Browsing by Author "Mostofa, Md. Golam"

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Chemical and biological studies on the pigments of tomato (lycopersicon esculentum Mill.) and litchi (litchi Chinensis Sonn.) of Bangladesh
(University of Dhaka, 2019-10-16) Mostofa, Md. Golam
Tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum Mill.) is one of the most important widely consumed vegetables of the Solanaceae family, of Bangladesh whereas Litchi (Litchi chinensis Sonn.) is one of the most beautiful as well as uncommon sub-tropical evergreen tree belonging to the Sapindaceae family and sub-family Nepheleae, native to Southeast Asia, is fast becoming popular throughout the world because of its attractive appearance and delicious taste. Tomatoes and their products such as tomato pulp, ketchup, juice and sauce are important source of micronutrients; these contain certain minerals (notably potassium) and carboxylic acids, including ascorbic, citric, malic, fumaric and oxalic acids. All of these are essential for health because of their antioxidant and antimicrobial activities in plants as well as in animals and humans. Among vegetables, Lycopersicon esculentum are rich sources of carotenoids – principally lycopene, followed by β-carotene, lutein, phytofluene, phytoene and tocophrols are also present. Lycopene the most abundant pigment (60-64 %) is mainly responsible for the characteristic deep-red colour of ripe tomato fruits and tomato products. Because of the presence of long-chain conjugated double bonds, lycopene has been reported to possess antioxidant and antimicrobial activity and is superior to lutein or β - carotene. Numerous epidemiological studies have suggested that a large consumption of raw tomato and tomato based products may experience a decreased risk for developing certain cancers such as prostate cancer, lung and stomach cancer, and cardiovascular diseases. The antioxidant and antimicrobial capacity, together with provitaminic properties typical of other tomato carotenoids has drawn attention towards widely consumed fruits over years. The second most important carotenoid is β-carotene, which represents about 7% of the total carotenoid content. Preliminary trials were carried out before to proceed for Soxhlet extraction these involve use of ethyl acetate (EtOAc) as solvent for extraction. Moreover different solvents i.e. ethyl acetate (100%), di-mixture (acetone: pet ether, 1:1, v/v) and tri-mixture (n-hexane: acetone: ethanol, 2:1:1, v/v/v) were employed. Ethyl acetate was the best solvent for extracting of trans- and cis-isomers of lycopene and β-carotene. The consumption of tomato would exert nutritional, biological and health benefits by virtue of their antioxidant, antimicrobial and anti-inflammatory activity. Attempts were taken into account to explain the scientific basis for the medicinal and nutritional benefits of these fruits. The phytochemical contents, antioxidant and antimicrobial activity were also assessed. The in-vitro antimicrobial activity of the test microorganism was performed by agar disc diffusion method by measuring the diameter of zone of inhibition in terms of millimeter with a calibrated scale. The isolation, purification and identification of chemical structure of the isolated lycopene and β - carotene involve the use of thin layer chromatography (TLC), vacuum liquid chromatography (VLC), column chromatography and spectroscopic methods. The tomato extract described in this application is the ethyl acetate (100%), acetone: pet ether (1:1, v/v) and n-hexane: acetone: ethanol (2:1:1, v/v/v) extracts of ripe tomato fruits with lycopene content ranging from 17 to 29 mg/100 g. The lycopene content in tomato differs with the variety, geographic location, technique of cultivation, soil condition and degree of ripeness of tomato fruits. The significant antimicrobial activity of active extracts was evaluated using bacterial cultures of Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus), Pseudomonas aeruginosa (P. aeruginosa), Escherichia coli (E. coli), Streptococcus pneumonia (S. pneumonia), and fungal cultures of Aspergillus niger (A. niger), Aspergillus flavus (A. flavus), Candida albicans (C. albicans) was compared with the Ciprofloxacin and Ketoconazole as standard antimicrobes. Chloroform extract showed more antibacterial and antifungal activities and most of the extracts executed moderate to good antimicrobial activity against the tested micro-organisms. The various extracts of tomato were active against the entire tested microorganisms for anti-bacterial activity with the range of Minimum Inhibitory Concentration (MIC) values for S. aureus (MIC: 17-33 μg /ml), E. coli (MIC: 16-32 μg /ml) S. pneumonia (MIC: 1733 μg /ml) and P.aeruginosa (MIC: 15-39 μg /ml) and for anti-fungal activity with the range of MIC values for A. niger (MIC: 17-34 μg/ml), A. flavus (18-37 μg/ml) and C. albicans (16-35 μg/ml). Fruits and vegetables are known to contain a variety of different antioxidant compounds such as ascorbic acid, tocopherol, glutathione and carotenoids, which may all contribute to protection against oxidative damage. General phytochemical screening of the Litchi chinensis revealed the presence of alkaloids, steroids, phenolic compounds, tannins, saponins and fatty acids. These phenolic compounds belong to the class of anthocyanins, flavanol or flavonoids and are antioxidant compounds remains in the pericarp, seeds and flowers of litchi fruits. In general, phenolic acids and flavonoids exhibit powerful antioxidant activities that inhibit key enzymes in mitochondrial respiration, offer protection against coronary heart diseases, and have anti-inflammatory, antitumor and antimicrobial activities. That’s why Litchi chinensis has wide folk medicinal uses. The extraction was carried out using dried powder of litchi fruits pericarp (LFP) with distilled methanol (MeOH) in a soxhlet