Nongovernment Organizations’ Contributions to Poverty Reduction and Empowerment of Women through Microcredit: Case of a Village in Gaibandha District, Bangladesh

Abstract

This study attempts at discovering impact of nongovernment organization (NGO) activities (particularly disbursing microcredit) on women in a village named Kathalbari within Gobindaganj Thana of Gaibandha district. The NGOs working in the village include Thengamara Mohila Sabuj Sangha (TMSS), Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee (BRAC), Association for Social Advancement (ASA), and Grameen Bank (GB). Although all these NGOs disbursed microcredit, they had their own goals and strategies. The present study endeavors to find out these strategies from the NGO officials and their impact on the people through a social survey—how the recipients evaluated these programs and what their experiences were regarding microcredit. The findings of the study show that microcredit in Kathalbari had been disbursed to women only, all of whom were married. Decision regarding spending the money received as credit was usually made by either the husbands or sons of the credit receivers. Significant improvements had been made among the respondents regarding the number of meals taken in a day, having a sanitary latrine within the household, amount of savings, etc. through microcredit. Although the main objective of microcredit was to engage women in income-generating jobs, only one fourth of the respondents (credit receivers) succeeded in becoming engaged in such work. Only six of them could buy some cultivable land for their households using the credit or the profit earned through using the credit. Comparing the conditions imposed on disbursing microcredit by the different NGOs, the most preferred NGO was ASA, while the strictest conditions were applied by TMSS, according to most of the respondents.