Department of Population Science and Human Resource Development

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Modeling of Demographic Parameters of Bangladesh - An Empirical Forecasting
(University of Rajshahi, 2003) Islam, Md. Rafiqul; Islam, Md. Nurul
Bangladesh 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........................................
Contribution of Non Government Organizations(NGO) in Human Resource Development(HRD)of Bangladesh: A Comparative Study of Five Selected NGO s
(University of Rajshahi, 2006) Ali, M. Korban; Ali, M. Korban
The world is heading faster towards modern trade, commerce, industry and advancement of technology. Some of the countries already have attained vast economic growth. Despite these, there is prevailing a remarkable sign of illiteracy, 100 malnutrition and poverty around the world. According to UN billion of people were suffering from illiteracy, 50 million people were not getting chances of having primary education, 55 million people were passing their days either in un-fed or half-fed condition, 100 billions of people of the world were below the poverty level. Most of them were the resident of developing countries like Bangladesh, India, Sri Lanka and the African countries [Shelly, MR, 1999]. One of the ways to solve the above problems is to develop their human resources as early as possible. Again the world is also facing the challenge of open market economy. In order to face this challenge the developing countries like Bangladesh, Pakistan etc have to improve the qualities of human resources. Like other developing countries, Bangladesh can develop its human resources by improving its (1) Education(2) Health care and (3) Economic activities. This type of work of Human Resource Development (HRD) can be done by government or non-government organizations (NGOs) or institutions and individuals. Sir1ce the task accelerating the works of HRD is very important. So it is needed to know the contributions of all the governmen1 and non-government organizations. 3t t with our limited scope, an attempt has been made to study the contributions of some (five) of the selected non- government organizations (NGOs). The concept and idea of human resource development (HRD) was evolved in USA [UNDP, 1994, pp-90]. First the idea came as the topics of class room discussion at the George Washington University in 1969 and it took the formal shape in the American Society for training and development conference [UNDP, 1994. pp91]. At present the concept is a widely accepted mechanism and reality in the field of management and control of human resources. With the passage of time the 1 arm HRD system of management 1s getting popularity and usefulness both in developing and developed countries of the world for attainment of the organizational and developmental goals. Human Resource Development (HRD) is a process by which workforce of an organization is given full co-operation to develop them in one ham1 and on the other hand to develop the environment in which manpower can work effecti'1ely in continuous and organized manner. The resources of an organization can be divided into two broad divisions; one is material resources and other is human resources. Material resources cannot run on its own. But the human resource can use and manage the material resources properly for the well being of the human society. The human resource can be run on its own and again human resource can develop human resources. Thus human resource can run both material resources and human resources. Human resource is the asset, power, spirit and guiding forces. P. gain human resource is a means of support to win goals of an organization. Thus it is regarded as the prime component of the Human Resource Development (HRD) system of management. In fact, HRD system of management helps the human resources to acquire the capabilities to perform, develop, manage, and organize and establd1 organizational culture, team work motivation professional skills and proficiency and congenial supervisors and subordinate relationship for smooth and effective performance of the organization. There are five functional areas of management namely production procurement, finance, marketing and personnel. HRD will regulate all these function!3 1•1 effective style and method. HRD system of management looks into the creation of ar1 environment of trust, mutuality and collaboration ie inter personal trust, confidence, faithfulness, mutual understanding, mutual help, mutual feedback, group dynamics and team spirit. This climate calls for openness, which can be generated through the t.se and application of HRD mechanism. To assess the volume of human resources development of a country or a region some sorts of tools were needed. Fortunately the first Human Development Report (UNDP, 1990 introduced a new way of measuring human development by an Index called Human Development Index (HDI) .It was constructed by combining the indicators of life expectancy, educational attainment and income into composite human development index (HDI). The report acknowledged that no single index could ever completely capture such & complex concept. It acknowledged too that the I:,JI would remain subject to improvements, corrections and refinements, both as a result of a growing awareness of its deficiencies and to accommodate criticisms and suggestions from academics and policy makers. It is also to be emphasized that the HDI is ::1ot intended to replace the other detailed socio-economic indicators, these are essential for a fuller understanding of individual countries. The Human Development Report - 1993 (UNDP, 1993) constructed separate HDI is not for different groups of five countries. One innovative feature of the HDI is the way its components are combined. Each indicator is constructed in different countries Life expectancy is in years of life ii) schooling is in ears of schooling iii) income in purchasing power adjusted dollars and iv) adult literary as a percentage. To combine the indicators, the range of values for each one is put into a sale of 0 to 1, where 0 is the minimum and 1 is the maximum.
