Live-in-Field Experience (LFE) Report

ABSTRACT

The definition of education in common usage, that education is simply the delivery of knowledge, skills and information from teachers to students, is not enough to capture what is really important about being and becoming educated. The proper definition of education is the process of becoming an educated person. Being an educated person means we have access to best states of mind regardless of the situation you are in. we are able to make out accurately, think clearly and act well to achieve self-selected goals and aspirations. Education is a process of mapping your experiences and finding a variety of reliable route to best states when you find our self in non-optimal states. The idea that the definition of education is the delivery of knowledge, skills and information from teachers to students is misguided. Our national poet Kazi Nazrul Islam wrote- the Good done by the civilization, half created by man and rests by the women. This is an eternal statement about the development of human civilization. From the dawn of the civilization women and men worked together to make the future brighter. Womens empowerment has been pointed out as an indispensable condition to reduce poverty in developing countries of the world. Also it has been closely related to democratization of those countries, in providing women with rights and opportunities equal to those which men have enjoyed so far. Even though its significance, the issue cannot be said to be solved easily, because there am many factors that prevent its progress.

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Live-in-Field Experience (LFE) Report

APPENDICES

Marital status:

Male Marital Status Married Unmarried Widow / Widower Divorced Separated/Abandoned Total No 11 06 03 00 00 20 % 55 30 15 00 00 100%

Female No 12 08 00 01 01 21 % 57.14 38.10 00 4.76 4.76 100%

Family type:
Family Type Nuclear Joint Total Source: Field Survey, 2012 No 08 02 10 % 80 20 100 Sample size: 10 household

Education:

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Live-in-Field Experience (LFE) Report Male Level of Education Primary Secondary (Non S.S.C) S.S.C H.S.C Graduation Masters Total Source: Field Survey 2012 18 100 No 08 04 01 4 1 % 44.4 22.2 5.5 22.2 5.5 Female No 04 05 02 ---11 % 36.3 45.4 18.1 ---100

Sample Size: 10 Household

The village profile of Shakharya:

Name of the village Division Union Thana District Religion Post Office Age Age of Par Population Families* Literacy rate Number of school Shakharya Rajshahi Shakharya Bogra Bogra Muslim(Mostly) & Hindu Pollimongol Hat Around 150 years 120 year (Approx.) 2500(approximately) 350 (Approx.) 43% (Approx.) 01

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Live-in-Field Experience (LFE) Report

Mosque NGO (Major) No. Of ponds Tube well Shops Electric Facility Main occupation

01 BRAC, TMSS, GRAMEEN, ASA. 17 In 100% house 10-12 90% Business, Service holder, Farmer, Day labor

All information are collected from PRA discussion

EXCUTIVE SUMMARY

This report analyzes the education and women empowerment

Background

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Live-in-Field Experience (LFE) Report Education and women empowerment are two significance factors in development of a country and to make sure proper development in the country, it is necessary to start it from lower tier of the country .Generally education starts with school and Schools can empower children to become informed and self-reliant adults. Schools can imbue our children with the spirit of inquiry and reform, essential to the creation of enlightened leaders that can transform Bangladesh into the just society that we aspire to. But the ground reality is disturbing. On the other hand, women are deprived in family and society, in decision making process, in administrative process of governance and most importantly in economic activities. Even the women contribute in the process of social development, which has financial value, are being ignored by the society.To ensure the participation of women in the said process they need to be empowered mentally, economically and politically. That is why modern social science termed women development as the Empowerment of Women. Empowerment of women is linked to the total human emancipation.

OBJECTIVE
Live-in Field Experience or generally known as LFE is a brief study of the rural setting of Bangladesh. As most of the IUB students were brought up in cities, they had very little ideas about rural life. Learn to record the information collected by PRA (Participatory Rural Appraisal) and questionnaire survey.

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Live-in-Field Experience (LFE) Report Get information about the village life of Bangladesh and its peasants & also their living condition. To have a clear idea about the economic, demographic, social, environmental and health condition of the villagers. To achieve ground level learning of different kinds of primary data collection methods-both qualitative and quantitative data, and To learn how to analyze the collected data and presentation of the report.

Major Finding:
To find the impact of Education and women empowerment at Thangamara To analyze the condition of education and women empowerment

Recommendation
The students who are considered the future leaders of the country must understand the social and economic condition of the size of the population and act accordingly to achieve the state to be termed as a Developing Nation. This study will help to find out our resources, strengths and weaknesses so that we can become the Nation that we know we ought to be.