apparatus. The MeOH extract was concentrated in vacuo. These concentrated mass was treated with pet ether. The pet ether fraction was examined by TLC (silica gel: pet ether, 90:10) showed the presence of five spots of which two were violet, two pink and one green. The presence of pink colour spot was thought to be an indication of the presence of either steroid or fatty acid material or both. However its Salkowski and Liberman-Burchard reaction gave positive results confirming the presence of steroids. Upon VLC and crystallization of the fraction T-7 and purified it to mini column chromatography and the light yellowish fraction TS-2 was left undisturbed at room temperature gave white sharp needle crystals. The crystals were dissolved in chloroform and transferred to a vial marked SS-I. Its TLC study showed a single spot with the R value of 0.38. After recrystallization isolated compound was characterized by UV, IR, f 1 H‐NMR, 13 C‐NMR, DEPT-135 spectrum and it was identified Stigmasterol. This is the first report so far of occurrence and details spectroscopic description of this compound from litchi fruit pericarp (LFP). The antibacterial activities of litchi fruit parts both pulp and waste (peel and seeds) extracted using two different solvents (ethanol and acetone), were evaluated against medically important bacteria i.e. E. coli, P. aeruginosa, S. aureus, and B. subtilis. The antibacterial activity of litchi pulp and waste were compared with Bacitracin as standard antibiotic. The results revealed that litchi waste ethanolic extract exerted the strongest inhibition against all tested bacterial strains compared to other extracts while pulp acetonic extract showed no effect against most of tested bacteria. Extracted Stigmasterol was further used to determine its antimicrobial activity. The antimicrobial activity ranged from 12 mm to 23.5 mm for the Stigmasterol and 19.5 mm to 27.5 for Gentamicin against E. coli, P.aeruginosa, S. aureus and K. pneumoniae. In comparison with standard antibacterial compound Gentamicin (20 μg /mL) it was found that purified Stigmasterol (20 μg /mL) has antimicrobial activity almost equivalent to the standard. The antioxidant activities were found in the Litchi Fruits Pericarp (LFP) approximately 15% of total fruits. Possibly these are due to the presence of phenolics, flavonoids and ascorbic acids. To achieve the antioxidant activity LFP was treated with preheated Charcoal to make them free from oily and colouring materials. This cleaned mixture contains powerful antioxidant compounds, such as ascorbic acid, phenolic acids and flavonoids which are capable of blocking the harmful effects of free radicals in the body. Antioxidant activities of phenolic and flavonoid compounds of LFP of litchi extracts were evaluated using Ferric (Fe 3+ ) reducing antioxidant power (FRAP) assay activity.
Child Welfare Services in Bangladesh: A Comparative Study on Sarkary Shishu Sodan and SOS Children's Village, Rajshahi
(University of Rajshahi, 2007) Parvin, Shorifa; Bhuiya, Abu Bakr Siddique; Ali, M. Korban; Mostofa, Md. Golam
Children of today will lead the country tomorrow. A large number of government and non-government organizations are working for ensuring the rights of orphan and destitute children in our country. The purpose of this study is to compare the welfare services of the inmates between government (Sarkary Shishu Sodan, Rajsahi) and non-government (SOS Children's Village, Rajshahi). Data were collected from the 5 to 18 year old inmates in both the institutions. 98 inmates in Sarkary Shishu Sodan and 65 inmates in SOS Children's Village, Rajshahi, were interviewed in terms of socio-demographic characteristics as well as child welfare facilities. It was not necessary to apply any sampling technique in this study because the data were collected from almost total population. The univariate, bivariate and multivariate (logistic regression, path) statistical analytical procedures were applied to analyze these data. This study focused on facilities interrelated with the economy such as physical, logistical, health related, food, clothing, education, rehabilitation, etc. which were better in SOS children's Village than that of Sarkary Shishu Sodan. With increasing the age, educational progression and duration of living of the inmates at the same time increased their knowledge about HIV/ AIDS, child rights and EPI for both the institutions'; but the knowledge about HIV/AIDS, child rights and EPI of the inmates of SOS Children's Village was at higher percentage than that of the inmates in Sarkary Shishu Sodan, Rajshahi. Logistic regression analysis revealed that the inmates in SOS Children's Village gathered higher knowledge about HIV/ AIDS than those in Sarkary Shishu Sodan with respect to increased living period and better awareness facilities ( e.g; awareness program of HIV/ AIDS in the institution, printing and electronic media facilities etc. available in SOS Children's Village) of HIV/ AIDS in the institution. The BMI was strictly related to the age and food value of the inmates for both the institutions, while food value showed better effect on BMI through age for the inmates in SOS children's village due to better fooding than in Sarkary Shishu Sodan, Rajshahi. So Government should give more attention to proper manipulation of logistical, physical facilities, offer more facilities to take different types of awareness program and improvement of food for proper growth and development as well as for getting rid of malnutrition problems among the inmates. In want of proper rehabilitation program Sarkary Shishu Sodan, Rajshahi has to return the inmates at the age of 18 years; but it is alarming as to what is going to happen to the parentless destitute children in their future life. Hence, Govt. should carry out the all development programs successfully and the oversight mechanism should be strengthened.