Socio-Economic Correlates of Child Labour in Agriculture Sector: Some Selected Rural Areas of Rajshahi, Bangladesh
(University of Rajshahi, 2006) Haque, Md. Rajwanul; Ali, M. Korban; Mondal, M. Nazrul Islam
Child is the father of a man. Child is the wealth of a state. Child is the hope and future of a nation. Child is the pioneer of human civilization. When the child is so important in the life of a nation; he can neither be ignored nor be neglected in the onward march of the world civilization. Child should therefore be properly reared up for the sake of human civilization, for the sake of a nation and its government. Environment should be so created that a child properly grows physically; mentally as well as intellectually to play its due role in tomorrow's society. Child is the continuation of human civilization and bears the testimony of parenthood and generation. It is the foundation of a family, a society, a nation and the world as a whole. It requires careful and effective measures for his proper nourishment by the concerned person and authority. It is to be provided with the basics he requires. But unfortunately, this does not prevail all over the world equally specially in the developing countries. A few fortunate children of these countries are provided with their basics while the rest are denied of their basic needs, physical and mental growth. They are compelled to offer labour for their livelihood before they attain majority. They work with the hammer and the spade instead of working with the book and the pencil. Sometimes circumstantially they go into the clutches of anti-social elements, create law and order problems and finally they become liability of the state instead of becoming an asset (Siddiqua, 2002). In the formal sector, garment factories topped the list to absorb the highest number of child workers. The issue of child labour in Bangladesh become most discussed and debatable in early I 990's when the United States and other foreign buyers refused to import garments from Bangladesh as long as child labour in garment factories in Bangladesh attracts most international attention. Child lnbour in Bangladesh and other developing countries reveal that the vast majority of working children are employed in agriculture and domestic service sectors where children are taking part in service, small-scale manufacturing, and various agricultural occupations; they also perfonn household chores such as fetching water. collecting firewood, cooking and taking care of younger siblings. Although many of these children are working under supervision, full-time work can deter them from attending school, and many home-based activities can be as harmful as work performed outside the home (!LO, 1996).
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)……………………………
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.
A Study on Infant and Under five Mortality in Bangladesh
(University of Rajshahi, 2009) Rahman, Md. Mahfuzar; Islam, Md. Rafiqul
Infant and under-five mortality are the sensitive indices of development and often reflect a country's quality of life. But there is little understanding of whether Bangladesh will be capable of achieving all of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) especially the MDG 4 relating to infant (0-11 months) and under-five (0-59 months) mortality. In this view, an attempt has been made to estimate childhood mortality and to identify the covariates of infant and under-five mortality measuring the contribution of each of the covariates to overall variation, with a view to reducing infant and under-five morbidity and mortality in Bangladesh so that the country may be able to reach the MDG 4 target by the year 2015. For this, data are taken from the Bangladesh Demographic and Health Survey (BDHS), 2004, for the ten-year period preceding the survey (with a total sample size 7427, of whom 5004 from rural and 2423 from urban areas), having an eligible woman (ever-married and aged 10-49) with at least one or more child(ren) and the study is executed separately for the overall country level, rural level and urban level of Bangladesh. For analyzing the data, indirect techniques (Brass, Sullivan and Trussell methods), abridged life table technique and well-known statistical tools such as Pearson chi-square (X2 ) test, logistic regression model and discriminant analysis have been performed. From the results, it is revealed that the probabilities of dying (nqx) calculated, using Brass, Sullivan and Trussell methods are increasing with the increase of age of mothers. Again in case of data classified by duration of marriage of mothers, it is observed that the nqx is increasing with the increase of marital duration. But for the urban male, these probabilities are decreasing from the marital duration of 0-4 years to 10-14 years and then again increasing up to the last marital duration group. The results of z2 test indicate that among all the selected variables e.g. mothers' education, age of mother at birth, is child twin?, toilet facility, T.T. injections, breastfeeding, antenatal visits, after birth checked health, parity and preceding birth interval are statistically and significantly associated with the infant and under-five mortality. The results of logistic regression analysis using these ten significant variables (the two variables such as child's sex and sources of drinking water are excluded because of their insignificant association showed through x2 test) revealed that is child twin?, breastfeeding, antenatal visits and after birth-checked health have highly significant (p
Birth Spacing, Breastfeeding Pattern and Child Survival in Bangladesh
(University of Rajshahi, 2009) Akter, Shamima; Rahman, J.A.M. Shoquilur; Abedin, Samad
Birth 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.
