Assessing Empowerment of Farm Women: the Case of Barisal Sadar Upazila
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Asian Journal of Agricultural Extension, Economics & Sociology 13(4): XX-XX, 2016; Article no.AJAEES.30203 ISSN: 2320-7027 SCIENCEDOMAIN international www.sciencedomain.org Assessing Empowerment of Farm Women: The Case of Barisal Sadar Upazila Israt Jahan 1, A. T. M. Sanual Haque 1, Md. Golam Rabbani Akanda 1 and Md. Kamrul Hasan 1* 1Department of Agricultural Extension and Rural Development, Patuakhali Science and Technology University, Dumki, Patuakhali, Bangladesh. Authors’ contributions This work was carried out in collaboration between all authors. Author IJ designed the study, wrote the protocol, carried out all field work and performed the statistical analysis. Authors ATMSH and MGRA supervised the work and managed the literature searches and edited the manuscript. Author MKH managed the analyses of the study and wrote the first draft of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript. Article Information DOI: 10.9734/AJAEES/2016/30203 Editor(s): (1) (2) Reviewers: (1) (2) Complete Peer Review History: Received 25 th October 2016 Accepted 13 th November 2016 Original Research Article Published 18 th November 2016 ABSTRACT The study was conducted to determine the extent of empowerment of the trained farm women and also to explore the influential factors of their empowerment status. The study was conducted at 5 villages of Kashipur union in Barisal Sadar upazila in Bangladesh. Data was collected from randomly selected 114 women from these villages using a pre-tested interview schedule during 2 February to 10 March 2016. The overall empowerment status scores of the farm women ranged from 28 to 83 against a possible range of 0 to 126. The sampled women had a low-medium level of empowerment ( M = 48.23). Among the five dimensions of empowerment, psychological and economic empowerment dominated over the other dimensions. Coefficient of correlation showed that out of 10 selected characteristics of the farm women, education, family education, annual family income, savings, training experience and communication exposure had positive significant relationships with their empowerment status. _____________________________________________________________________________________________________ *Corresponding author: E-mail: [email protected]; Jahan et al.; AJAEES, 13(4): xxx-xxx, 2016; Article no.AJAEES.30203 Keywords: Bangladesh; empowerment; farm training; farm women. 1. INTRODUCTION Following these literatures, in this study, empowerment has been measured with Women constitute roughly half of the humanity. economic (asset endowment and decision over “Women perform 66% of the world’s work, asset utilization), psychological (self-confidence), produce 50% of the food, but earn 10% of the social (relational), cultural and political context income and own 1% of the property” [1]. This [10]. shows that the economic status of women is in pathetic condition and this is more so in a Training has been considered as a prerequisite country like Bangladesh [2]. Rural society is still to asset endowment through taking part in male dominated and the women face income generating activities. Training greatly considerable extent of constraints both inside helps rural women to understand their rights and and outside the four walls of the house due to the freedom of expression. It is evident that training existing structure in the household and society enhances women’s confidence and self-esteem, [3]. In fact, they are treated as weak and occupational business and entrepreneurial skills, dependent on men. Therefore, Bangladeshi generation of income to build a better life of women enjoy an unfavorable status in the Syrian refugees in Jordan [11]. This confidence society. building improves their personality and respect in the society etc. Women’s trainings through The position of women in any society is an index various organizations, both government and non- of its civilization [4]. No country can achieve its government, are playing very important role in potential without adequately investing in and increasing visible bargaining power of women to developing the capabilities of women. The very strengthen their voices in development. Trainings concept of empowerment of women which is play a very vital role in empowerment of women based on equality between sources is a long psychologically, culturally, socially, economically drawn conscious continuous process comprising and politically i.e. in all spheres of life. Keeping in enhancement in decision making. Empowerment view the empowerment status of women trained is an active multidimensional process which through various organizations, the present study should enable women to realize their full identity was undertaken with the objective to study the and power in all spheres of life [5]. Gainful extent of empowerment of the farm women. empowerment has been viewed as a critical entry points for women’s participation in income Organizations dealing with women empowerment generating activities which enhance their status claim that they are successful in improving and decision making power. women empowerment status through involving a large number of women in their development Women empowerment is a widely investigated programs. But few organizations investigate and issue, nonetheless, the topic still remains in report the extent of empowerment of their multifaceted forms. There is no universal beneficiaries. For an expected level of farm definition of women empowerment. Few women development, organizations have to find examples could be important here. World Bank out the empowerment level of farm women and mentioned empowerment broadly as an initiate special programs for long lasting expansion of freedom of choice and action that women empowerment. To formulate regional needs an expansion of asset and capabilities [6]. development strategies, it is necessary to assess UNICEF emphasizes inequality in defining the women empowerment at regional level as in women empowerment [7]. It states women this case the Barisal Sadar upazila in empowerment as the women’s access, Bangladesh has been selected. In this regard, awareness, capacity, control and actions over the study aims to answer the following research minimizing inequality. UNDP also focuses on questions. inequalities in economic and political participation and decision-making power and power over 1. What is the empowerment status of the economic resources to measure women farm women who received training on empowerment [8]. Empowerment can also be different income generating activities? seen at different levels: personal (self- 2. What are the characteristics of farm confidence); relational (ability to negotiate); and women that influence their empowerment collective (ability to influence policy) [9]. status? 2 Jahan et al.; AJAEES, 13(4): xxx-xxx, 2016; Article no.AJAEES.30203 2. METHODOLOGY the women to ensure economic autonomy. Political component states the women’s ability In order to answer the research questions, it was to organize social change. Psychological hypothesized that the farm women of Barisal empowerment measures the extent to which the Sadar upazila (sub-district) had been empowered women belief that they can act to uplift their after being participated in different training social status [13]. Social and cultural dimensions programs related to crops, vegetables, livestock, measure the relational and collective aspects of handicrafts etc. as their income generating empowerment with women’s freedom of activities. The second hypothesis was that there movement, visibility in social spaces, were certain socio-economic characteristics of participation in social network, positive media the women that were associated with their images and access to education [12]. empowerment status. Primary data from face to face interview through household survey were Descriptive statistical measures, such as collected to test the hypotheses. The data frequency, range, mean, standard deviation and sources were the farm women, who received rank order were used to describe and interpret training on different income earning activities in the data. For exploring the association between Barisal Sadar upazila of Barisal district of empowerment status of the women and their southern Bangladesh. From Kashipur union of characteristics Pearson’s correlation coefficient Sadar upazila, 5 villages viz . Isakathi, (r) was computed using their total score of Chohudpur, Gonpara, Koladanga, Diyapara were empowerment status. selected randomly. All the women (1140 in number) as housewives of the farm households 3. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION except landless farm households of these villages trained from different GOs and NGOs 3.1 Women Empowerment Status constituted the sampling frame of the study. A total of 114 were selected randomly from the The sampled women had relatively lower sampling frame. empowerment status ( M = 48.23, SD = 21.23 against a highest possible score of 126). Similar Ten selected characteristics of the women were findings have been mentioned by another study considered as the independent variables that [14]. This indicates that though the farm women could be associated with their empowerment received training on different crops and status. The characteristics were: age, education, vegetables, hygiene and nutrition, their power family size, farm size, family education, annual position in the households remains in lower family income, own savings, training experience, status. Many of them know their rights, but they communication exposure