Assessment of the Effectiveness of Widow Allowance Scheme for the Empowerment of Women in Bangladesh

Abstract

Widow Allowance Scheme plays vital role to empower the elderly widow in Bangladesh which promote their social and economic wellbeing in Bangladesh. This scheme was introduced to empower distressed widowed, divorced and husband-deserted women through financial support and to improve their status both within the family and in the society. It was a descriptive but exploratory study and aimed to assess the effectiveness of Widow Allowance Scheme for the empowerment of elderly women in Bangladesh. This study was carried out in Gutudia Union under Dumuria Thana of Khulna district in Bangladesh and the area was selected purposively. For in-depth study check list and Focus Group Discussion guideline were used as data collection tool. Additionally, six case studies (three cases were beneficiaries and three cases were non-beneficiaries) and two Focus Group Discussions, consisting twenty participants, both from beneficiary and non-beneficiary of the scheme were selected using purposive sampling. From the analysis of the case study it had been found that the beneficiaries could influence the household aspects rather than the non-beneficiaries. In Focus Group Discussion it had been found that the beneficiaries had access to financial security than the nonbeneficiaries and they were quite satisfied with life rather than the nonbeneficiaries Finally, the result of the study exposed that though the empowerment indices of the beneficiaries and non-beneficiaries did not have any significant difference but the beneficiaries enjoyed more empowerment facilities than the opposite group due to financial power.