Role of NGOs in Child Development : A Study in Nilphamari District, Bangladesh
(University of Rajshahi, 2009) Alam, Md. Rafiqul; Islam, Md. Nurul; Mondal, M. Nazrul Islam
This Thesis uses data from Nilphamari, a district in the northern part of Bangladesh, where hardcore poverty is a common scenario. The core objective of this study is to examine the impact of some key factors on child development through education and health. To complete the study we have used chi-square test, logistic regression analysis and backward regression analysis. The bivariate analysis explores the association between child development and age, family size, parents' education, parents' occupation, various NGOs' programs on child education and health and so on. The data collected form a total of 1028 respondents. Among all respondents ,69.70% are still going to school of them 74.47% are going to NGOs school are learning in NGOs school. In our study, we found among the total children 31.80% read in BRAC schools 17.90%, in RDRS schools, and 12.00% in plan school Various NGOs helped 89.30% children among them 44.40%, 27.70% and 17.20% respondents are helped by BRAC, RDRS and Plan respectively. The study result reveal that 64.20% and 65.50% children are helped by financial and educational instrument respectively. Again 60.90% respondents are through helped treatment by various NGOs, 14.00% children or their family use open field latrine, only 0.10% check up their health regularly and 5.60% are suffering from chronic diseases. 92.30% children are playing regularly. 88.10% children are about knowledge of microbes spread by open latrine by NGOs and 84.60% children have health awareness by NGOs where 6.20%, 39.80%, 24.90% and 13.20% children have heath awareness by BRIF, BRAC, RDRS and Plan respectively. 90.90% and 89.40% children are washing hands after toilet and hand washing before taking meal respectively. Also 2.20% and 32.10% children are taking medical facilities by NGOs hospital and government hospitals respectively where 65.70% are going to village doctor for medical services. Family loan has negative significant effect on school attendance that means occurrence of school attendance is (1/10) as likely to occur among the respondents with family loan than the respondents without family loan. NGOs help by educational instruments has positive significant effect on school attendance and the occurrence of still going to school is 3.07 times more likely to occur among the respondents with NGOs help by educational instruments than without NGOs help by educational instruments. NGOs help by treatments has positive significant effect on school attendance and the occurrence of still going to school is 3.99 times more likely to occur among the respondents with NGOs help by treatments than without NGOs help by treatments. Financial help by NGOs has positive significant effect on school attendance and the occurrence of still going to school is 2.24 times more likely to occur among the respondents with financial help by NGOs than without financial help by NGOs. Encouraging by NGOs has positive significant effect on school attendance and the occurrence of still going to school is 4.24 times more likely to occur among the respondents with encourage by NGOs than without encourage by NGOs.
Awareness of People on HIV/ AIDS in Bangladesh
(University of Rajshahi, 2010) Sarkar, Prosannajid; Mostofa, Golam; Rahman, Md. Mostafizur
Attempts 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.
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.
