women develop a sense and capacity to improve the quality of their social relationships and to
secure respect, dignity and freedom from violence.

7
After giving the specific attention to enhancement of women’s entrance in micro finance, women
increased economic activity and control over income with improves their skills, mobility, and
access to knowledge and support networks (Kumar et al. 2015)..

2.4 Microcredit
Mandal (2009) defines microcredit as a system of credit delivery and savings mobilizing scheme
which is designed to meet the unique financial necessities of the poor. The financing scheme
allows the receivers to improve their living standard by getting loan without collateral. The credit
approach has evolved as an economic development tool intended to benefit low-income group
people including the self-employment. Micro financing institute could be non-governmental
organizations (NGOs), savings and loan cooperatives, credit unions, government bank,
commercial banks, or non-bank financial institutions.

On the other hand, microcredit programs extend small loans to very poor for generating income
through self-employment. Unlike the other formal banking systems, this loan program does not
have any requirement of collateral security from the borrowers. The overall success of
microcredit programs rests on an alleviation of poverty and long-term sustainability
(Chowdhury, 2004).

Character, Capital and Capacity are the three Cs in microcredit program. Character means
historical background of a borrower such as borrower’s honesty and capacity to refund the loan
and how a borrower handles his previous debt liability. Capital means present assets of borrower
has which would be helpful for him to repay the loan timely and Capacity means how much debt
a borrower can maintain as per his income, and still be able to pay that debt off (Grameen Bank,
2018a).

2.5 Grameen Bank (GB)

After a famine caused severe starvation in 1974 in Bangladesh Professor Muhammad Yunus, an
economist experimented to find out a way to remove poverty from Bangladesh. He thought from
small amount of loan a poor person could start his own business and it would be a sustainable
solution to hunger poverty. He established Grameen Bank project in the village of Jobra,
Bangladesh in 1976. It was shifted into a formal bank in 1983 through a special law and now it is
a one of the largest microfinance organizations in the world. Owners of the Grameen Bank are

8
poor borrower of this bank and most of them are women. Grameen Bank is different financial
organization in Bangladesh. It founded absolutely for the poor people who has a few or no assets.
Method of Grameen 10 Bank has appreciated all over the world than any other microfinance
model (Smith & Eric 2007).

2.6 Grameen Bank (GB) model for disbursing loan

A bank branch is set up with a branch manager and a number of bank workers, covering an area
of about 15 to 22 villages. The manager and workers start by visiting villages to familiarize
themselves with the local milieu in which they will be operating and identify prospective
clientele, as well as explain the purpose, functions, and mode of operation of the bank to the
local population. Groups of five prospective borrowers are formed; in the first stage, only two of
them are eligible for, and receive, a loan. The group is observed for a month to see if the
members are conforming to rules of the bank. If the first two borrowers successfully repay their
weekly instalments, then the next two members are become eligible to apply for their own loans.
Similarly, when they make repayments successfully then the final member may apply for loan.
Because of these restrictions, there is substantial group pressure to keep individual records clear.
In this sense, collective responsibility of the group serves as collateral on the loan (Grameen
bank, 2018 b).
Grameen Bank (GB) credit delivery system has the following features1:

1. There is an exclusive focus on the poorest of the poor. Exclusivity is ensured

by:

i) Establishing clearly the eligibility criteria for selection of targeted clientele

and adopting practical measures to screen out those who do not meet them
ii) In delivering credit, priority has been increasingly assigned to women
iii) The d e l i v e r y s y s t e m i s g e a r e d t o m e e t t h e d i v e r s e s o c i o -
economic development needs of the poor
2. Borrowers are organized into small homogeneous groups. A center is
formed to organize activities of credit. The Centers are functionally linked to the Grameen
Bank, whose field workers have to attend Centre meetings every week.
3. Special loan conditionality which are particularly suitable for the poor.
These include:
 Loans given without any collateral
 Loans repayable in weekly installments spread over a year

9
  Eligibility for a subsequent loan depends upon repayment of first loan
 Individual, self-chosen, quick income generating activities which employ
the skills that borrowers already posses

2.7 Conceptual channel from microcredit to women empowerment

After carefully reviewing the literature on women empowerment, through three channels
microcredit can affect women empowerment. Figure 1 below shows the specific channels. First
one is that empowerment can be achieved by enhancing income. The second channel is that
empowerment can be brought through control over credit or savings. The third one is that
women’s status can be increased through generating income.

