Introduction:
Recently many governmental and non-governmental organizations
in many low income countries have introduced credit programs targeted at the
poor. Many of these programs specially target women based on the view that the
wage labor market and have an inequitable share of power in house-hold decision
making. The Grameen Bank of Bangladesh is perhaps the best-known example of
these small-scale production credit programs for the poor and over 90% of its
clients are women.
Earlier work has found that the effects of program
participation differ importantly by the gender of program participation. For
example, Pitt and Khandker (1998) find that the flow of consumption expenditure
increases 18 taka for every 100 taka borrowed by women, but only 10 taka for
every 100 taka borrowed by men. Pitt, Khandker, Choudhury and Millimet (2003),
using a totally different approach to parameter identification and find that
credit provided women importantly improves measures of health and nutrition for
both boys and girls, while credit provided men has no significant level.
In the debate on micro-credit programs and women’s
empowerment, domestic violence is an issue of critical importance in
Bangladesh, where severe gender disparities in a society has caused domestic
violence to become an accepted and even institutionalized practice (Koenig et
al., 2003).
According to the Demographic and Health Surveys,
which collects standardized data on domestic violence in many countries in the
developing world, domestic violence rates in Bangladesh are among the highest
in the world with recent figures from the 2007 DHS, showing that over 52% of
ever-married women had experienced some form of violence from their husbands in
their lives.
Micro-credit membership in Bangladesh also is
widely prevalent, with recent figures showing membership rates as high as one
in three households. In the 2007 BDHS domestic violence module, the
representative subsample of women that we use in this study, the proportion of
women who are members of groups with a micro-credit component was as high as
38%.
Though there is no doubt that ‘Micro-credit’
creates greater opportunity to be self independent especially for women in our
country, but it also creates violence in the family & society.
Therefore the ‘Micro-credit & Women Violence’ has been a topic for
research. For example, Kishor & Johnson (2006), Elisberg et al. (1999),
Heise (1998), Jewkes (2002) find that poverty leads to stress and
conditions that could be lead to increased domestic violence. Women in the
micro-credit groups may be a group that is more at risk to violence to begin
with because micro-credit program deals with women specially, poor and
functionally landless women.
Definition of Micro-credit:
Micro-credit is used to describe small loans granted to low income individuals that are excluded from the traditional banking system. It is part of the larger micro-finance industry, which provides not only credit, but also savings, insurance, and other basic financial services to the poor. The term ‘micro’ stems from the relatively small amounts of money that are being borrowed or saved.Objectives of the Study:
The primary objective of the study is to monitor
& evaluate the pattern of micro-credit & violence due to micro-credit
in Bangladesh. The specific objectives are,
- In this paper has been attempted to focus on micro-credit & violence (mainly in women violence).
- To identify the factor for which the respondents take loan.
- To compare the economic condition before & after taking loan.
- To measure the association between micro-credit & violence.
Limitations of the Study:
During data collection & recording information
we faced some problems. These are as follows:
- Since data were collected on limited number of districts, the generalization of this result is unsatisfactory for entire population of interest.
- Lack of man power and money funding hampered the research. Hence data were not collected from all the districts.
- There was less time to collect data.
- Since the respondent were mainly uneducated specially women, so it was difficult to interview them and get the exact answer.
- Since micro-credit spreads throughout the country, so the country-coverage problem was raised.
- A few of the respondents showed non co-operative attitude during the time of data collection.
- There was some unwillingness among respondents to discuss personal matters.
Study Period:
The following steps were performed to complete this
survey:
- Selection of the topic
- Planning and preparation of questionnaire
- Determination of the objectives
- Selection of the survey area
- Definition of target population and study population
- Collection of data
- Data entry and management
- Data editing and checking
- Data processing and analysis
- Project management
- Report writing
- Facing and optimizing the limitations
- Finding causes and consequences
So, around six months as the study period was
needed to perform all these steps.
Area Selection:
To find out the causes which are significant and
which are insignificant for the violence due to micro-credit among the districts
of Bangladesh the study is concluded on different parts of few districts. At
first we had selected 10 districts and then selected 3 upazilas from each
district. Finally, we interviewed 50 women from each selected district
allocated in 3 upazilas.
Target Population:
In the study, the target population is the
districts of Bangladesh. The districts are:
- Chandpur
- Gazipur
- Joypurhat
- Manikgonj
- Munshigonj
- Narail
- Narayangonj
- Nilfamari
- Noakhali
- Pabna
Study Population:
The study population of the research project is
women whose are the member of micro-credit and may be or, not faced
difficulties before and after taking micro-credit loan.
Sources of Data:
Generally two types of data are used in such kind
of research. They are:
- Primary Data
- Secondary Data
This research has been conducted on the basis of
primary data. Data are directly collected from the field.
Preparation of Questionnaire:
The following points must be kept in mind while
constructing a questionnaire:
- The number of questions should be as few as possible.
- Questions should be logically arranged.
- Questions should be short and simple.
- Questions of sensitive nature should be avoided.
- Questions should be capable of objective answers.
- Answer to the questions should not require calculations.
To finalize questionnaire utmost care is taken so
that all the relevant questions are included and irrelevant questions are
excluded. We divide our questionnaire into four parts, first is personal
information of the respondent, second one is family information of the
respondent, third one is about micro-credit and forth one is violence due to
micro-credit. The main purpose of this questionnaire is to identify which
causes are significant for the violence due to micro-credit. It is difficult to
study as micro-credit is very much controversial.
Sample Size Determination:
Determination of sample size is perhaps the most
difficult part of a statistical investigation. Often it is claimed that a
sample should bear some proportional relationship to the size of the population
from which it is drawn. We know for a sufficiency large population, the formula
for estimating sample size is
n = z2pq/d2
Where, n = desired sample size
z = standard normal deviate
p = assumed proportion in the target population
estimated to be involved with micro-credit
d = degree of accuracy desired in the estimated
proportion
Here, z = 1.96, p = 0.16, q = 1-p =1- 0.16 = 0.84
and d = 0.033
So, n = z2pq/d2 =
(1.96)(0.16)(0.84)/0.0332 ≈ 490.
Accuracy and Reliability:
While collecting data, every possible attempt to
ensure accuracy is taken. These are:
- The purpose of the study to the respondents is clearly explained as per as possible.
- It is tried to impress the respondent by expressing the fact the survey is undertaken by us only for academic purpose.
- In a friendly way the questions are determined.
- Entries are carefully examined and their consistencies are checked.
No comments:
Post a Comment