PhD Thesis
Browse
11 results
Search Results
Item Determinants of Health Condition and Estimation of Demographic Parameters of Street Children in Dhaka City, Bangladesh(University of Rajshahi, Rajshahi, 2021) Shahiduzzaman, Md.; Islam, Md. Rafiqul; Ali, M. Korban; Islam, Md. NurulHealth and demographic condition of street children are important issues for the development of any country. Several researchers estimated that a substantial percent of total street children in Bangladesh are living in the Capital City, Dhaka, Bangladesh. But no study is available which concentrated to in-depth study of health condition and estimation of demographic parameters for the street children. So the aim of this study is to identify the determinants of health condition and estimation of demographic parameters of street children in Dhaka city, Bangladesh. We have used convenient sampling for selection of samples. The data were collected from 1108 street children in different places of Dhaka City using a comprehensive questionnaire. In this study, x2 statistic was used to test the significance of the association between the dependent and independent variables of the street children. Binary logistic regression model was also employed to identify the effect of the some important independent variables on dependent variable. To have a smooth pattern of age 3 years moving average technique and "4253H twice" smoothing technique were applied in this study. It was found that among total sample data 84.9% were male and only 15.1 % were female. Age structure of street children followed a polynomial function of degree four. Probability of dying (qJ calculated for street Children showed an expected pattern. The migration rate from rural to urban of male street children was higher than that of female street children. Migration rate of street working children was the highest among four types of street children. Migration rate of street children of illiterate fathers was higher than that of street children of literate fathers. Migration rate of street children of illiterate mothers was higher than that of street children of literate mothers.Item Awareness of People on HIV/ AIDS in Bangladesh(University of Rajshahi, 2010) Sarkar, Prosannajid; Mostofa, Golam; Rahman, Md. MostafizurAttempts have been made in this study to examine awareness of people on HIV/AIDS in Bangladesh, using the data from field level and Bangladesh Demographic and Health Survey, 2007 (BDHS). Some statistical techniques are used to investigate the significance between selected dependent and independent variables. Raising awareness of respondents about the long run effects of these diseases is the principal objective of reproductive health programs recently executed in the world. This study gives an idea about floating and frequently moving and permanent resident respondent's perception about these types of health problems. It is expected that the result of this study will play a vital role to asses the national population policy and will help policy makers to formulate better policies in order to fight against the current situation. It has been found from the survey data that about 92 percent floating respondents heard the name of HIV/ AIDS by various sources of media; On the other hand, the same amount (99.00%) frequently moving and permanent resident heard the name of HIV/AIDS by various sources of media. But 52 percent floating, 31 percent frequently moving and 28.40 percent permanent residents don't know the fearfulness of HIV/ AIDS. It is also found that uncontrolled and unsafe sexual relation is the main cause of HIV/AIDS. Also, they know only safety way to avoid HIV/AIDS is condom during intercourse. Further, all the variables (respondent's age, marital status, educational level and occupation) of contingency analysis are significantly associated with HIV/AIDS in permanent resident respondents but the same variables were not seen in floating respondents. In multivariate logistic analysis, it has found that in case of floating respondents variables like respondent's age, marital status, educational level and occupation exert the significant effect on the knowledge about the fearfulness of HIV/AIDS whereas in respect of permanent residents variables like age and marital status exert the significant effect on the knowledge about the fearfulness of HIV/AIDS. Further, the study provide a brief impression of the major findings of respondents' personal experience regarding HIV/ AIDS situation by the descriptive way through compare and evaluation with affected and non-affected respondent's personal opinion and vivid picture of respondents' perception about HIV/AIDS.Item Modeling of Demographic Parameters of Bangladesh - An Empirical Forecasting(University of Rajshahi, 2003) Islam, Md. Rafiqul; Islam, Md. NurulBangladesh is a developing country with an accelerate population growth. The government or Bangladesh has long been trying to control its population and has introduced various programs after its independence. But, the government has already foiled to control its population for the lack of correct information about the national based demographic parameters. Many researchers have been done to provide the information about the demographic parameters of Bangladesh. But, only a few of them are on national based. Some of their work has been concentrated in the area or fertility. Some in the mortality etc. But very few or those covered all the demographic