As poor people in the rural areas have lack or restricted access to the formal credit market and

10
they are not usually habituated to save for the hard times, women’s access to credit is the first
and foremost thing to consider. In a household there are two potential clients who can borrow
from the lenders: male and female. Empirical observation confirms that when women take loan
from GB or any other NGOs, repayment rate of loan is very high compared to their male
counterparts. Hence, the lenders purposively select women as a potential client in formal labor
market. Once women get access to credit, this can be channelized three ways to empower
women. Though a woman is initially a group borrower with the lender’s perspective, she is an
individual borrower in the household.

Figure 2: Indicators of Empowerment and percent of women not empowered Source: Sraboni,
Quisumbing, and Ahmed (2014)
Figure 2 gives us some ideas about the prevailing situations of women not empowered in the
nationally representative Bangladesh Integrated Households Survey in 2011. The numerical
figures are calculated by Sraboni, Quisumbing, and Ahmed (2014). These findings would guide
us to get the improvement on the women’s empowerment scenarios in a recent survey of
Bangladesh Integrated Household Survey 2015 (BIHS 2015).
Ten indicators constitute a Women Empowerment (WE) index. Of these indicators, it is observed
that more than 50% are not comfortable speaking in public and about 35% women do not have
control or influence over ownerships of assets. Another aspect of WE indicator is input in

11
productive decisions in which about 37% women are not empowered. Hence, this information’s
would guide us to get a comparable statistic in our current study.

12
 Chapter 3
Overview of Rural Finance on women Empowerment in
Bangladesh

13
3.1 Introduction
The empowerment of women is an essential precondition for the elimination of world poverty
and the upholding of human rights (DFID, 2000: 8), in particular at the individual level, it helps
building a base for social change. In Bangladesh, women constitute about half of the total
population of which 80 percent live in rural areas (BBS, 2001: 21). But their status has been
ranked the lowest in the world on the basis of twenty indicators related to health, marriage,
children, education, employment and social equality (NCBP, 2000: 27). It is a well-established
fact that in a patriarchal society like Bangladesh, women are ascribed a lower status as men who
have the sovereign power to control households and society as a whole, while women are often
secluded in their homes (Balk, 1997: 4). The World Bank study in Bangladesh highlights that
women have limited role in household decision-making, limited access and control over
household resources (physical and financial assets), low level of individual assets, heavy
domestic workloads, restricted mobility and inadequate knowledge and skills that leading to
women’s vulnerability (Sebstad and Cohen 2002: 44). Taking this gloomy picture of women’s
situation into account, this study was undertaken to address the following two objectives: 1) to
analyse and determine the nature and extent of rural women’s empowerment and factors
influencing it; and 2) to develop a comprehensive strategic framework for improving rural
women’s empowerment level.

3.2 Conceptual Issues

This study was conceptualized considering basically three important dimensions of women’s
empowerment (following Malhotra et al., 2002: 13). These dimensions are dynamic, interlinked
and mutually reinforcing at household level and recognize the fact that the level of gender
equality and development are directly proportional. These dimensions are as follows:
 Socio-economic dimension: It includes economic contribution (both from farm and
non-farm) to household welfare, access to socio-economic resources and ownership
of productive and non-productive assets. This will increase women’s earning
capacity, bargaining power, control over resources, role in household economic
decision making, meeting the basic needs and altogether improving self-reliance,
thereby reducing women’s economic subordination.

14
  Familial dimension: It includes participation in household decisions covering six
major dimensions. The increased role in household decision-making would enable
them to improve their self-determination, bargaining power, control over resources,
self-esteem, autonomy, status and power relations within households. That means the
increased role of women in household decision-making will lead to their own
wellbeing and that of their children.
 Psychological dimension: It includes perception on gender awareness with regard to
basic rights of women and coping capacity to different household shocks. It will
enhance self-confidence, bargaining power, freedom of choices and coping abilities
within the households.
It is hypothesized that various kinds of inputs (e.g. education and skill training) provided by
different intervening agencies will encourage women's participation in the development
programmers. Subsequently, this process will lead to gender equality through enhanced self-
confidence, resources, coping abilities, freedom of choices and power relations. It is assumed
that gender equality contributes substantially to the well-being of women and reduces women’s
vulnerability and poverty.

