| Abstract: |
Similar to the rest of the world, women empowerment in rural Bangladesh is
growing as one of the most critical issues need answering very soon. Several
attempts have been undertaken by different government organizations, local
government institutions, and non-government organizations in recent years to
empower the women in various facets- social, economic and political for the
least. The objective of this paper was to evaluate the women empowerment
status in a rural area in Khulna district, Bangladesh. Physical surveys were
conducted among the households in the Chakrakhali village under Jalma Union in
Batiaghata Upazilla of Khulna district. The samples were randomly drawn from
the families in the area irrespective of economic, social or religious
characteristics. All the respondents were adult women- either the household
head of women lead household or the housewife of the family. The social,
economic, and political empowerment status of the women in the village was
evaluated through the study. The findings from the survey indicate the women
are empowered mostly in the economic realm, followed by social empowerment.
The political empowerment of the women of that village found to be absent in
most cases. The survey results also indicated that the household heads hinder
the political and social empowerment status of the women in a male-lead
household. In these types of families, despite the monetary or other supports
form the institutions is delivered to the women, they are not the own making
the decisions. It is found that a lot of the choices of the women are
influenced by the household head, mainly to borrow money from micro-credit
organizations. The understanding between government organizations and women
are not in good shape as women are not interested in the functions of these
organizations in most of the cases. Mainly the non-government organizations
(i.e., CSS, BUREAU Bangladesh, ASA, PROSHIKA, BRAC, Grameen Bank, etc.) work
for the villagers, and women are more concerned about the activities of these
institutions. However, it was found from the study that women are not being
benefitted and mainstreamed through empowerment activities by these
institutions. |