Open AccessPoor Women's Participation in Credit-based Self-employment: The Impact on their Empowerment, Fertility, Contraceptive Use, and Fertility Desire in Rural Bangladesh
Author(s) -
Ruhul Amin,
Robert B. Hill,
Yiping Lii
Publication year - 1995
Publication title -
pakistan development review
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.154
H-Index - 26
ISSN - 0030-9729
DOI - 10.30541/v34i2pp.93-119
Subject(s) - empowerment , fertility , collateral , socioeconomics , population , sample (material) , economic growth , developing country , rural area , survey sampling , demographic economics , economics , business , demography , political science , sociology , chemistry , finance , law , chromatography
By analysing a 1992 national level household sample surveydata collected from the female recipients of collateral-free loans ofthree relatively large rural development agencies in Bangladesh-GB,BRAC, and BRDB-the present study shows that the participation inincome-generating projects by poor rural women had been associated withtheir increased level of contraceptive use, decreased level offertility, elevated level of desire for no more children, and enhancedlevel of empowerment. Some of these effects were much higher than thoseof the corresponding levels for Bangladesh as a whole, indicating thepossible additional effect of income-generating projects as well as theeffects of their population-education components. The implications ofthese findings for an integrated development strategy m Bangladesh arediscussed.