3.3 Empowerment Indicators

Six indicators of women’s empowerment covering a wide range of attributes were
comprehensively measured. These are as presented below:
a) Contribution to household income refers to the wife’s contribution in terms of per cent
involvement in subsistence productive activities that are not rewarded in cash or kind to
household income. Fourteen activities were selected in this regard, which are as follows: 1) farm
activities - land and seedbed preparation, sowing-planting-transplanting, intercultural activities,
harvesting and threshing, winnowing-parboiling-drying-storage, drying and preservation of
straws, homestead cultivation, livestock rearing, poultry rearing, fish culture and marketing
related to agricultural production; and 2) non-farm activities - service, business and handicraft
production.
b) Access to resources refers to the right, scope, power or permission to use and/or get benefits
from ten selected resources that were divided into mainly two types. These are: 1) household
resources - equal consumption of nutritious food, handling and spending money, selling of minor
agricultural products, interpersonal communication, hiring of helping hands and utilisation of

15
credit money if they receive; and 2) social resources - education/training, credit, rural
cooperative and bank. It was computed using a four-point scale - 0 for ‘no access’, 1 for ‘low
access’, 2 for ‘medium access’ and 3 for ‘high accesses.
c) Ownership of assets refers to the ability of a woman to control her own current assets and
enjoy benefits accruing from them. Two categories of assets comprising nine items were selected
for the study. They include: 1) productive - land, cattle, goat, poultry and cash savings; and 2)
non-productive - jewellery, television, radio and small vehicle. It was measured in terms of
money (‘000’Taka - Bangladeshi currency) considering the current value of each item that a
woman possesses.
d) Participation in household decision-making (PHDM) refers to the extent of women’s ability to
participate in formulating and executing decisions regarding domestic, financial, child-welfare,
reproductive health, farming and socio-political matters in coordination with other family
members. Twenty items in six major dimensions was analysed and a four-point scale was used to
measure women’s PHDM - 0 for ‘no participation’, 1 for ‘low participation’, 2 for ‘medium
participation’ and 3 for ‘high participation.
e) Perception on gender awareness refers to a woman’s ability to express her opinion with regard
to existing gender inequality and discrimination against women in the society. Fifteen crucial
gender issues were selected that include: under-value, education, economic opportunity,
inheritance property rights, reproductive choice, early marriage, dowry, divorce rights, son
preference, attitude towards female child, birth registration, feeding priority, wage
differentiation, political awareness and violence against women. It was ascertained through a
five-point scale having 15 statements, of which seven were positively and eight were negatively
stated. The rural women’s responses were expressed by ‘strongly agree’, ‘agree’, ‘undecided’,
‘disagree’ and ‘strongly disagree’. A score of 5, 4, 3, 2 and 1 was assigned respectively to each
positive statement, whereas it was in reverse in case of negative statements.
f) Coping capacity to household shocks refers to a woman’s ability to face sudden risks, crises
and periodic stresses (threats to life or happiness) in the household. Nine major risk aspects
related to household management including natural calamities, financial constraints due to crop
failure, indebtedness, food unavailability, chronic illnesses, conflict, husbands’ torture and
unexpected death of children as well as husbands were analyzed. A four-point rating scale (1 - 4)

16
was used to measure the coping capacity where 1 indicates ‘the best strategy’ and 4 ‘the least
suitable strategy’.

nd madrasah education more modern and effective.

3.4 Cumulative Empowerment Index (CEI): Dependent Variable

The CEI is a composite of six empowerment indicators combining both quantitative and
qualitative data in order to get a comprehensive feature of women’s empowerment. The
quantitative part represents five categories (e.g., 1 = Very low, 5 = Very high), which has been
done on the basis of total obtained score for each empowerment indicator from the survey. The
qualitative dimension stems out from total weighted scores indicated by twelve focus group
participants (where 6 denotes ‘very important’ and 1 denotes ‘less important’). Thus, a total of
77 specific attributes were added together to develop CEI in order to understand the socio-
economic, familial and psychological dimensions of women’s empowerment (see Table 1).
Hence, CEI varied from 25 to 79, where 25 indicates the lowest level of empowerment and 79
means the highest level of empowerment. Maxwell (1995:13) followed the same procedure to
measure food insecurity by developing a cumulative food security index.

a Rank order made based on total scores obtained from ranking in focus groups such as 6 = 120,
5 = 109, 4 = 106, 3 = 104, 2
= 102 and 1 = 96.
Source: Own compilation.

17
3.5 Determinants of Women’s Empowerment: Independent Variables
Seven influential factors, two at individual, two at household and three at social level were used
as predictors in order to check for their significance as women’s empowerment determinants.
Their operational definitions and measurement techniques are presented in Table 2.