parameters of Bangladesh. Thus, the national planners me not in a position to chalk out the development plan for the shortage of reliable national based demographic parameters. Someone should make in attempt to provide these parameters using national based data as early as possible........................................Item Birth Spacing, Breastfeeding Pattern and Child Survival in Bangladesh(University of Rajshahi, 2009) Akter, Shamima; Rahman, J.A.M. Shoquilur; Abedin, SamadBirth spacing is a major determinant for evaluating family building process due to its direct relationship with fertility. The mean duration of successive birth intervals is obviously related to the fertility rate, the longer the interval consequently the lower the fertility. Breast feeding and post-partum amenorrhea (PPA) have also been a matter of rapidly growing interest, as they are important not only for maternal and child health but also for its fertility reducing effect through PPA. Hence for a complete understanding of the process of family building, in Bangladesh, it is imperative to analyze the birth spacing, breastfeeding pattern and PPA as well as their differentials and determinants in context of female population of Bangladesh. This study also examines the influence of birth spacing on child survival. The data used for the completion of this work, is extracted from the Bangladesh Demographic and Health Survey (BDHS) conducted in 2003-2004. The BDHS recorded enormous data on complete birth history of 11440 ever married women of the age group 10-49, which are very useful for studying birth interval. The study considers first to fifth birth intervals as it covers most of the range of fertility experience of Bangladeshi women. Since data on breastfeeding were available only for the last child, the study of breastfeeding and post partum amenorrhea is based on information for last birth. The study reveals that the distribution of first to fifth birth interval is largely positively skewed lying somewhere between 12 to 23 months for first births and for subsequent birth in the duration 24 to 35 months. Both Chi-square statistic and Cox proportional hazard model demonstrate that age, women age at marriage, couples education, respondent work status, residence, socio-economic status, contraceptive use and watch TV have significant influence on first birth interval but subsequent birth showed miscellaneous results. Moreover, survival status of previous child showed highly significant effect on second to fifth birth intervals. But the variable religion has no significant orientation at all. To study the quantum and tempo of fertility life table technique is employed and demonstrates that the mean birth interval for marriage to first birth is 24 months but for subsequent birth the interval lies between ranges 30 to 32 months. The differential analysis of quantum and tempo of fertility reveals that educated women have shorter first but longer subsequent birth interval. Urban mother have shorter first birth interval is lower but longer subsequent birth interval is higher than rural mother. The birth interval is higher (25 months) when age at marriage is less than or equal to 15 years, but lower (21 months) when age at marriage is 15 years and above. But for higher order births age at marriage has no differential effect. The summarized results speculate that child survival status affects timing of birth not only for first two or three orders but also for higher orders, but at a smaller pace, for women whose previous child is death birth interval is much lower than those whose previous child is alive. Determinants and differential of breastfeeding and post partum amenorrhea are also performed using life table analysis and Cox Proportional Hazard model. The results indicates that breastfeeding is virtually universal (98.3 percent) and homogeneously prolonged in Bangladesh. The mean duration of breastfeeding is about 32 months. To see the effects of socio-demographic variables on breastfeeding we fitted three model- the first one to see the effect of demographic variables, second one to see the effects of socioeconomic variables and lastly to see the combined effect of these two variables. The study results divulge that demographic variables have more influence than other variables. Finally the proportional hazard analysis has identified that administrative division, Religion, maternal education, working status, current age, age at marriage, parity; Contraceptive use and place of delivery have significant effect on the duration of breast feeding. The overall mean duration of PPA was found to be 8.51 months and the length increases with increase in the parity. The mean length of PPA significantly varies by place of residence, region, mother's education, work status, sex of previous child, breastfeeding status, parity, delivery status and age of mother. The Cox proportional hazard model suggested that duration of breastfeeding has strong positive influence on duration of PPA among all included explanatory variables. The study also analyzed the relationship between the length of preceding birth interval and child survival and their effect on age specific probability of death of index child. The preceding birth interval and child survival are significantly correlated and probability of survival is much lower for less preceding birth interval (<12 months) and also a lesser extent at higher birth interval (84+ months). To see the effect