Social Business and its Impact on Women Empowerment: A Case Study on two villages in Khulna, Bangladesh

Author:Dipika Chandraa*, Abdullah Abusayed Khanb

Abstract:
Social business, a new dimension for economic up gradation of rural poor people of Bangladesh. It has been paving the way of income generating activities of rural poor women in the country. This study was an attempt to understand how social business facilitates to empower women. The study extensively tries to display a comparative picture regarding different dimensions of empowerment before involving in social business and after involving in social business. For this purpose, Hatbati and Hatalbunia-two villages of Batiaghata Upazila under Khulna District in Bangladesh were selected purposively as the study area. Five cases had been analyzed to meet the objectives of the study. Research question is whether social business is playing an important role of women empowerment? Mainly primary data were collected to conduct the study from February 2019 to April 2019.The study revealed that after involving in Social Business the women started to participate in different income generating activities. Then, they also started to control over income, expenditure, credit and savings. They could then participate in household decision making more than before. Because of involving in Grameen credit program the rate of participating in social and political activities among the women also increased. Their mobility outside home and exposure to media and communication was increased after involving in social business. It was found that in dimensions the women started to become more empowered than before involving in Social Business. However, authors suggested that from these case studies with the time dimension modernization of the distribution of grameen credit associated with modern technical know-how and digitalization impact needs to be incorporated under holistic manner for women empowerment in the villages.

Keywords:Key Words: Social Business, Grameen Credit, Women Empowerment., Entrepreneurship

DOI:10.46333/ijtc/9/2/8

International Journal of Trade & Commerce (Vol: 9 Issue:2)