An Assessment of Vulnerability to HIV Infection of Female Smugglers in Hilli Port, Bangladesh
(University of Rajshahi, 2013) Islam, Md. Shahidul; Islam, Md. Rafiqul; Mondal, Md. Nazrul Islam
Female smugglers in Hilli port of Bangladesh are more vulnerable of Sexually Transmitted Infections (STIs) and HIV/AIDS because of their high mobility. Therefore, the assessment of vulnerability to HIV infection among female smugglers has long been an interesting topic to population and health researchers in Bangladesh. This study is an effort to assess the determinants of knowledge and awareness about HIV/AIDS, HIV/AIDS contamination risks, sexually abused through smuggling, perpetrators of sexually abused and perpetrators of drug affection among female smugglers based on the data of 300 female smugglers in Hilli port, Bangladesh collected by purposive sampling technique, which are the key elements of the assessment of vulnerability to HIV infection. To carry out the objectives, univariate, bivariate and multivariate techniques like descriptive statistics, chi-square test, binary logistic regression analysis and multinomial logistic regression analysis have been employed in accordance with their importance. In this study, it is observed that most of the female smugglers are belonged to <30 years of ages (82%) in which a remarkable numbers (22.3%) are teenagers, i.e., 10-20 years aged. The majorities have primary (30%) and under secondary (31.7%) level of education. Similar pattern of parent’s educational qualification has been observed where mother’s education has downgraded relative to father’s education in every level of education. Again, the majorities (63%) have earned 500-1000 Tk per month and all of female smugglers have improved their living conditions through this profession. Poverty (95%), pressure of family (56.3%) and absence of husband (38%) have been found as main cause of involvement in this profession. However, only 50% have details knowledge, 51.3% have knowledge about the way to protect from HIV/AIDS and 45% have awareness about HIV/AIDS. Although 70% female smugglers know that condom can protect this epidemic but only 30% use condom at the time of sex. The majorities (69.3%) think that they have the risks of HIV/AIDS contamination because 74% have been sexually abused by male colleagues (53.5%), Indian track drivers (30.9%), BSF (13.4%) and BGB (2.3%) through this profession, in which 55% exercise unsafe sex. Furthermore, most of the female smugglers (92.3%) have been influenced to take drug by male colleagues (39.7%), Indian track drivers (45.5%), BSF (11.2%) and BGB (3.6%) through the profession of smuggling. However, it has been identified that educated respondents, those have awareness by person, doctor and NGO workers, those have knowledge about the bad impact of HIV/AIDS from media, those are participated in HIV/AIDS seminar and in religious seminar are more likely to have knowledge about HIV/AIDS as compared with their counterparts respectively; and respondents who are belonged to >20 years of age group, those have awareness by person, doctor and NGO workers and who have any understanding with HIV affected persons are more likely to have awareness about HIV/AIDS as against their counterparts respectively. Again, there have been found the statistical significant association of HIV/AIDS contamination risks with knowledge about the way to protect from HIV/AIDS, exercise unsafe sex, participation on HIV/AIDS seminar, sexually abused passing through smuggling, using condom in sexual relation and influence to taking drugs in this profession respectively. In addition, respondents who exercise unsafe sex, those are sexually abused and influenced to take drugs passing through smuggling have found to be having more risks of HIV/AIDS contamination as against their counterparts respectively. In this study, smuggler’s age, father’s education, marital status, reasons of coming to smuggling, monthly income through smuggling and unsafe sex have statistical significant association; and smuggler’s age, reasons of coming to this profession, monthly income through smuggling, unsafe sex and drug affecting have statistical significant effect on sexually abused through smuggling respectively. It is also mentionable that female smugglers are more vulnerable of sexually abused after 25 years of their ages and poverty is one of the main reasons to coming this profession which is also significant reason of sexually abused. Nevertheless, the chance of sexually abused has been decreased with increasing the monthly income through smuggling. It has been determined through multinomial logistic regression analysis that father’s education, marital status, unsafe sex and types of drug affecting have significant effect on Indian track driver; and respondent’s educational status, marital status, reasons of coming to smuggling and monthly income through smuggling have significant effect on BSF/BGB by whom female smugglers are sexually abused. It is clear that the vulnerability of sexually abused by BSF/BGB decreases with increasing the smuggler’s educational level and monthly income through this profession; and unmarried female smugglers and those have the habit of unsafe sex and injection or other types of drug using have been sexually abused more by Indian track driver respectively. There have also been found the significant associations of perpetrators of drug affecting with smuggler’s age, educational status, father’s education, mother’s education, marital status, reasons of coming to smuggling, monthly income through smuggling, unsafe sex and types of drug affecting respectively. The tendency of drug affecting through male colleague of smuggling and Indian track driver is increasing with increasing smuggler’s age, and unmarried female smugglers have more chance of drug affecting by them. Moreover, the smugglers whose reasons of coming to this profession is poverty have more chance of drug affecting by male colleague of smuggling and the smugglers who exercise unsafe sex have more chance of drug affecting by Indian track driver as against their counterparts. In the light of the present study, it is strongly recommended that enhancing education with community based health related educational program through mass media, avoiding unsafe sex with increasing the effective use of condom, stopping the sexual harassment or sexually abused through smuggling and the influence to take drugs by their male colleagues, Indian track drivers or others in the profession, empowering the female smugglers and poverty reduction strategy are essential for reducing the vulnerability to HIV infection as well as for stopping smuggling among female smugglers in Hilli port, Bangladesh. Hopefully, this study would be very helpful for policy makers, program designers/planners to design or redesign program(s) or existing program(s) considering the identified risk factors.
