Effect of Grameen Bank Micro-credit Program on Change in Socio-economic Condition and Empowerment of Rural Women

Abstract

Grameen Bank (GB) is one of the largest NGOs workthg with the socio-economic uplifting of the poor section specially women of the society. The main focus of the present study is to determine the Effect of GB on women beneficiaries through change in socio-economic condition and empowerment of women beneficiaries of GB in Sujalpur union of Birgonj upajilla under Dinajpur district. The specific objectives were: to determine the selected characteristics of rural women, to determine the Effect of GB micro-credit program on women beneficiaries, to explore the relationship between the selected characteristics and Effect of GB micro-credit program and to identi& the problems confronted by the women beneficiaries after involvement with GB micro-credit program. Eleven selected personal characteristics of women were described, which include- age, education, family size, farm size, family income, credit availability, duration of involvement with GB micro-credit program, attitude towards GB micro-credit program, personal independent savings, organizational participation and level of aspiration in life with dependent variable of Effect of GB microcredit program on women beneficiaries. The result of analysis on change pattern of livelihood status in nine dimension namely 'change in family annual income', 'change in clothing'. 'change in food consumption'. 'change in sanitation', 'change in mobility', 'change in housing', 'change in decision making ability', 'change in purchasing capacity' and 'change in spousal arguments and abuse' in terms of before and after involvement with GB microeredit program were found significant. Null hypotheses were tested to explore the relationship between eleven independent variables and change in livelihood status. Five null hypotheses out of 11 null hypotheses were rejected. Among these age, education, family income, credit received and level of aspiration in life were significantly related. On the other hand family size, farm size, organizational participation attitude towards GB micro-credit program and personal independent savings didn't show any siificant relationship with the Effect of GB micro-credit program. This implied that the GB micro-credit program had a positive Effect on change in socio-economic condition and empowerment of rural women.