Determinants of Induced Abortion and Reproductive Health in Some Selected Areas of Rajshahi
(University of Rajshahi, 2007) Mostofa, Md. Golam; Hoque, Md. Aminul
In Bangladesh, advancement of medical science and easy access to modern medical facilities, the death rates especially child mortality have declined significantly during the last few decades. On the other hand women's ability to control their fertility is limited. Though family planning methods are available everywhere in the country, a woman may not use them because of financial constraints, personal beliefs, opposition family members or concern about the perceived adverse effects on health or future fertility. Fertility and mortality is not accompanied with each other. As a result population growth is becoming unmanageable and have resulted serious challenges to the achievement of national objectives and targets with regard to socio-economic development. Human reproductive processes are mainly influenced by contraception and sometimes by induced abortion where contraceptive practice is less use effective. Common sense and an elementary understanding of the biological determinants of human reproduction indicate that contraception and induced abortion represent alternative means of achieving the same aggregate level of fertility in a particular population. But induced abortion is harmful and sometimes dangerous to maternal health. So the levels of contraceptive use and the incidence of induced abortion continue to provoke heated discussion. An induced abortion is the deliberate termination of pregnancy by artificially inducing the loss before the viability of the fetus. Pregnancy is a critical phase in women's life and for obvious reason it cannot be avoided. However, for smooth management of health, sometimes pregnancy is required to be avoided by contraceptive use or terminating pregnancy to save the life of mother from the unwanted pregnancy in the initial stage of pregnancy. Generally, when family planning measures fail, the outcome of the ultimate baby make the family size larger otherwise induced abortion is done to keep the family size unchanged. In Bangladesh, a study reveals that among the unintended pregnancies that are due to contraceptive failure 31 percent undergo menstrual regulation (MR), 4.9 percent seek for induced abortion and remaining 55 percent gives unintended birth (Akhter, 1997). Abortion, legal or illegal, is being practiced in all most all countries of the world. However, variation in the level of abortion across countries depends not only on legality of the procedure but also on religious restrictions, cultural acceptance and also awareness about the odd consequences of abortion effect. According to the Penal Code of 1860, induced abortion is illegal in Bangladesh except to save life of the mother (Bhiwandiwala et al. 1982). Since the late 1970s, the law allows menstrual regulation in the early stages before pregnancy status is clinically confirmed (Akhter and Rider, 1983; Ali et al. 1978). Such interpretation of the law, along with the decline in the desired family size and availability of menstrual regulation services has contributed to an increase in the incidence of abortion (Dixon-Muller 1988). Before the introduction of MR practice in 1970s in Bangladesh, when the law was strict, induced abortions were usually performed either by self or untrained indigenous practitioners which was very serious for maternal health. For this reason the MR practice was allowed legally and consequently menstrual regulation service has become available both in the public and the private sectors. The government managed health facilities providing abortion services are: Family Welfare Centre, Upazila Health Complex and District Hospital while non-government facilities are private clinics located mainly in cities and towns. Despites all these facilities, huge number of abortions are still being performed either by the client herself or with the help of indigenous practitioners (Ahmed et al. 1998; Ahmed et al. 1996), and many of those who sought modern abortion facilities had experienced traditional method initially (Bhuiya et al. 1999; Caldwell et al. 1999)……………………………
District Based Exploring the Heritage & Tourist Attractions of Bangladesh
(Daffodil International University, 2021-08-11) Mostofa, Md. Golam
The main objective of this report was to give an overview of the function of the research team of Vromon Magazine. People will be interested in domestic travel, which is already visible towards the end of 2020, as Covid will later be banned from traveling outside the country. Through this research work, we have identified old places of interest in 64 districts of Bangladesh as well as many new places which will further improve the internal travel of the country. Basically, our research activities have been performed in three steps. Research, analysis and at a glance. Each research form includes a district's tourist attraction, type of tourist attraction, location, specific authority, current status, travel arrangements, fresh room arrangements, accommodation arrangements, YouTube videos of tourist attractions, district history, myths or stories, special places or cultures, special food, special Featured villages, shopping, recreation centers, special arrangements for children, celebrities of the district and the reasons for their fame, religious and cultural festivals of the district, organizing events, district tourism restrictions, solutions, other tourist attractions nearest to the district And advice or feedback. The report is divided into four chapters:  In first chapter, the introductory description about the report given.  In second chapter, the organizational overview of Vromon Magazine  In third chapter, District Based description of Tourist Attractions.  In fourth chapter, some findings and recommendations are identified.