Knowledge and Consciousness Level of Bangladeshi People about the Infectious Diseases
(University of Rajshahi, 2013) Noor, Behzad; Rahman, J.A.M. Shoquilur
Transmission of an infectious disease may occur through one or more diverse pathways including physical contact with infected individuals. These infected agents may also be transmitted through liquids, foods, body fluids, contaminated objects, airborne inhalation, or through vector borne spread. The term infectivity describes the ability of an organism to enter, survive and multiply in the host, while the infectiousness of a disease indicates the comparative ease with which the disease is transmitted to other hosts. Tweaking the lifestyle could be a big step for the people suffering from different infectious diseases toward the prevention of different infectious diseases- and it's never too late to start. To do so, as initial step, it is more than indispensable for everyone to get closer to all the factors involving in the prevalence of these pandemics in the proximity of time to get ready for fighting in the war with the pande mic. This study has done to investigate the differential levels and risky factors of socio-demographic and health related concerned affecting the vulnerability of the people to the infectious diseases. Different statistical analysis named logistic regression, linear probability mode (LPM) has been employed to investigate the differential patterns of the selected infectious diseases (i.e., Hepatitis B and Hl V / AIDS), to identify the interaction effects of the factors which influence knowledge and. consciousness of the studied population. For this purpose, data had been collected from Bangladesh Demographic and Health Survey (BDHS), 2007. The present study utilizes the BDHS with having a sample of 3151. From the study it has been found that in the case of hepatitis B the majority of middle-aged people (41-50 years of age group) have the habit of taking the vaccination regarding HB, on the other hand for HIV/ AIDS the majority of the respondents of age group 21 -30 used to use the condom as their security measure. Educational attainment and access to multimedia have the significant contribution to explore the knowledge and consciousness~ regarding these pandemics. It can be mentioned that with 10% enhancement in the respondent's educational attainment and l 0% enhancement in the habit of watching TV make the consciousness level higher by 1.26%. With the ~1abit of taking -protected drinking water and with the higher educational enrollment the consciousness level about ~ and HIV/AIDS is enhanced respectively. It can be mentioned that with 10 percent enhancement in the respondent's habit of taking protected water, the habit of taking HB vaccine is also increased by 1.36 percent. It has also been found that respondent's income, habit of watching TV and educational attainment play vital role in explaining the habit of taking the protected drinking water as with IO percent enhancement of respondent's income the probability of taking protected drinking water and the habit of using condom is increased by 1.17 percent and 1.89 percent respectively. From the above discussion it can be concluded that the respondents of our study who have the sound educational enrollment as well as who have the higher economic status are more informative as they have the access to different print media, electronic media, internet and some other sources of information through which they can be more informative. So, it can be stated that the GOs' and NGOs' implacable contribution in exploring varieties of information to the grassroots people is indispensable to make our large rural based population more aware about the knowledge and consciousness about these two diseases to get rid of the prevalence of these diseases. It is essential to have some data from the aforesaid diseases affected people directly to have the cavernous idea about the reasons of the prevalence so that the replication of the diseases could be prevented.