3.7 Empirical Findings and Discussion

3.7.1 Profile of Sample Women
Data contained in Table 3 show that a considerable proportion of the respondents are bounded by
a lack of formal (50%) and non-formal education (67%). Women's low literacy rate and lack of
access to education are among the several causes of their low social status and their dependence
on men prevailing in rural areas. With regard to existing harmony between spouses, it is evident
that 41 per cent of the wives have a bad relationship with their husbands that might affect their
confidence level. Twenty-four per cent of the women have only sons and 61 per cent have both
sons and daughters that give a permanent state of women in their conjugal life. Nearly half of the
respondents (46 per cent) have low exposure to information media that highlights the fact that
information media could not reach rural women effectively. It can also be seen that women’s
spatial mobility is low (55 per cent).

18
The result regarding traditional norms shows that 85% of the women have been married before
reaching the age of 18 years (Figure 1). A majority (92%) have paid dowry during their marriage
or have continuous dowry pressure after marriage - either for themselves or in case of elder
women for their daughters. A significant part of the women (69%) are the victims of domestic
violence.

3.7.2 Extent of Women’s Empowerment

The main variable constructed in this study is women’s CEI and its distribution is depicted in
Table 4. It reveals that 11% of the respondents fall under a very low empowerment category,
36% low, 35% medium, 12% high empowerment category, respectively and only few of them
(5%) belong to a very high empowerment category. It can be noticed, however, that an
overwhelming majority of women (82%) are concentrated in very low to moderate tail of
empowerment distribution. Due to the low level of empowerment, poor women acutely feel their
powerlessness and insecurity, their vulnerability and a lack of dignity within the household.

19
3.7.3 Multiple Linear Regression Analysis
The multiple regression technique was applied to explore the effects of seven key factors on
women’s empowerment. The analysis contained in Table 5 shows positive and highly significant
effects of formal and non-formal education, sex of children, spousal relationship, exposure to
media and spatial mobility on CEI. These results support the proposition that women’s
empowerment is increased by the aforementioned six variables.
According to James and Trail (1995: 18-27), improving literacy skills of women have a
beneficial impact on their socio-economic condition. Proper training and implementation of
literacy programmers are essential for the empowerment of women and this could be one of the
best solutions to rural poverty. Literate women can more easily demand and protect their rights
in order to change and improve their situations. Sex of children is noted as a positive factor in
woman’s empowerment, especially when one gives birth to a son. It is a common perception that
sons will contribute to family income, provide all the necessary care and support to their parents
when they are old and carry the family name. On the other hand, daughters are often considered
as an economic liability because of dowry based marriage system. Thus, better educated wives
having at least one son might form spousal harmony and dignity in patri-local residence.
In rural societies of Bangladesh, women are usually not permitted to interact with men other than
their direct close family members and as a result, they have only limited access to development
personnel. In such a situation, mass media such as radio and television can create awareness
about issues affecting daily life, family planning programmes, poverty alleviation programmes,
gender issues, human right issues etc. Spatial mobility is another important factor in women’s
social, economic and political empowerment. Several studies have revealed that promotion of
women’s freedom is necessary to make them capable of making their own choices, to change
their attitudes, to improve their social networks and reduce their level of poverty. A mobility
map analysis shows that rural wives generally visit their natal houses to meet their old or sick

20
parents, to get financial or any other kind of support during crisis periods. They go to the town to
buy clothes especially for their children in local Mymensingh town. They visit the health centre
mainly for the treatment of their sick children or for their own reproductive health care. Only a
very few women go to the crop fields, mainly for activities like weeding or collecting fodder and
firewood. It is rare for a woman to cultivate crops in the field due to the restrictions imposed by
cultural and religious norms. Thus, the lack of women’s physical mobility deprives them of
getting better livelihood opportunities.

