Social Participation of Extreme Poor Rural Women in a Selected Upazila of Sherpur District

The main focus of the study was to determine the extent of social participation by the extreme poor rural women in Sherpur district of Bangladesh and to explore the relationships between rural women’s extent of social participation and their selected characteristics. Data were collected from randomly selected 200 extreme poor women who were the members of the selected GOs and NGOs, using a pre-tested structured interview schedule during May to July, 2013. Fifteen selected individual characteristics of the extreme poor rural women were considered for exploring relationship with social participation. The study revealed that nearly half (49.5 percent) of the extreme poor women had low social participation compared to 42.5 percent had medium social participation. Correlation test was used to ascertain the relationships between each of the concerned variables and participation. Out of the 15 selected characteristics of the extreme poor rural women, 11 variables namely, family farm size, family annual income, training exposure, social participation, role in family decision making, aspiration, cosmopoliteness, extension media contact, attitude towards NGOs, self-confidence, and participation in IGAs showed significant positive relationships whereas, other variables (age, education, household size, and organizational participation) did not show any significant relationship with social participation.