of preceding birth interval and socio-demographic factors on child survival status four separate logistic regression models (neonatal, post neonatal, mortality between 12-35 months and child mortality) are fitted. These models reveal that among the socio-demographic variables, preceding birth interval, breast feeding status and mother's education has strong significant effect on mortality but the variables birth order and mother's age at birth has little or no significant effect. Therefore, the study results emphasize that it is need to encourage women to have longer birth interval, not only to limit family size, but also to guarantee good health of mother and the child. Education is a consistently a dominant factor and such formal and informal education should encourage women to differ marriage and prolong breast feeding.Item Determinants of Induced Abortion and Reproductive Health in Some Selected Areas of Rajshahi(University of Rajshahi, 2007) Mostofa, Md. Golam; Hoque, Md. AminulIn 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)……………………………Item Pertinent Education and Women Empowerment: A Study on Rajshahi Division in Bangladesh(University of Rajshahi, 2011) Haque, Md. Rajwanul; Islam, Md. Rafiqul; Mostofa, Md. GolamWomen 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.Item A Study of Some Determinants of Adolescent Reproductive Health in Bangladesh(University of Rajshahi, 2016) Alam, Md.Rashed; Roy, Tapan Kumar; Rahman, Md. MizanurAdolescent reproductive health is an important agenda for any developing countries due to population momentum- a consequence of the increasing numbers of adolescents in this region. The generation entering the adolescent years now is the largest in human history. During adolescent period many girls experience critical and various life events such as first marriage, first sexual cohabitation, motherhood, pregnancy complications, early neonatal mortality etc. Adolescents should be able to protect themselves from unwanted sex, unplanned pregnancy, early childbearing, pregnancy complications, unsafe abortion and others adverse reproductive health outcomes. However, early pregnancy and motherhood among adolescent is still a major public health concern in worldwide especially in developing countries. One third of women give birth during adolescent periods in low-income countries. Adolescent pregnancy is a potential threat of mother, offspring and also lead high fertility in resource-limited countries like Bangladesh. Therefore, critical assessment of adolescent childbearing and consequences of early pregnancy may helpful for policy makers to identify risk group in Bangladesh. The objectives of this study was to determine the potential risk factors for adolescent childbearing, and then assess the association between adolescent age at birth and risk of adverse birth and health outcomes through empirical and review analysis. The data for this study was extracted from Bangladesh Demographic and Health Survey (BDHS) 2011. This is a cross-sectional population study based on a two-stage, stratified, cluster-sampling design, which collected information from 17,141 households during May to October 2011. The maternal age at birth especially adolescent versus adult was the main dependent variable when determine the potential determinants. The study modeled adolescent childbearing as a function of individual, household, and community characteristics. In analyzing adverse birth and health outcomes, maternal childbearing age was treated as main exposure variable. Descriptive statistics were calculated for continuous data using the mean (confidence interval) for normally distributed data and the median (inter-quartile range) for non-normally distributed data. Determinants of adolescent childbearing were estimated using a multilevel logistic regression models with random intercept term household and community. In addition the multilevel poisson regression was used to determine the risk factors of adverse birth and health outcomes among adolescent childbearing mothers. It is worthwhile to mention that systematic review was done to know the association between adverse birth and health outcomes among adolescents in South East Asia including Bangladesh. Meta-analysis and meta- regression were used to get pool results. All analyses at both the univariate and multilevel analysis at different stages were adjusted for the probability sample design. The study finding indicates that on average, mean age at childbearing was 26 years, years of schooling 5.54 years, children ever born 2.52, age at first marriage 15.94 years and 35% of women give birth before reaching age 20 years i.e during adolescence. Adolescent’s age of childbearing was affected by social factors at personal, family, community, and national levels. The multilevel logistic regression models indicated that women with lower education, early age at first cohabitation, and poor economic conditions were more likely to influence early childbearing compared to adult women. However, the multilevel poisson regression models indicated that higher risk of low birth weight (adjusted relative risk (aRR), 1.15; 95% CI, 1.00–1.33), childhood stunting (aRR, 1.06; 95% CI, 0.98–1.14) and early neonatal mortality (aRR, 1.60; 95% CI, 0.85–1.27) is observed among the adolescent mother compared to young adult mother. Maternal aged 35 years or over found to be risk factor of pregnancy termination (aRR, 1.31; 95% CI, 1.09–1.56), cesarean