On the contrary, traditional socio-cultural norms have a significant negative impact on CEI. It is
a central premise of gender studies that traditional customs, taboos, norms etc. affect women in a
variety of ways particularly in fiercely patriarchal societies like Bangladesh. One impediment
that a woman faces is the usual norm of early marriage which implies arranged marriages or
forced marriages where a woman has no right to choose her marriage partner, infringing on her
sexual and reproductive rights. Early marriage usually leads to early motherhood and young
women are often threatened to death due to pregnancy-related causes. Furthermore, the invidious
dowry-based marriage system has become an entrenched crime of the present time - the most
unfair and prejudiced social practice against women. These usually involve victims of greedy
husbands and their relatives. Generally, a reasonable amount of money and other goods (based
on bargaining) need to be paid at the time of the wedding and hardly can any marriage occur
without dowry. Even after marriage, additional payments are required to be made from time to
time as per demand of the groom's family. Failure to meet this requirement may lead to

21
continuous torture by the husband or in-law members followed by murder in extreme cases. The
most common forms of domestic violence against women at the household level include dowry,
wife-beating, threat to divorce, polygamy, unwillingness to provide livelihood support,
extramarital relationship, family conflict and mental torture (due to giving birth to only female
children and less physical beauty). All these have serious cumulative negative consequences on
women's health and quality of life. However, these variables do not explain the whole situation
of women’s empowerment. There are several quantitative and qualitative factors which could
contribute to women’s empowerment, particularly qualitative ones, for instance, religious belief,
household type, husbands’ attitudes etc. Therefore, the regression analysis suggests the need for
implementing holistic strategies for women (particularly in the areas of human resource
development) that may enhance women’s status and quality of life in the face of extremely
disabling social conditions.

3.8 Suggested Strategies for Action

Based on empirical results and discussion, the overall conclusion of this study is that the level of
women’s empowerment is not satisfactory at the household level. It also highlights the fact that
formal and non-formal education, exposure to information media and spatial mobility are the
most influential factors that enhance women’s empowerment. In contrast, the traditional beliefs,
attitudes and practices are deeply entrenched in women’s lives that hinder their empowerment.
To move forward, some concrete steps need to be undertaken by the major intervening agencies,
namely governmental organizations (GOs), non-governmental organizations (NGOs), women’s
organizations (WOs) and other stakeholders (private initiatives, civil society etc.) aimed at
stimulating the process of female empowerment. Interventions should be in the nature of
legislative, planning, programmed or structural steps to provide greater opportunities for the
sustainable development of women at all levels and to reduce discriminatory practices against
women as well as all types of gender-based stereotypes. However, strategies to combat the lack
of empowerment must address not only the immediate needs of rural women (practical gender
need) but must also focus on the root cause of women's powerlessness (strategic gender need).
Figure 2 shows some proposed ways of improving the economic and social conditions of poor
and vulnerable rural women in the interest of national development.

22
Education and training: The Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Women & Children’s
Affairs and Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee (BRAC) should implement education
programmers for rural women more effectively. The Department of Agricultural Extension
(DAE) with the collaboration of BRAC and the Grameen Bank, since they are working in the
villages studied, can provide income generation training with financial support in the areas of
home gardening, nursery development, cattle fattening, fish culture, craft production and
embroidery to advance their skills aiming at economic self-reliance. Adequate extension
facilities through female agents could be helpful to achieve the goal of increased income
effectively. Gender education must be incorporated into the curricula from primary school level .
Gender awareness through media: With a view to create gender awareness amongst women as
well as men, it is a prime need to disseminate information through influential media. Major
concerning areas to combat gender disparity must include education, income, nutrition, health,
dowry, early marriage, property and divorce rights.

23
Launching of vigorous conscientizing campaigns by organizing rallies and public meetings
ensuring participation of all rural people could be an effective tool to create massive awareness
about gender. It can be carried out on the eve of special significant days (e.g. International
Women’s Day, Human Rights Day and Mothers’ Day) using posters, paper caps, placards,
festoons etc. Moreover, all agencies can organize various cultural programmers (e.g. dramas,
songs, Jara) jointly based on folk traditions and culture frequently to stress the importance of
both sexes being involved in development. Students can take part actively in implementing such
programmers at local level. The agencies can also conduct workshops with local community and
religious leaders to formulate strategies in shaking off gender discriminations and stereotypes
from the community. The extension agents of different departments, besides doing their assigned
extension activities can serve as very good individual media to spread gender awareness message
to the villagers along with community leaders, religious leaders, school teachers and local elite.
They can also support women in social participation. They can jointly organize meetings, group
discussions, speeches and counselling for motivating rural people about gender equality and
encouraging women to participate in community development. The electronic media (mainly,
radio & television) can play a more proactive role in raising awareness by broadcasting dramas,
folk songs, puppet shows and advertisements focusing exclusively on a positive image of
women. Some other media such as posters, newsletters and booklets could also be effective for
literate people. Besides these, the Government should establish a legal cell integrated within the
family courts or separately at the village level to give free legal advice to women and girls. This
cell can offer voluntary counselling on different issues like marriage, development of self-esteem
and confidence, protection from violence etc. Self-help groups: Establishment of women’s self-
help groups as vehicles for female empowerment is necessary in the rural areas. India, for
example, has achieved tremendous progress in women’s empowerment through such groups.
Donors, NGOs and WOs initiatives’ would be fruitful to develop these types of groups in rural
areas. It will provide rural women a platform to come together to act as a pressure group, at the
same time providing the members economic (e.g., credit) and social support (e.g., legal support
and counselling). Community initiatives: There is a need to consider alternative intervention
strategies involving community and religious groups. Issues related to women’s empowerment
should be given priority in the interventions of village councils and of religious groups at the
local level. This can be achieved effectively only if all these agencies function as a close network

