BANGLADESH INSTITUTE OF INTERNATIONAL AND STRATEGIC STUDIES

INCLUSIVE FINANCING AND WOMEN’S EMPOWERMENT: AN EMPIRICAL EVIDENCE

Author: Chowdhury Golam Kibria, Md Badrul Alam, Sadia Tabassum

DOI Link: https://www.doi.org/10.566888/BIISSj2020v41n1a4

ABSTRACT

One of the major goals of the seventh five-year plan of Bangladesh is to achieve gender equality and women’s empowerment in all spheres of life. The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) on gender equality and women’s empowerment also have several specific targets which include, inter alia, that women should have full and effective participation at all levels of decision making in political, economic and public life. This paper analyzes the impact of inclusive financing through microcredit programmes in empowering rural women in Bangladesh. The paper uses survey data collected from 128 women of Gazipur district by using structured questionnaire during May-June 2019. The empirical result reveals that only 46 per cent of the respondent women have a reasonable level of empowerment and among them, 54 per cent are covered by microcredit programmes. The study also finds that factor like the use of inclusive financing by self is significantly associated with women empowerment. The paper also reveals that borrowers have significantly higher empowerment levels than non-borrowers. Moreover, it has been indicated that, among the demographic factors of the women, the total income of a respondent family is very important for women empowerment. For policy implications, it is therefore imperative to provide microcredit to rural women and to monitor them regularly to ensure the use of this money by self in productive sectors. This will make them more likely to have higher levels of empowerment.