Empowerment of Women in Bangladesh: Does it Help Make Reproductive Decision?

Abstract

This paper explores the role of NGOs in improving the empowerment status of women in Bangladesh and examines whether 'empowerment' helps the women make reproductive decisions. A total of 186 randomly selected respondents were interviewed using a questionnaire. The respondents were beneficiaries of four NGOs with empowerment-focused interventions. Both qualitative and quantitative (descriptive and analytical) techniques were used to analyse the data. Results show that in six indicators of empowerment almost all the respondents have significant achievements. For the cases of "ability to make small and larger purchase", "participation in family and reproductive decision making", "enjoyment of freedom in the family", "freedom from dominance by other family members", and "increased mobility", women achieved a significant improvement between pre- and post-NGO period (P<0.000). For the case of "participation in political activity" they have also been able to achieve significant change (P<0.001). A significantly higher percentage of respondents have control over reproductive decisions in the post-NGO period and a negligible percentage of respondents reported to have taken reproductive decisions due to the husband's insistence. Cases of pressure from other members of the family on reproductive decisions in the post-NGO period have been significantly lower (P<0.000). It is concluded that the NGOs have played an important role in empowering the women and that empowerment helps them make reproductive decisions.