24
under one umbrella. Their initiatives would build the base for promoting positive family
practices, social norms favourable to women, income generation and education encouraging
gender equality in the community. Thus, the affluent section of the community can play a
dominant role in improving women’s status. Donors: Some leading international donors such as
World Bank, WHO, UNICEF, UNFPA, FAO, OXFAM and CIDA are supporting many projects
related to women’s development in Bangladesh. They have been playing a major role in
advancing legislation that eliminates discrimination against girls and women by funding different
projects relating to education, agricultural production, health, human rights etc. implemented
through GOs, NGOs and WOs. But apart from that they should monitor and evaluate specifically
the gender impact of project interventions on regular basis to control misuse of resources,
corruption and other irregularities. Thus, donors constitute a vital contributing factor in
upgrading women’s status in Bangladesh so as to fulfil the Millennium Development Goals.

3.9 Annual Growth Rate of Borrowers by Gender and Region

The figure 1.1 shows that the growth rate of the female and male borrowers in urban areas have
dramatically declined to -12.58 percent and -29.29 percent in 2003 and 2004 respectively.
Consequently, total AGR of female and male borrowers have also negatively dropped to 22.72
percent and 31.31 percent during the same period. Since 2005, the annual growth rate of
borrowers by gender and region has been more or less steady.

25
The female borrowers of rural and urban areas have risen considerably over this time. The figure
1.2 shows a sharp downturn to -24 percent in Annual Growth Rate of Female in Rural (AGRFR)
and -12 percent in Annual Growth Rate of Female in Urban (AGRFU) in 2003 and increased to
72.50 percent in AGRFR and 49.16 percent in AGRFU in 2005. Since 2005, the AGRF
borrowers in rural areas had moderate growth while the AGRF borrowers in urban areas
gradually decreased up to 2011.

3.10 Status of Loan Disbursement

For the time being, borrowers of MFIs increasing. Almost, all of the regions of the country is
covered by the MFIs-NGOs programmers. MFIs are trying to reach to the poorest part of the
society especially to vulnerable groups of women. In order to increase borrower’s income, living
standard, education standard, income generating activities and so on, MFIs provide a greater
amount of loan to the borrowers. Specially, substantial part of the total loan goes to the female
borrowers. A large number of MFIs provide finance only to the female borrower.
The increasing number of borrowers will have impact on loans disbursement. Let's turn to this
Appendix B which shows that in 2011, loans amounting to Tk. 2543.37 billion have been
disbursed as compared to Tk. 66.57 billion in 1998. During the period (1998-2011), the loan
disbursement increased to Tk. 2476.80 billion with the considerable CAGR of 31.99 percent.
The rise in the loan disbursement shows a monotonic increasing trend over the period 2011
through 1998. In terms of the loan disbursement, the share of female and male borrowers
averaged around 88.83 and 11.17 percent respectively during 1998-2011. The table shows a
significant CAGR of loan disbursement on female borrowers in rural as well as urban areas at
31.8 percent and 38.27 percent respectively. The share of female borrowers in loan disbursement
increased to 89.47 percent in 2011 from 85.67 percent in 1998. Appendix B clearly shows a

26
significant increase in the loan disbursement to the female borrower over the said period. The
following figures (2.1, 2.2) for Loan Disbursement of MFIs to the borrowers by genders and
regions have been figured out with the data presented in Appendix B of this article.

The figure shows the trend of loans disbursement by gender and region for the period from 1999
to 2011. During 1999 to 2008, there is no significant variation in AGRF in rural areas, Total
Annual Growth Rate of Female and TAGR. The AGRF in urban areas reached to 70.00 percent
in 2000 and gradually declined to more or less of 20.00 percent in 2011.