delivery (aRR, 1.35; 95% CI, 1.02–1.79) and menstrual irregularities (aRR, 1.35; 95% CI, 1.02–1.79) than young adult mother. The systematic review and meta-analysis suggested that adolescent pregnancy had an increased risk of low birth weight, preterm birth, small for gestational age and neonatal mortality; however, lower risk is to be found in case of cesarean delivery and perinatal mortality. Finally, it may be concluded that maternal education, age at first cohabitation and socioeconomic conditions are the key determinants of adolescent childbearing in Bangladesh. In this systematic review and meta-analysis along with empirical data analysis, conclude that adolescence pregnancy increase the risk of low birth weight (LBW), preterm birth (PTB), small for gestational age (SGA) and early neonatal mortality. The risk of cesarean delivery and perinatal mortality are found to be lower among adolescent mothers. The author feels that the results obtained in the thesis may be useful for policy planners for appropriate policy decisions. It is expected that the result presented in this thesis will be helpful for researchers who are interested to work in the field of adolescent childbearing and adverse birth and health outcomes among adolescent mothers.Item Mortality Trends, Differentials and Modeling for Mortality Forecasting in Bangladesh(University of Rajshahi, 2017) Rouf, Abu Sayeed Md. Ripon; Mondol, Dilip Kumar; Rahman, Md. JahanurMortality is one of the most important vital events and it is a crucial indicator of socio-economic development in any nation. It is said that socio-economic development should be measured in terms of mortality. Bangladesh, a developing country of South Asia, is experiencing significant decline in fertility and mortality in the last few decades. Along with remarkable decline in early aged mortality, senescence mortality also declined in the last decade. But, practically, the pace of socio-economic development is not satisfactory compared with the pace of mortality decline. Though, a common concept regarding mortality is that mortality decline is the consequence of socio-economic development and conversely low mortality is also a cause of ageing population problem. This study attempts to examine the trends, differentials of mortality and modeling for mortality forecasting in Bangladesh. It has also projected population using forecasted mortality to know its impact on population in future. Present study has revealed that female mortality declined somewhat faster than that of male in both rural and urban areas. Initially male life expectancy at birth (e0) was greater than that of female, later on it changes and female life expectancy at birth becomes greater than that of male. A sharp decline in childhood mortality and old age mortality is happened in last two decades. Similar declining trend of mortality has evident in both rural and urban areas. Sensitivity analysis of life expectancy at birth has shown that the childhood mortality and old age mortality have more effect than other age group mortality to increase life expectancy. Decomposition analysis of difference of mortality rate between different census periods has indicated that age specific mortality rate effect is generally more attributable than age composition population effect. Using mortality data from Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS), this study forecasted life expectancy at birth for 40 years (2012-2051). The life expectancy at birth will increased to more than 82 years for male and more than 86 years for female. During the whole projection period life expectancy at birth for female is higher than that of male. The increasing pattern of life expectancy at birth is similar in rural and urban areas. Population projection demonstrates that working age population (15-59 or 15-64) will increase till 2021 and then decrease very slowly ii (almost stagnant) towards the rest of the period. In spite of a slow decline in working age people after 2021, still there will be a huge number of working age people until 2051. The percentage of young age population (0-14) will decrease during the whole projection period and the percentage of old age population (60+ or 65+) will increase during the whole projection period which results a large number of elderly people. In spite of remarkable decline in childhood mortality, it is still high compared to developed countries. Finally, this study suggests that the increasing number of elderly people would create ageing population problem in near future. Moreover, proper steps should be needed to create job opportunity to employ the huge number of working age population in various sectors of country’s economic development. Otherwise, they will be the burden of the society and create social problems. At the same time, proper health policy should be taken to provide healthcare facilities for the growing number of population. The country also needs to think about suitable steps like pension scheme, various allowances etc. for the elderly people.Item Reproductive Health Problems of Married Adolescents in Bangladesh(University of Rajshahi, 2017) Hasan, Mahmudul; Rahman, J.A.M. Shoquilur; Mostofa, Md. GolamAdolescent 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.Item Remittance Utilization and Women Empowerment in Rural Bangladesh(University of Rajshahi, 2015) Rahman, Md. Mizanur; Mostofa, Md. GolamRemittance 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.