Women Empowerment through Agriculture in Chapainawabganj, Bangladesh

Abstract

Women constitute almost half of the population of Bangladesh and are heavily involved in different agricultural activities though their contributions are neglected as mainstream labor force which hinders their expected development. Considering this fact, the present study was designed to determine the women empowerment through agriculture in Chapainawabganj, a northern district of the country. A pre-structured questionnaire was used to collect data through face to face interview from randomly selected sample size of 120 respondents from four selected village namely Babudying, Hossaindying, Ramjibonpur and Thakurjoubon in Chapainawabganj district. The main findings indicated that about 83.3% respondents were middle age and 60% of the respondents were illiterate with 56.7% belonged to small size family which consists of up to 4 members. Agriculture was the main occupation among the respondents. Most of the respondents were found without own land although they continue their livelihood mostly by crop production, livestock rearing, and day laboring. They take lease (23.3%) of cultivable land from others. The respondents had an average monthly family income of about 9351.38 BDT whereas 95% of the respondents were under medium income category. The respondents had no extension contact (0%), having high farming experience (50%) and no cosmopolitan behavior (0%). Most of the respondents (71.7%) were unable to make their own decision and 33.3% of the respondents had educational rights. The economic participation rate of the respondents was very high (100%), on the other hand they had no economic opportunities (0%). The attitude of the respondents towards women empowerment were mostly moderately favorable (70%). Most of the respondents of the study area were lied between low to medium empowerment (96.7%) with minimal high empowerment (3.30%). Study suggests that there is need a lot of work for women to improve their present condition. Government and Non-government organizations should take proper step to decrease gender discrimination as well as ensure women’s fundamental rights to make their life easy and make them more empowered.