The figure shows that loan disbursement on female borrowers by the MFIs has gradually
declined in urban areas since 2000. After a slight decline from 1999 to 2005 in rural areas, it
started rising which reached to the peak of 96.25 percent in 2009.

3.11 Status of Loan Recovery

The initial objective of MFIs is to supply financial services (Credit and Savings) to the poor in
order to release financial restraints and to help alleviate poverty. Thereafter, all the MFIs have
tried to maximize their repayment performance. A high recovery rate assures the benefits for
both the MFIs and the borrowers. As far as recovery rate is concerned, it helps in reducing the

27
financial cost of credit and allowing more borrowers to have access to credit. With the increase
in recovery rate, it might also reduce the dependence of MFIs on government subsidies, which
may lead sustainability. Microfinance has succeeded in reaching the poor especially on women
who lack access to mainstream financial institutions. Women have made a great contribution in
loan recovery. Female borrowers have used their loan on income generating activities and make
sure their repayment. This has helped the MFIs to reach the vulnerable women by creating new
loan. The increasing number of borrowers will have impact on loan recovery. According to the
data of Appendix C which shows that in 2011, loan recovery amounting to Tk. 2312.68 billion
has been recovered as compared to Tk. 52.20 billion in 1998. During the period (1998-2011), the
loan recovery has increased to Tk. 2260.48 billion with the CAGR of 33.21 percent. The rise in
the loan recovery shows an increasing trend over the period 2011 through 1998. In terms of loan
recovery, the share of female and male borrowers averaged around 88.09 and 11.11 percent
respectively during 1998-2011. The table shows a significant CAGR of loan recovery on female
borrowers in rural as well as urban areas at 33.92 percent and 41.00 percent respectively.
Substantially, Appendix C reveals that CAGR of female borrower is 7.29 percent higher than the
male borrower. In parallel to overall growth in borrowers, an increasing trend in loan recovery is
observed over the years under review in rural areas. Appendix C clearly states a significant
increase in loan recovery to the female borrowers over the said period. The following figures
(3.1, 3.2) for Loan recovery rate of the borrowers by genders and regions have been figured out
with the data presented in Appendix C of this article.

28
The figure 3.1 shows that the AGRF in urban areas has slightly increased in 2000 and then
started falling gradually until 2011. Just over 1999 to 2008, there is no significant variation in
AGRF in rural areas, TAGRF and TAGR. While figures for TAGRF 91.65 percent have shown a
sudden growth and reach the peak in 2009. Then a downturn in AGRF in rural areas to 20.91
percent and TAGRF to 22.31 percent in the next year and remain the same. There is a slight fall
in TAGR in 2009 but reach the peak in the next year and remain the same.

The figure 3.2 show that loans recovery growth rate by female borrowers has gradually declined
in urban areas since 2000 and keeps the flow of declining until 2011. While in rural areas, there
is a sudden fall to 39.89 percent in 2000 and more or less until 2008. In 2009, it has increased to
101.63 percent, then steeply falls to 20.91 percent in the next year and remains the same.

29
3.12 Findings
As it is stated above, all the indicators are not directly related with women empowerment. In
spite of that, indicators showing the women involvement and their activeness with Microfinance
Institutions (MFIs) can lead women empowerment.
 It has been observed that borrowers of microfinance are increasing especially for female
borrowers.
 More and more involvement of female borrower in MFIs is found in the rural areas. It
means microfinance is being available to the poor rural women.
 On an average near about 90 percent share of the total loan disbursement by the MFIs
goes to female borrowers in every year. It is also noticed that approximately 90 percent
share goes to rural female borrowers out of total allocated loan for female borrowers.
 Greater performance of female borrowers has found on loan recovery, especially of rural
female borrowers.
 The year 2009 loan recovery by rural female borrowers more than 100 percent that helps
MFIs to make highest loan disbursement on rural female borrowers in the same year over
the trend.

30
Conclusion and Recommendations
Kabeer (2005) implied that there are no magic bullets, no panaceas, no blueprints, no readymade
formulas which bring about the radical structural transformation that the empowerment of the
poor and of poor women. However, The MFIs are performing well to reach the ultra-poor
women. Yet this paper has attempted to derive robust outcomes of performance of borrowers in
MFIs especially female borrowers. Thereafter, the results have analyzed bearing in mind that the
annual growth rate of female borrowers is quite high particularly in rural areas. Furthermore,
MFIs are lending huge part of their loan to female borrowers mainly in rural areas. Khandker
(2008) found that as more of the microfinance institutions are channeling the credit through
women, men are relying upon women for obtaining loans. This approach of loan disbursement
by the MFIs is helping female borrowers to improve their position in the family as well as in the
society.