INTRODUCTION

Education is very essential in the present socio-economic condition of Bangladesh. Education and women empowerment are two integral part for the apt development of the country. The education and women empowerment in the ground level of the country are disturbing. It is really demand of time to give women education and help them out with empowerment. Womens empowerment is defined as the capacity of women to be economically self-sufficient and self-reliant with

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Live-in-Field Experience (LFE) Report control over decisions affecting their life options and freedom from violence (Raoand Kelleher (1995:70). Women suffer from different types of powerlessness in social and economic sphere of life. The lack of power or disempowerment reflects in their less education level, less income, less control over their own income, less bargaining power in selling their own produce and labor, less participation in decision making body, less access to production inputs and resources and employment Opportunity than men. This vulnerable situation resulted in an overall dependency of women on their male kin through their life cycle all over the world, particularly in developing countries. The dependency makes them as a burden of a family and lowers their value of life in the society. Development practitioners are concerned to raise their empowerment level, which make women capable to challenge their dependency or oppressive situation in the family and society as well.

ORIGIN OF THE REPORT

This report is prepared as a partial fulfillment of the course Live-in-field Experience, spring 2012, Assistant Prof. Syed Mazharul Islam (Course Coordinator of LFE), and Mr. K. M. Ariful Kabir (Course Instructor).

LIMITATION OF THE REPORT

During my survey and also while analyzing the data and preparing the report I have faced some difficulties and limitations. Some of the limitations that I have faced are as follows:

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Live-in-Field Experience (LFE) Report My knowledge about this course was partial. I also didnt have any understanding of data collection process. As I did not have familiarity about survey method, I was at first in a problem about how to approach to the people but our facilitator Eva miss helped me and showed me how to interact with the village people. In the first day at village the villagers were confused about our motive and felt inconvenient to talk to us. Though we have told them about our work and intention, they were suspecting our purpose. Some of them thought that we were frauds and didnt want to cooperate. Later on they understood our purpose and welcomed us graciously. Our Shakharya is a small village. But most of the villagers dont have enough knowledge about their village. They couldnt tell us much about past events of their village except for a few elderly persons. Time limitation was another problem for me. We were given only 7 days to collect data and questionnaire survey. Though our para was not too big it required more than 3 to 4 hours to get the whole idea about the certain topics. There are many questions that we couldnt ask them due to the time constrain. To analyze data and prepare the report we were given enough time. To get the precise information was complicated most of the time. We went there in the morning when the House head was not at home. The other members were not much clear about some issues like; the economic part required some specific information about their earnings, which the Household Head could have answered better. The respondents were not sometimes comfortable to answer the questions as they felt unsafe to talk about the topic.

METHODOLOGY
Methodology means the procedure, procedure of collecting data. All the information provided in this

report has been collected through four techniques. Since these are all primary data, secondary source was none of our concern. The four techniques are as follows:

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Live-in-Field Experience (LFE) Report Participatory Rural Appraisal(PRA) Observation Case Study Structured Questionnaire Survey

Quantitative method
Some structured, closed ended questions were being used to collect information about the demographic variables, health condition, environmental condition and the economic condition of the village community. This information was being analyzed in this report by using different tools.

Qualitative method
The Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) is being mainly used as the qualitative method. Some open ended questions were also being used to analyze the market.

Methods of Data Collection

Qualitative

Quantitativ e

PRA

Case Study

Observation

Structured
Question naire Survey

SITE SELECTION
In this report we tried to build up the maps of Shakariya village of Bogra district. Usually a village comprises with several Para and our assigned village Shakariya, was also comprised with several Paras , these are Mondol Para, Kha Para, Dhokhin Para,Goyal Para,Noya Para. In

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Live-in-Field Experience (LFE) Report Shakariya village we worked in two para Mondol para and Kha para. There is a road between these two para. For the requirements of the report, our concentration was on one assigned Para during the LFE that was called Mondol Para. The Thengamara Mohila Sobuj Songotho (TMSS) authority
and our course instructor selected that Para for us to survey. It was the smallest Para of Shakariya

village.

DISCUSSION

Conceptualizing Education in Bogra

Parents, irrespective of their socio-economic condition, are realizing the importance of education. They are exercising choice, and propelling change by moving their children from dysfunctional schools to ones they see as more responsive to their needs. And reassuringly, a few shining schools continue to show the right path, despite all odds.

Discriminating education
There is a large gender gap in Bogra when it comes to education. The fact that women are less educated than men is largely due to ancient tradition and common mentality. Ideas about the appropriate roles for women in the labor market or in society, about the biological unsuitability of women for science, and about the gender-based division of work in the household and on the farm influence decisions about schooling.