Fertility Intention, Social Capital and Non-Government Organizations (NGOs) in Bangladesh
(University of Rajshahi, 2014) Karmaker, Arun Kumar; Goni, Md. Abdul; Roy, Tapan Kumar
Fertility intention has been drawn increasing attention on the significance of social capital and NGOs because there is interrelation among fertility intention, social capital and NGOs. It is interesting to note that NGOs has a great role to build up a social network which can be treated as a medium by which individuals learn about demographic behavior. Social networks can also be sources of valuable resources that help to reduce the costs of having children and that build a stock of fertility-related social capital. In general, social interactions in personal networks affect individual's reproductive attitudes and behavior. However, social capital is a multidimensional concept and is used to refer to the goodwill, trust, and cooperation evident in any particular organization or society. It is the fruit of social relations and consists of the expectative benefits derived from the preferential treatment and cooperation between individuals and groups. In other words, social capital means relationships with others by trust, norms and social networks that an individual can change his/her socioeconomic phenomena. Trust, social norms and social networks are the elements of social capital, by these elements one can improve the society and can get economic benefits by which changes his/her status. NGOs have great impact and contribution to make social capital through various programs such as, micro-credit. In this context, an attempt has been made to know the interrelationships among fertility intention, social capital and NGOs at Charghat Thana, Rajshahi. For this purpose, data were collected from 498 ever married women who are the members of different NGOs and from women who are not involved with NGOs through purposive sampling. Based on primary data, the impact of social capital measured on intentions to have a second child has been investigated. This study also identifies the determinants of fertility intention and the determinants of fertility at Charghat Thana. It also investigates the role of NGOs to build up social capital. The result indicates that most of the respondents are middle aged groups 26- 45 years (43.4%), 20.1 % women are young in the age group 15-25 years, 36.5% women are older age groups above 45 years. 31.7% of the women have completed primary education, majority of women are house wife (87.6%) and a few numbers of women are involved with petty business (7.6%). Most of the women are Muslims (77.7%). It is observed that 34. I% families have monthly income below 5000 Taka, 37.1 % families have monthly income in the range 5000-8000Taka, 11.4% families have monthly income in the range 8000-10000 Taka, and 17. I% families have monthly income above 10000 Taka and the average monthly income is 6171.69 Taka. It is also observed that 49.4% families have monthly expenditure below 5000 Taka, 30.3% families have monthly expenditure in the range 5000-8000Taka, 12.2% families have monthly expenditure in the range 8000-10000 Taka, and 8% families have monthly expenditure above 10000 Taka and the average monthly expenditure is 5286.75 taka. About fifty percent (50%) women marry at age under 18 years. 76.4% are using contraception who are involved with NGOs which impact on reducing fertility. The result shows that 20.8% women who involved with NGOs have intention to bear more children and 21.1 % women have intention to bear more children who are not involved with NGOs. The social capital index is constructed to observe social capital formation among NGO members. To know the determinants of fertility intention, the prominent multivariate analysis such as, logistic regression analysis has been employed. The results reveals that middle aged women 26-35 years have 76 percent less likely and older women aged 35 and over have 98 percent less likely to have fertility intention respectively than younger women aged less than 25 years. Muslim women are 1.2 times more likely to have fertility intention than their non-Muslim counterparts. The result shows that primary completed women have 42 percent less likely and secondary and higher educated women have 22 percent less likely to have fertility intention respectively than illiterate women. Women who have married under 18 years old have 21 percent less likely to have fertility intention than the women who have married above and equal 18 years. Women who have household assets are 1.4 times more likely to have fertility intention than those women who have no household assets. The result indicates that the women who are involved with NGOs are 1.5 times more likely to have fertility intention than women who don't involve with NGO. It shows that women who attend regular group meeting of NGOs are 35 percent less likely to have fertility intention than those women who don't attend regular group meeting. 