Factors Affecting Contraceptive Use among Young Fecund Women in Bangladesh
(University of Rajshahi, 2015) Islam, Ahmed Zohirul; Mostofa, Md. Golam
Background: World population stood at 7.238 billion in 2014. South Asia accounts 1.806 billion of world population of which, Bangladesh, the third populous country in South Asia contributes 158.5 million people. More than half of the population of Bangladesh is young (32.3% are below age 15 and 18.8% are age 15-24). As this large cohort of young people enters the reproductive life span, their reproductive behavior will determine the growth and size of population of Bangladesh for decades to come. So, this study focused on the contraceptive use status of young women as contraceptive prevalence is the main determinant of fertility. Extensive research has been made to identify the factors influencing the uptake of contraceptives. However, existing studies neglected the importance of specifying the fecundity of women though fecund (those who are physically capable to bear children) women are at real risk of encountering unintended pregnancy. Therefore, this study aims to explore the determinants of contraceptive use among young fecund women. Methods: This study utilized a representative set of cross-sectional data extracted from the Bangladesh Demographic and Health Survey (BDHS) 2011. Out of 17,842 ever married women this study considered 4,982 who were young currently married fecund to analyse fertility, fertility preference and contraceptive use and to analyse demand for contraception. Moreover, 3,744 young currently married fecund nonpregnant non-amenorrheic women, who were in actual need of current contraceptive use, were selected to analyse current contraceptive use. Besides, 237 women who used traditional and folkloric contraceptive method were excluded from 3,744 women to analyse modern contraceptive use. Descriptive statistics, binary logistic regression and multinomial logistic regression were used for analyses. Results: It was observed that contraceptive prevalence (CP) was 54.4% among currently married fecund women but CP became 70.6% when we refined our sample by considering only currently married fecund non-pregnant non-amenorrheic women who were at actual risk of encountering pregnancy. We propose the later one as net contraceptive prevalence (NCP) among young fecund women. Women who wanted to have another child after two years of the survey out of them more than one-third did not use any contraceptive and were at risk of having mistimed pregnancy. Women who did not want child any more out of them 45% did not use any contraceptive which put them at risk of encountering unwanted pregnancy. In spite of having three or more children 11.6% and 2.3% among them respectively desired to have another child after two years and within two years of the survey. These proportions became 20% and 4% respectively among women with two children. One third of women having two children did not use contraceptive and almost half of the women who had three or more children did not use any method of contraception. The highest prevalence of contraceptive use was recorded in young women aged 23- 24 years, those who were educated, those who were non-Muslim, those who got married before age of 18 years, those who gave birth in early adolescent period, those who had two or more living children, those whose husbands were professional worker, those lived in Barisal division or resided in the urban area. Moreover, husband-wife joint decisions regarding respondents’ own health care, child health care, large household purchases and visiting to family members or relatives were found to be highest for using any contraceptive. In multivariate analysis, it was observed that age, age at marriage, number of living children, desire for more children, husband’s desire for children, husband’s education and occupation, region, place of residence (urban-rural), religion, visited by FP workers and decision making power on own health care and child health care were identified as the influential predictors of current contraceptive use. Use of modern contraceptive was found highest among young women aged 23-24 years, those who were educated, those who were non-Muslim, those who experienced child marriage, those who had two or more living children, those whose husbands were professional workers, those who lived in Barisal division or resided in the urban area, those who were visited by FP workers, those who desired no more children and those who jointly took decision with their husbands regarding their own health care, child health care, large household purchases and visiting to family members or relatives. Findings of binary logistic regression analysis indicated that age, age at marriage, number of living children, desire for more children, husband’s desire for children, husband’s occupation, region, place of residence (urban-rural), religion, visited by FP workers and person who decides on respondent's own health care, child health care and visiting family or relatives had significant effects on using modern contraceptives. It was observed from this study that total unmet need for contraception was 16.6% out of which 13.4% for spacing birth and 3.2% for limiting birth. Total demand for contraception was 71% and proportion of demand satisfied was 77%. Unmet need for contraception was highest in young fecund women who were adolescent (aged 13-19 years), those who were illiterate, those who were Muslim, those who gave 2 births during 3 years preceding the survey, those who gave birth in adolescent period, those who had more than two living children, those whose husbands were manual worker, those who did not know about their husbands’ desire for children, those lived in Chittagong division or resided in the rural area, those who belong to the poorest quintile of wealth, those who watched television less than once a week. Moreover, husband-wife joint decisions regarding respondents’ own health care, child health care, large household purchases and visiting to family members or relatives were found to be lowest for having unmet need and highest for having met need for contraception. Findings of multinomial logistic regression analysis elucidated that age, number of births during three years preceding the survey, region, place of residence (urban-rural), religion, husband’s desire for children, visited by FP workers, decision making power on child health care and read about FP in newspaper/magazine were significant predictors of unmet need for contraception relative to current contraceptive use. Conclusion: This study assessed net contraceptive prevalence and identified the factors affecting contraceptive use among young fecund women. Women who had two or more children and wanted another child after two years of the survey or wanted no more children but were not using contraceptive were at risk of having unplanned or unwanted pregnancy. Husband-wife joint decision making power was found to be a significant factor that influences contraceptive use. So, this study suggests that greater gender equality may encourage women’s participation in decision making. Additionally, family planning policies should also be tailored to address the specific needs of these young fecund women with varied geographical locations.
