Population Council Projects | Bangladesh: Schooling, Livelihoods, and Marriage

PROJECT
Bangladesh: Schooling, Livelihoods, and Marriage

Garment workers in Bangladesh.

Bangladesh has experienced dramatic fertility decline as a result of its successful family planning program, however, it continues to maintain a regime of very early marriage that has negative implications for rapid population growth. This project studies the impact of two large-scale interventions: a secondary school scholarship scheme and a pilot scheme to impart livelihood skills to adolescent girls.

The overall objective of the Bangladesh Adolescent Livelihoods Project, a project with multiple phases and donors, is to explore how adolescents can be empowered by enhancing their livelihood skills through programmatic interventions. Empowerment is measured in terms of improved control over decisions that are consequential to adolescents’ lives, such as schooling and marriage.

The first part of the project (1997–2001) used data from a long-term village study to assess the impact of educational incentive schemes for children and adolescent girls. Data from the early years of the educational program in 1995–96 suggested that incentive schemes introduced in 1994 resulted in rapid increases in school enrollment. Data from the village study in 2000 and from a larger three-district survey in 2001 confirmed that school enrollment increased more for girls than for boys but also indicated that the risk of dropping out of school remained strongly differentiated by gender and class. Boys in poor households dropped out earlier than nonpoor boys, but all girls faced similarly high dropout risks because of marriage. Girls continued to attend school until they married but often did not delay marriage for school. In addition, dowry payments were a menacing concern for parents, and early marriage was encouraged by perceptions that older girls would require higher dowries.

The second part of the project (2001–03) applied lessons learned from the village study to an intervention program in three rural districts—Chapainawabganj, Chittagong, and Sherpur. A baseline survey conducted in 2001 documented important differences in the three study districts in terms of marriage, dowry demands, reproductive health, and schooling of girls. Between March and June 2003 a follow-up survey was conducted in 68 of the 90 villages initially interviewed. The follow-up survey tracked girls who had migrated out of their own villages to other areas within the district; 23 percent of all girls had moved since the baseline. Researchers found marriage delays that may be attributed to the interventions and that the interventions were more successful among girls in school and from relatively poor households.

The project showed that programs designed to (1) give adolescent girls access to public spaces in which to congregate and interact with their peers; (2) provide life-skills, livelihood skills, and reproductive health training; and (3) provide other support to increase their earning potential can have far-reaching effects. The programs encouraged increased schooling, increased employment and income levels, and delayed marriage. In addition, the interventions have provided rich qualitative data on how such programs can foster and enhance a sense of well-being in participants.

Although the interventions encouraged delayed marriage, they did not specifically discourage dowry payment. One negative finding was that, in general, girls who delay marriage appear to pay higher dowries. Girls’ families believe that paying dowry is a strategy of choice to ensure the well-being of their daughters, despite the fact that those who marry without dowry are found to be better off in terms of suffering less abuse and enjoying more leisure during the early years of marriage.

This project made an important contribution by documenting who among rural residents is most likely to join and maintain program membership. Although programs are more likely to be used by more educated households within a village, in this study this selectivity was counteracted by the fact that programs appeared to be taken up with the most enthusiasm by those in Sherpur, the poorest and least-educated district.

Study results have been disseminated widely among development professionals. In addition, several important policy decisions have been influenced by the study. First, a national adolescent survey was undertaken in 2005 to identify socially and geographically vulnerable areas and populations. Second, the Population Council has begun to collaborate with the World Bank and Bangladeshi organizations to incorporate strategies addressing the issue of dowry into programs aimed at empowering adolescent girls as part of a larger gender strategy. Third, new programs that will include financial literacy training and microcredit initiatives are being put together by development NGOs to provide age- and need-appropriate interventions to improve livelihood opportunities for vulnerable adolescents.

Location

Chapainawabganj, Chittagong, Rajshahi, and Sherpur, Bangladesh

Population Council researchers

Sajeda Amin

Non-Council collaborators

Simeen Mahmud, Lopita Huq (Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies)

Imran Matin (Research and Evaluation Division, Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee)

Qamrun Nahar (University of Hawaii)

Mary Arends-Kuenning (University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign)

Maitreyi Das (The World Bank)

Centre for Mass Education and Sciences

Donors

The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation

The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation

Population Council

UK Department for International Development

UNICEF

US Agency for International Development

Publications/Resources on this project