22% women who belong middle social capital index are less likely to have fertility intention than those women who have lower social capital index and the women who have upper social capital index are 31 percent less interested to have fertility intention than those women who have lower social index. The multiple classification analysis has been conducted to evaluate the contribution of socio-economic and demographic variables on fertility. The important determinants of fertility are women age, religion, education, age at marriage, contraceptive use, having electricity, mass media exposure, NGO membership and social capital index. Consciousness has grown among members exposed to NGO led activities. Most of the members have a strong knowledge about AIDS, arsenic contamination, Immunization program, health, nutritional needs, family planning, etc., after involvement into NGO activities. It is note that the average monthly family income of the respondents had TK. 4125.25 before joining the NGO as a member. After joining as a member, the average monthly family income has increased to TK. 6171.69. Before the membership, the average family expenditure was 3917.35, and after membership the average expenditure is measured at TK. 5286.75. The average savings has increased to TK. 884.94 (mean) due to a NGO member. Illness as well as awarding education for the member s' children depends on several independent variables like income, savings, hygienic condition, sanitation, TT vaccine, family planning, member s' education, etc so as to remove illness, and to expand educational facilities of the children. NGO has played a significant role by increasing family income, ensuring healthy sanitation facilities, providing educational facilities, enlarging knowledge on health education, etc. The correlation and path analysis have been used to know the relationship and the factors affecting fertility intention, social capital and NGOs. From the correlation analysis, it is found that social capital has significantly positively correlated with total family member and NGO membership. On the other hand, age at marriage and wealth are significantly inversely correlated on SCI. To examine the causal link (direct, indirect and total effects) among socio-economic and demographic variables, a multivariate technique known as path model analysis has been applied. The total association, the direct effects, non-causal effects, and total effects of exogenous and endogenous variables on the residual variable such as social capital have been investigated. The total association with SCI is statistically significant with age at first marriage, total family member, wealth and NGO membership. The age at first marriage, total family member and wealth are also statistically significant with NGO membership through total association. The total association with fertility intention is statistically significant as women age, age at first marriage and total family member. But women age, education, total family member, fertility intention and NGO membership have favorable total effects on social capital; age at marriage and wealth have adverse total effects on social capital. This study will help to policy makers to give idea to understand the NGOs contribution about social capital formation and to identify the relationships among fertility intention, social capital and NGOs at Charghat Thana in Rajshahi District in Bangladesh.
Determinants of Human Resource Development in Industrial Sector in Rajshahi City: A Micro-Survey Study
(University of Rajshahi, 2014) Rahman, K.M. Mustafizur; Goni, Md. Abdul; Rahman, Md. Mostafizur
Bangladesh has witnessed a parallel process of economic growth driven by, and associated dispossession of labour. The Gross Domestic Product (GDP) has been lifted to a decadal average of six percent in recent time. The country has also moved forward in the realm of social indicators, despite a third person living below the socalled poverty line. Despite the development of human resource remaining in the heart of such development, still such development of human resource remain slow. Against this backdrop, this research finds the key question: can this type of development of human resource in industrial sectors enable the economy to a sustainable path required to accelerate the overall development of the country? This study is based on survey data. The study indicates that, ever increasing pressures to sustain, in the context of growing need have pushed people to engage in income generating activities. The option for people to make choices and to claim rights to decent employment has remained elusive in the context of survival and hence has been subjected to injustices and dispossession. The research work also finds that there is a huge lack of skill development programmes among all the industries. The study also reveals the association of different variables of the respondents with their income satisfaction along with industrial production. The logistic regression analysis demonstrates the significant effects of different respondent’s characteristics on their income satisfaction, their participation in the decision making process of the industry, their work place environment and their promotion status. These analytical results may helpful to the policy makers, planners and researchers in developing suitable programmes addressing the case of human resource development in industrial sectors through out the country.
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.
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.
A Study of Some Determinants of Adolescent Reproductive Health in Bangladesh
(University of Rajshahi, 2016) Alam, Md.Rashed; Roy, Tapan Kumar; Rahman, Md. Mizanur
Adolescent 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.
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.
Mortality Trends, Differentials and Modeling for Mortality Forecasting in Bangladesh
(University of Rajshahi, 2017) Rouf, Abu Sayeed Md. Ripon; Mondol, Dilip Kumar; Rahman, Md. Jahanur
Mortality 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.
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. Nurul
Health 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.