Pertinent Education and Women Empowerment: A Study on Rajshahi Division in Bangladesh
(University of Rajshahi, 2011) Haque, Md. Rajwanul; Islam, Md. Rafiqul; Mostofa, Md. Golam
Women empowerment is one of the most important issues of modern era. After a major contribution in the development process, female population has low status as compared to men, specifically in the developing world. Gradually, it has become a major topic of socio-economic and demographic research. Considering its importance, an attempt has been made in this study to investigate the various issues of empowerment such as women's preference about rearing and education of male-female children, decision making activities on economic, household and freedom of physical movement. Along with these, information on five indicators like equal right in the society, right for education, wage, maternal health care and participation in politics are used to measure women's empowerment. Different organizational [Non-Government Organizations (NGOs) and/or Government Organizations (GOs)] contribution to develop women's leadership also presented. At the end women's tackling capability against husband's and familial tortures tried to explore in Rajshahi division of Bangladesh There is not so difference in male-female educational enrollment in primary but a slight difference exists in secondary level. There is still a considerable difference exist in male-female enrollment in tertiary level for both rural and urban areas. The perception about the women's importance level concerning child rearing and child education increases with the increasing of their own educational level. Regarding the measurement of women empowerment, women are comparatively less empowered in economic purpose than that of other two dimensions like as freedom of physical movement and household decision making purpose. Women are more informed about maternal health care and female educational priority among the various indicators of women empowerment through different persons and/or organizations. Age of the women have an important impact on receiving information about different types of women empowerment indicators. Women's participation in different organizations is merely visible in rural areas and they are mainly engaged in NGOs and community based organizations. A larger part of the women who are illiterate and even up to secondary level of education perceived that the leaders of different organizations where they engaged have moderate type of capability for leadership. Maximum organizational leaders are selected within the members ignoring the work efficiency in the organization. Consequently, most of the women opined that they do not get any optimum and fruitful benefit from these organizations. Women with bad or even very bad spousal relationship irrespective of all levels of education have better empowerment than those women who have good spousal relationship. Further those women who face torture by husband as well as family members irrespective of all levels of education, they occupied better empowerment than those who faced any torture. This contradictory result may become from the lack of self-sense about the indicators of women empowerment as well as the degree of relationship among the family members and husband. The younger women and those who have lower age at marriage face more torture by their husbands and family members than that of their counterparts. Moreover, the women who lived in female headed household face more torture than that of male headed household. It is evident that due to lack of pertinent education, women are not capable to tackle against any torture by husband and/or family members. The outputs of the study demonstrate the policy implications that can improve the empowerment of reproductive aged women. Education and employment opportunities should be created for them to increase their self-esteemed and also increase their status in society. Finally, it is suggested to provide effective policy to minimize the gap between men and women and to ensure their rights 111 every sphere of life.
Remittance Utilization and Women Empowerment in Rural Bangladesh
(University of Rajshahi, 2015) Rahman, Md. Mizanur; Mostofa, Md. Golam
Remittance plays a significant role in accelerating macro-economic growth and is unarguably a vital source of finance at micro level in developing countries. Remittance inflows enhance the foreign exchange, foreign reserve and meet up trade balance. It has great potential to and an endeavor of unveiling the prospects of socio-economic development of left-behind families and communities in rural Bangladesh. Many scholars have done a lot of works on remittance as well as migration ranges from poverty reduction to trade and investment. These works are piece mill and the information used is suffered from asymmetry and moral hazard. Though Ministry of Expatriate’s Welfare and Overseas Employment (MEWOE) is entrusted with protecting the rights and the interests of migrants in the host country, yet there is a lack of appropriate policy measures to protect rights, weak representation and limited attention given to migrant workers, higher waiting time to migrate and uncertainty of expected employment, and deficiencies of institutional facilities. To maximize the flow of remittance in the evolving world environment and the benefits of their uses at the domestic front a concerted policy effort is imperative. Proper diagnosis of remittance allocation and identification of the related problems should be done for appropriate and pragmatic policy implications. Despite the expanding literature on the subject, there remains inadequate understanding of a number of issues related to nature and causes of migration, utilization of remittance and investment behavior. The micro level understanding of the impact of remittances also remains inadequate, especially relating to factors preventing or constraining productive use. Another important area of enquiry is the impact upon the individuals and the communities they left behind. Studies on the impact of migration/remittances upon left behind family members, especially women autonomy, are given qualitatively with a single dimension but quantification of women empowerment of the left-behind members still demanded. Considering its importance, an attempt has been made to investigate the various related issues on ―Remittance utilization and women empowerment in rural Bangladesh‖. This study focuses on socio-economic impacts of remittances in rural areas of Bangladesh in terms of social and economic consequences at both household and community level. Besides, an endeavor also has been taken to quantify the pattern and degrees of empowerment for left-behind prime decision making women and structural change in women empowerment between remittance recipient and non-recipient households. The retrospective cross-sectional study is done by stratified cluster sampling technique comprising a sample of 990 remitted and non-remitted households (508 remitted and 482 non-remitted households) through personal in-house interviewing with the help of a structured questionnaire to the household heads and a woman who makes the prime decision in the household. The estimates of some socio-demographic characteristics showed in this study were approximately same to the corresponding estimate of national statistics which prove the sample is representative to the study population. Average household size was 5.31 and sex ratio was 98.3 male per 100 female. The dependency ratio of non-remitted household was greater than that of remitted household. About fourteen percent of the study population remained illiterate who already passed their normal age of school attainment. The volume of migration was proportionally higher in joint family, female headed households and Muslims. The migration was relatively lower in absolute and functionally landless household. The annual average income of remitted household was double compared with non-remitted. Most of the migrants were young aged, male, less educated and the destination mostly to the Middle East countries. Majority of migrants are either unskilled or semi-skilled and they financed their migration cost from loan or by selling/mortgaging permanent asset and the average waiting time for migration was about six months. Almost all migrants were temporary, went through proper channel and had the intention to return home. A migrant earned twice as much in abroad relative to the earning at home country. Migrant households were mainly depending on remittance whereas non-remitted households‘ major income came from non-farm activities. Higher education enhanced the household income but higher dependency hindered it. Multivariate analysis showed that remittance, education, household size, women empowerment and wealth had positive effect on income; however, dependency burden had negative significant effects. Larger portion of remittances was expended for food consumption among different other major purposes like agriculture, clothing, social cost and investment, and food consumption. Irregular remittance recipient households expended more in clothing, social cost and investment than those received regularly but the expenditure on agriculture and food were vice-versa. The greater order of migration of an expatriate can play better role in socio-economic betterment. Investment in productive sector was low especially the aged household head were less interested to invest in productive purpose. Average savings was higher in remitted than non-remitted households. The average annual savings in remitted household was increasing with increasing level of household head‘s education, wealth and household size. The lower dependency was leaded higher average annual savings. Approximately, seventy percent household head consented that international migration is profitable however, younger household heads were perceived about improving socio-economic position than their neighbors. Irrespective of remittance receiving status, a woman was more empowered in making household decision than making economic decision and freedom of physical movement. Women of remitted household were more empowered in household and economic decision making but were less empowered in freedom of physical movement than non-remitted household. Education was the strongest fostering factor influencing women‘s autonomy but household head‘s education had negative significant effect on freedom of physical movement for all households. Mass media exposure, control over own assets and earning activities had significant effects on women empowerment. Length of marriage had a positive significant effect on household decision making in remitted household but negative in non-remitted household. It also had positive significant effect on aggregated women empowerment in remitted household and on freedom of physical movement in non-remitted household. Number of living children had positive significant effect on women empowerment. Age of household head had positive significant effects on household decision making and negative significant effects on freedom of physical movement and aggregated women empowerment. Women of female headed remitted household were significantly more empowered. Household size had negative significant effects on women empowerment. There were a structural change in women empowerment and it was evident that women of remitted household were structurally more empowered than that of non-remitted. Remittance precipitates changes the household structure, the portfolio of income, women empowerment structure and the nature of household resources. It has the potential role to change decision-making authority within the household. Such changes in the household have particular importance for designing programs and projects intended to foster the productive use of remittances; encouraging the investment of remittances in productive sectors such as social investment, human resources development, etc. This study also highlighted some areas where researchers can further work; policy planner can consider the issues for betterment of remittance use pattern and enabling environment establishment. This is also helpful in identifying the areas where government interventions are essential. Besides, further research should be continued to have better understanding the importance of remittance and its effect on women empowerment.
Renewable energy and Bangladesh RMG industry: an exploration on the rooftop solar adoption of RMG factories in the digital platform of mapped in Bangladesh
(2024-02) Shajahan, Sadril; Islam, Md. Faizul; Mostofa, Md. Golam; Roy, Aishwarja
In response to the knowledge gap on solar adoption in RMG factories in Bangladesh, this study pursues the research question to what extent RMG factories in Bangladesh have adopted renewable energy. The study demonstrates the solar panel adoption of RMG based on the factory data of Dhaka district of the Mapped in Bangladesh (MiB), which is a digital platform to showcase information of export oriented RMG factories in all over Bangladesh in order to enable transparency and accountability in Bangladesh RMG sector. The quantitative analysis of the study identifies several features of solar adoption among RMG factories that include large factories are ahead of other types of RMG factories (micro, small and medium) in terms of using solar panels and factories located in standalone building tend to have greater solar adoption than RMG factories located in shared building. Moreover, it has been found in the study that woven factories have more solar adoption than other type of factories. Understanding the solar adoption of RMG industry through this study can aid the policy makers and stakeholders to rethink the renewable energy related interventions at policy level as well as at the firm level of Bangladesh RMG industry. Furthermore, such study can provide future research directions on issues related to renewable energy and Bangladesh RMG industry.