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Live-in-Field Experience (LFE) Report

EDUCATION

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Live-in-Field Experience (LFE) Report

Male of all ages

Entered primary school Completed primary school Entered secondary school Completed secondary school 45-50 40-45 30-35

Female of all age

35-40 35-36 25-30

Male 5-20
55-60 50-55 50-55

Female 5-20
50-52 45-50 40-45

20-25

10-15

45-50

30-35

WOMEN EDUCATION
In Bangladesh more than half of women are illiterate. Women's literacy will improve the quality of their lives. This will go a long way to help in reducing poverty, increasing income, and improving their and their families' health and nutrition. Research shows that women in Bangladesh have a lower social status than men. Women's status remains low from one generation to the next because of a preference for sons. It is also because the daughters have less access to food, health services and education. Women are often unable to participate at an equal level in decisions that affect the lives of their children and themselves. So, attention should be given to improve women's status in society so that they are empowered to make decisions which will be best for nutrition and health of their families.

Community Schools
The initiative to support community schools run by NGOs as a way of bringing classrooms closer to girls homes has proven most effective in increasing girls access. This effort, reviewed below, is characterized by methods that enable greater participation between communities, schools, and teachers. In some cases, the curriculum is highly relevant to the communities that are served.

DEVELOPMENT AND WOMEN EMPOWERMENT

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Live-in-Field Experience (LFE) Report Sex and Age based Structure of the Population Table shows that like the male population of the Bogra district, women represent a vast resource. They must be provided equal opportunity in education, employment and economic activities, then only this resource could be utilized properly.

Table: Sex and Age based Structure of the Population Age-base Group Total Population (%) Male Population (%) Female Population (%) 10-14 Years 12.6 12.52 11.58 15-19 Years 8.52 8.41 8.65 20-24 Years 8.40 7.60 9.25 25-29 Years 6.10 7.92 9.11 30-34 Years 4.25 6.10 6.10 35-39 Years 3.25 5.87 5.14 40-44 Years 2.89 4.40 4.09
Source: Statistical Pocketbook, Bangladesh, Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics, Government of the Peoples Republic of Bangladesh (Page 124). .

WOMEN ENTREPRENEURSHIP
Womens enterprises were confined in sectors that were dominated by traditional gender role, such as food and beverage, health, education, webbing, tailoring and wholesale and apparel trade. But the situation is improving slowly; today women are also in occupations, which were solely controlled by the male before. Now, some of them possess top management post in private and public sector enterprises, sit in the most important policy making bodies of the country, are entrepreneurs and own enterprises.in this case the Thengamara Mohila Sabuj Sangha (TMSS) chairman Prof. Dr. Hosne-Ara Begumis mentionable. Women are now seen also as owners and managers of cold storage, travel agencies, interior decoration, engineering workshops and even garment industries, etc.

Employed Persons 15 Years and Over by Status of Employment, Gender and Locality Employment Status Both Rural (%) Male Female

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Live-in-Field Experience (LFE) Report Sex 31.2 0.2 7.0 42.5 19.1

Self-employed Employer Employee Unpaid Family Helper Day Labourer

47.6 0.2 9.2 14.4 28.4

7.4 0.1 3.7 83.2 5.6

Source: Labour Force Survey of Rajshahi, 2009-2010,Bogra (P-48)

Policies and Programs Encouraging and Supporting Women Entrepreneurship The importance of women entrepreneurs in the national development process has been acknowledged by successive governments and steps initiated to realize these objectives. Consequently, under successive Five Year Plans, womens development initiatives have been gradually integrated into the macro framework and multi-scrotal economy to bring women into the mainstream of economic development and encourage potential women entrepreneurs realizing their business plans.

Womens Empowerment through Microcredit:

There are many NGOs that are working at Thengamara, Bogra for rural development. There is no specific development strategy for womens empowerment. The NGO TMSS in Thengamara,

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Live-in-Field Experience (LFE) Report Bogra revolutionizes the self awareness and expectations of women by offering access to non formal basic education and income-earning opportunities through crafts, chicken rearing, and fish pond cultivation, among others. Grameen Bank spurs the microfinance movement and provides loans to women to support these activities, while the Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee (BRAC) has pioneered non formal education. BRAC is the largest NGO in the provision of education. All have played a fundamental role in helping women to achieve empowerment through education and entrepreneurial activities that initiated their groundbreaking entrance into the market place. NGOs also serve to make family planning more acceptable. In addition, they serve to encourage the political empowerment of women. The promotional organization of the rural poor is recognized as the core activity of TMSS. Concern for women's development occupies an important place in TMSS overall development process. TMSS has mainstreamed women's development needs in all its programmes. Women groups constitute 64 per cent of all primary groups and are recipients of all development services in corresponding proportions. Women participation is also higher than men in different programmes. The participation is 65 per cent in human development training; 62 per cent in skill development training, and 60 percent in credit disbursement.

WOMEN EMPOWERMENT IN VILLAGE

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Live-in-Field Experience (LFE) Report

NGO impact and women share of income

NGO women are significantly ahead in respect of personal income, training received, monitoring by credit provider NGOs and in the case of institutional participation due to their intimate involvement with the micro-credit NGOs in compare to the Non-NGO women.

