Advancement of Rural Poor Women through Small Entrepreneurship Development: The Case of Bangladesh

Abstract

The present paper deals with the performance and role of small entrepreneurship in socioeconomic developmentof rural poor women. The selected households for the study divided into three categories of enterprises, namelylivestock and poultry, nursery & handicraft making. The sample size for this study was 90.Findings revealed thatthe average annual income generation per household of livestock and poultry, nursery, and handicraft enterprisegroups were Tk 55080, Tk39558 and Tk35630 respectively. Average change in annual income was 110.74percent after being involved with different small enterprises. Findings also showed significant developmentindicators revealed that most of the respondents of all three enterprises reported “high” in different indicators.The different aspects of health status, sanitation awareness increased to expected level. Change in housing unitesafter involvement is quite reverse to that of before involvement. There has been great change in the number ofown tube-well after involvement with enterprise and 100 percent households used the sanitary latrines whereas itwas only 24 percent before involvement. And 138 per cent increase in working days; this positive changeindicates that the small enterprise has generated new self employment activities for the rural poor women. Theanalysis revealed that different small enterprise activities contributed significantly to livelihood development ofthe household in general and increased participation of rural poor women in economic activities and householddecision making in particular.