Reproductive Health Problems of Married Adolescents in Bangladesh
(University of Rajshahi, 2017) Hasan, Mahmudul; Rahman, J.A.M. Shoquilur; Mostofa, Md. Golam
Adolescent aged 10-19 years constitute a large proportion of the Bangladeshi population. With a total population of about 160 million, adolescents comprise 22% and projected to increase to 35 million by 2020. This important growing population, together with urbanization and the explosion of information across frontiers, has increased the exposure of Bangladeshi adolescent people to the risks related to reproductive health. Despite the growing awareness of the importance of adolescent reproductive health in Bangladesh, there is no clear Government policy. During the past decade significant improvement observed in reducing reproductive health problems and increasing health care seeking behavior among the adolescent girls however, it is still beyond the expectation. Still, a large number of adolescents suffer from reproductive health problems, a vast majority of them do not seek healthcare for these conditions. Until recently, several studies have been conducted to assess the association between various reproductive health problems and health seeking behavior among the adolescents. However, most of these studies have considered single or one or more determinants of reproductive health problems. Consequently most of the earlier studies mainly focused on limited components of health seeking behavior such as receiving antenatal care (ANC) or delivery care in their studies. In addition, most of these earlier studies did not compare intergenerational reproductive health problems and health seeking behavior (adolescents compared to young adult or adults). Based on this consideration, this study investigates the multiple reproductive health issues and accesses regarding those of adolescents compared to young adult and adult women. Methods: The present study was based on the data from the Bangladesh Demographic Health Survey-2011 (BDHS, 2011), which was a nationally representative survey. To investigate the reproductive health problems a total of 17,231 married adolescents (10-19 years), young adult (20-34 years) and adult (35-49 years) were analyzed. To examine the health care seeking behavior a total of 8,753 adolescent, young adult and adult women with at least one child aged less than five years were selected. The following variables were used as outcomes variable of interest for reproductive health problems: infecundity, anemia, chronic undernutrition, sexually transmitted infections (STIs), pregnancy complications, and reproductive health problem index (RHPI). The variables which were used for health care seeking behaviors are: any contraceptive methods use, use of modern contraceptives, any ANC, sufficient ANC, assisted delivery by medically trained provider, Institutional delivery and post natal care. Multilevel logistic regression analyses were used to analyze reproductive health problems and multilevel Poisson regression models were used to analyze health care seeking behavior for intergenerational age group of women (adolescents, young adult, and adult). Results: This study found that a large proportion of married adolescents were suffering from several of the reproductive health problems such as anemia, chronic undernutrition, and STIs. Regarding pregnancy related complications, the proportion is higher among the adolescent women (15.2%) as compared to the adult women (6.7%). Overall 12.4% adolescents were reported to have suffered from any kind of reproductive health problems. From multilevel logistic regression analyses, significantly, adolescent’s women were less likely to suffer from infecundity but more likely to be chronic undernourished, and suffering from pregnancy related complications as compared to the young adult women (20-34 years). Adolescent women were also more likely to suffer from any kind of reproductive health related problems compared to young adult women. Regarding health care-seeking behavior, the proportions of receiving any contraceptive methods or modern contraceptives, receiving ANC, assisted delivery by SHP, institutional delivery and receiving post natal care from SHP is much lower than those for the young adult women. From multilevel Poisson regression analyses, we found that adolescents were less likely to have institutional delivery, assisted delivery by SHP and less likely to receive post natal care by SHP as compared to young adult women. Conclusions: Based on the fact that adolescence is a crucial development stage which reflects both childhood health status and sets the foundation for adult health status, it is particularly important to protect adolescent women against many reproductive health problems that emerged from early marriage and pregnancy. Considering the need for reducing several of the reproductive health problems and increase the health seeking behavior of the adolescents an increased networking between all relevant government organizations and NGOs working with adolescents should be encouraged to ensure the proper implementation of projects. We recommend future longitudinal research to provide clarity regarding these concerns.
Store, warehousing and inventory management system in Bangladesh: upgradation approach in Bangladesh Civil Aviation Authority (CAAB)
(BRAC University, 2024-04) Mostofa, Md. Golam; Huque, Md. Enamul
The Civil Aviation Authority of Bangladesh (CAAB) serves as the regulatory body overseeing the country's aviation sector. Established in 1985, its primary mandate is to ensure the safety, security, and efficiency of civil aviation operations. CAAB manages and develops airports, air navigation services, and aviation infrastructure to foster a robust and sustainable aviation industry. Committed to international standards, CAAB collaborates with global aviation authorities and organizations. It plays a crucial role in promoting economic growth and connectivity by facilitating safe and seamless air travel. With a focus on continuous improvement, CAAB contributes to the advancement of Bangladesh's aviation landscape while prioritizing safety and compliance with international aviation standards. Warehouses are essential for storing spare parts, equipment, and tools necessary for aircraft maintenance and repair. Having readily available parts ensures timely repairs and maintenance, minimizing downtime for aircraft. Efficient warehousing allows for proper inventory management of essential items required for aviation operations. This includes tracking stock levels, replenishing supplies, and ensuring that necessary items are always available when needed. Warehouses provide a secure environment for storing sensitive aviation equipment and materials. Proper security measures, such as surveillance systems and restricted access, help prevent theft, damage, or unauthorized use of critical aviation assets. Warehouses serve as distribution centers for receiving, storing, and distributing goods and materials to various locations within the aviation network. This ensures smooth logistics operations and timely delivery of supplies to different airports and aviation facilities. Effective warehouse management enables the optimization of storage space, allowing CAAB to utilize available space efficiently. This ensures that the maximum amount of inventory can be stored without overcrowding or wastage of space. Warehousing operations within the aviation industry must adhere to strict regulatory standards and guidelines. Compliance with regulations ensures the safe storage of hazardous materials, proper handling of goods, and adherence to security protocols. In the event of emergencies or unexpected disruptions, warehouses play a vital role in providing immediate access to essential supplies and equipment. Having well-equipped warehouses stocked with emergency provisions can help CAAB respond swiftly to crises such as natural disasters or aircraft incidents. 7 Overall, the importance of warehousing in the Civil Aviation Authority of Bangladesh cannot be overstated, as it directly impacts the efficiency, safety, and reliability of aviation operations within the country. The Purpose of this report is to establish the efficient, cost effective and realistic store inventory and warehousing management system in Central Procurement Engineering & Store Unit (CEMSU) at CAAB. When it will be established in all portions of CAAB then it indirectly helps to achieve the vision-mission of CAAB. At present all stores unit & its inventory system are being operated manually and the existing warehouse is not well decorated, not full of modern facilities. So, it should be upgraded as early as possible.