There is a high recovery rate, which is noticeable in female borrowers. High recovery rates are
interpreted to mean that women are using loans productively and controlling credit. It is widely
assumed that there is a clear and direct relationship between access to credit and an increase in
the status of women within their households and communities: provision of credit is believed to
lead to the empowerment of women.

Moreover, along with the change in mentality of people in understanding the role of a woman,
MFIs need to modify as well in order to integrate greater economic freedom of women. With this
aim, MFIs have to be opened up new branches to the remote areas and increased development
activities to the ultra-poor women. Further, they will have to arrange training session to improve
borrower productivity in income generating activities, which will lead high repayment.

31
References
Abdullah, H.J., A.F. Ibrahim and J. King (2010), “Women’s voices, work and bodily Integrity in pre-
conflict, conflict and
post-conflict reconstruction processes in Sierra Leone”, IDS Bulletin 41 (2): 37-45.
BBS (1991), “Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics, Ministry of Planning”, Government of the People’s
Republic of Bangladesh,
Dhaka, Bangladesh.
DFID (2006), “Making governance work for the poor. DFID White Paper”, London: Department for
International
Development.
Goetz, A.M., and C. Nyamu Musembi (2008), “Voice and women’s empowerment: Mapping a research
agenda”, Pathways
Working Paper 2. Brighton, UK: Pathways of Women’s Empowerment Research Programmed
Consortium.
Hossain, M. (1984), “Credit for the Rural Poor, The Experience of Grameen Bank in Bangladesh”,
Research Monograph No.
4; BIDS, Dhaka.
Hossain, m. (1988), “Credit for alleviation of rural poverty: the grameen bank in Bangladesh”, research
report no. 65
(washington, dc: international food policy research institute, washington, d.c.
Huq, S. (2010), “Negotiating Islam: Conservatism, splintered authority and empowerment in urban
Bangladesh”, IDS
Bulletin 41 (2): 97-105.
Johnson, P. (2010), “Unmarried in Palestine: Embodiment and (dis)empowerment in the lives of single
Palestinian women”,
IDS Bulletin 41 (2): 106-115.
Kabeer, N (2005), “Is Microfinance a ‘Magic Bullet’ for Women’s Empowerment? Analysis of Findings
from South Asia”,
Economic and Political Weekly, (pp. 4709-4718).
Kabeer, N. (2008), “Paid work, women’s empowerment and gender justice: Critical pathways of social
change”, Pathways
Working Paper 3. Brighton, UK: Pathways of Women’s Empowerment Research Programmed
Consortium.
Kabeer, N., and L. Huq (2010), “The power of relationships: Love and solidarity in a landless women’s
organization in rural
Bangladesh”, IDS Bulletin 41 (2): 79-87.
Khandker, S., Koolwal, G., Sinha,N.(2008), “Benefits of Improving Young Women’s Labour Market
Opportunities:
Evidence from Group-based Credit Programs in Rural Bangladesh”, World Bank Development Report.
Khandker, S.R. (1998), “Fighting Poverty with Microcredit, Experience in Bangladesh”, OUP, New
York.
Pitt, Mark M., Shahidur R. Khandker, S-M. McKernan, and M. A. Latif. 1999 "Credit Programs for the
Poor and
Reproductive Behavior in Low Income Countries: Are the Reported Causal Relationships the Result of
Heterogeneity Bias?",
Demography. February 1999: 1-21.
Pitt, M., Khandker, S., Choudhury, O., Millimet, D. (2003), “Credit Programs for the Poor and the Health
Status of Children
in Rural Bangladesh”, International Economic Review, February 2003.

32
Priyadarshani, A., and S.A. Rahim (2010), “Women watching television: Surfing between fantasy and
reality”, IDS Bulletin
41 (2): 116-124.
Rahman, R.I., (1986), “Impact of Grameen Bank on the Situation of Poor Rural Women”, Report of
Grameen Bank
Evaluation Project, BIDS, Dhaka.
Robinson, M (2001), “The Microfinance Revolution: Sustainable finance for the poor”, Pp. xlvii, 304.
ISBN 0-8213-4524-9,
The World Bank: Washington, DC.
Sardenberg, C. (2010a), “Family, households and women’s empowerment in Bahia, Brazil, through the
generations:

33