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Live-in-Field Experience (LFE) Report

Types of Women NGO women Non-NGO women All average

PrePostharvest harvest Home Poultry Goat activities activities gardening management rearing 1.00 (0.26) 0.00 (0.00) 1.00 (0.15) Cattle rearing 10.30 83.28 (2.70) (21.87) 63.95 76.35 (21.94) (26.20) 74.25 159.63 (11.05) (23.75) Aquaculture activities 2.50 (0.66) 1.70 (0.58) 4.20 (0.62) 71.47 67.87 (18.77) (17.83) 67.70 15.20 (23.23) (5.22) 139.17 83.07 (20.70) (12.36) Wage labor Non-argil. activities

Types of women NGO women

Marketing activities 7.50 (1.97) 1.50 (0.51) 9.00 (1.34)

69.00 (18.13) Non-NGO women 35.30 (12.11) All average 104.30 (15.52) Types of Women NGO women Non-NGO women All average 672.12 Total income 380.67 291.45

17.5 50.25 (4.6) (13.20) 0.0 29.75 (0.0) (10.21) 17.5 80.00 (2.6) (11.90)

*: Values in the parentheses indicate percentage Source: TMSS survey

It is evident from the Table 3 that major income (23.75%) of both groups of women came from home gardening. The next highest share (20.7%) came from poultry management. Accordingly, goat rearing, cattle rearing and non-agricultural activities contribute in the personal income of the respondent women. On the other hand, respondent women earn smallest (0.15%) amount from preharvest activities. However, the above Table 3 shows that there is a significant difference in income earning of the women of NGO and Non-NGO types. Without an exception of post-harvest activities NGO women earn higher income from all the sources. This due to the reason that NGO

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Live-in-Field Experience (LFE) Report women received various skill developments training like home gardening, poultry and livestock management, aquaculture, handicrafts making, tailoring etc. which is significantly increased their capabilities. Thus, they take part these types activities more perfectly than previous and earn more in compare to their counterpart Non-NGO women. On the other hand due to economic solvency and good social status of the family Non-NGO women do not work as wage labor. While due to temporary or permanent financial and food crisis a few of the NGO women earn by working as a wage.

Conclusion
Though we have done all work together in the field but we had to prepare our report individually. I got many important findings in all issue. Mondol Para is a very under developed area. Some of the people have completed elementary education. So they are very conscious about health, environment, socio economic culture and constantly trying to improve their life styles. Thus the

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Live-in-Field Experience (LFE) Report necessity of education especially for women in the Mondol para of Shakhariya village is very much important from the survey it is dusting educated women are good in the flow of women empowerment. Though several NGOs are working on establishment of women empowerment but the way of their helps should be more relaxable. The NGOs activities in village however are helping villagers to remove their poverty though we have seen that some cannot remove poverty. Still our villagers are surrounded with lots of problems. The word of hope is that villagers are becoming educated day by day. So we hope that all the existing problems will be eradicated very soon and women empowerment will come in vogue. Government should take more necessary steps for the well being of the villagers. Finally, the experience to rural life was an amazing experience for all of us. At last, I would like to thank IUB and TMSS, Bogra to give us such us a great opportunity to be intimate with true people.

References

Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics, Government of the Peoples Republic of Bangladesh, Statistical Pocketbook, Bangladesh: (Page 124).

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Live-in-Field Experience (LFE) Report Labour Force Survey of Rajshahi, 2009-2010,Bogra (P-48) TMSS,The daily star, Women in all Spheres to be empowered ,The New Nation. 2007-12-10 http://www.tmss-bd.org/ Grameen Bank, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grameen_Bank www.unesco.org/education/poverty/grameen.shtml - France Brac, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BRAC_(NGO) UN, "Millennium Development Goals: About the Goals," accessed online at www.developmentgoals.org/About_the_goals.htm, on May 15, 2003. United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Institute for Statistics, Financing Education Investments and Returns, Analysis of the World Education Indicators, 2002 Edition: Executive Summary, accessed online at http://portal.unesco.org/ uis/TEMPLATE/pdf/wei/WEI_ExecSummary_Eng.pdf, on April 1, 2003. Willem van Eeghen and Kouassi Soman, "Poverty in the Middle East and North Africa" (1997), accessed online at www.worldbank.org/ mdf/mdf1/menapoor.htm, on Jan. 6, 2003. United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), State of World Population 2002: People, Poverty, and Possibilities (New York: UNFPA, 2002). United Nations, The World's Women 2000: Trends and Statistics, accessed online at http://unstats.un.org/unsd/demographic/ ww2000/table5d.htm, on March 27, 2003. World Bank, Engendering Development Through Gender Equality in Rights, Resources, and Voice (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2001): 90-91.

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