Washrooms for the workers in apparel factories in Bangladesh
(Toilet Conference, 2025-02-25) Shajahan, Sadril; Islam, Md. Faizul; Mostofa, Md. Golam; Nourin, Sabrina
This study examines to what extent apparel factories in Bangladesh provide separate washroom facilities to the workers as provisioned in Bangladesh Labor Law and what are the gender dimensions of providing washroom facilities to the workers of Bangladesh apparel industry. The objective of the study is to use firm-level data for providing insights on washroom facilities of RMG workers which can be leveraged by the stakeholders to provide relevant health interventions to apparel workers in Bangladesh, the country which is the second largest apparel producer in the world followed by China. Using the database of Mapped in Bangladesh (MiB) project as developed by Centre for Entrepreneurship Development of BRAC University, this study shows how gender-separated washroom facilities in RMG factories vary in terms of percentages of women workers in those factories. By conducting factory census and interviewing factory respondents, MiB has mapped more than 3700 factories in Bangladesh till November 2024 and has published environmental, social and governance (ESG) data to enhance transparency and traceability across apparel supply chain and to enable accountability among stakeholders. According to MiB, the current female to male gender ratio of workers in Bangladesh apparel factories is 58:42 meaning 58% of the workers are female while 42% of workers are male. Correlating the percentages of female workers with the data on washroom facilities in factories as collected by MiB, this study finds that those factories having lower percentages of female workers (below 30%) also have comparatively lower percentages of gender-separated washroom facilities. Percentages of factories with gender-specific washrooms increase if percentages of female workers remain within the ranges of 40% to 50% and 50% to 60%. Considering the factories with higher percentages of female workers within the range of 60% to 70% or more than 70%, it can be observed that percentages of factories with gender specific washrooms drop again compared to factories having female workers within the ranges of 40% to 50% and 50% to 60%. Thus, the study also finds future research direction to explain these data based on qualitative evidence which can be collected from factory management and workers and can be connected with gender and health issues of female workers of apparel factories. In this research, descriptive statistics were employed to summarize and analyze the characteristics of the dataset. The statistical measures used in the study are frequency distribution and measure of dispersion. These statistical measures provided a clear and concise understanding of the data's structure, enabling the identification of trends and anomalies. All analyses were performed using Excel, ensuring accuracy and reliability. However, the limitation of the study remains for not identifying causative factors which could explain the relation between the percentage of female workers and gender-separated washroom facilities in the RMG factories of Bangladesh.The study calls for further analysis to show gender-separated washrooms can vary in terms of factory types, factory size, and factory locations. The study also recommends for data-driven advocacy with participation of stakeholders and for establishing robust regulations to ensure gender-separated washroom facilities. With the aims to gather literature and evidence on how order deadlines and excessive production targets that can deny workers to have enough washroom breaks, the study envisions the usage of MiB map for possible health interventions from factory level to the community level.
Women Empowerment in Bangladesh: A Study on Rural-Urban Differentials
(University of Rajshahi, 2009) Islam, Towfiqua Mahfuza; Mostofa, Md. Golam; Abedin, Samad
Women empowerment has been considered as essential precondition for the elimination of world poverty and as central issue in the process of development for many countries in the world today. Reviewing many relevant literatures, this study tries to clarify the term -women empowerment and an attempt has been made to measure women empowerment index (WEI), the relation between contraceptive behaviour and women empowerment, the impact of women empowerment on fertility using Bangladesh Demographic and Health Survey (BDHS) -2004 data. WEI has been constructed averaging three important dimension indices namely, economic decision making index, household decision making index and physical movement index and consequently it has been found that four out of ten of Bangladeshi women have high level of empowerment. Comparatively low empowerment in physical freedom has been observed in comparison with economic and household decision making empowerment. Higher level of empowerment in all the three dimensions has been found for the 35 -49 age grouped women, whose husband's age are 35+ years, who have same aged husbands and for currently working women as well. In addition, respondent's current age, educational level, children ever born (CEB) and media exposure have been identified as important determinants for the aforementioned three dimensions of women empowerment. The study also reveals that urban women are more empowered in all dimensions than their rural counterparts. Using various types of mathematical models, here it is found that quadratic polynomial model is more applicable to WEI score in all areas on the basis of cross validity prediction power (CVPP) test. Regarding contraceptive behaviour, more use of contraception has been found for higher aged, higher educated women and for the respondents who have media access, discussed family planning more frequently with their husbands. The study also reveals that urban women use more contraception than their rural counterparts. In this study, respondent's current age, age at first marriage, work status, CEB, spousal discussion of family planning have been identified as significant factors affecting contraceptive behaviour on the basis of multinomial logistic regression analysis. The study also shows that CEB increases with the increase in respondent's age, number of children dead and household decision making index. Finally this study tries to find out the significant factors affecting fertility using multiple linear regression analysis and confirms respondent's current age, age at first marriage, educational qualification, husband's educational attainment, number of children dead, religion, media exposure, discussion on family planning and household decision making participation as significant determinants. The findings of this study have a great importance to promote women empowerment in Bangladesh. Thus to face challenges in the coming future, the policy makers, planners should have to take not only necessary policies but also to implement them at their earliest convenience.