Impact of Rural Telecom on Women Empowerment: A Case Study of Bangladesh

Abstract

The telecom sector in Bangladesh, like many other developing countries, has seen growth in mobile penetration that has surpassed all expectations. In this context, a household survey-based study has been conducted to explore the impact of rural telecom on the status of daily food intake scenario in the study area. Multiple tools of methodology have been used in this study. Various techniques (both quantitative and qualitative) were employed to explore the situation of mobile phone user in rural areas of Bangladesh. Purposive random sampling and case study method have been pursued to collect information from the respondents. The major empirical findings summarized here are extracted by a thorough analysis on the data set applying basically Tobit regression analysis along with the typically descriptive statistical tools and techniques. In additional, the extracted result would provoke the government for initiating public–private partnerships to reach the village poor with mobile phone heavily subsidized so that the people with comparatively low income could have easy access to communication device thus enhancing their living standard. The analytical model sketched in this study may be useful in justifying the extension of Information and communication technologies sectors in the rural areas being one of the first its kind in Bangladesh; the study has the potential to be the basis for future studies in the context of Bangladesh.

Keywords: Women Empowerment; Tobit Regression; Rural Telecom

Australian Academy of Business and Economics Review, vol 3, issue 3, July 2017, pp 131-143