POOR WOMENS PARTICIPATION IN INCOME-GENERATING PROJECTS AND THEIR FERTILITY REGULATION IN RURAL BANGLADESH - EVIDENCE FROM A RECENT SURVEY

The paper assesses the impact of poor women's participation in income- generating projects on their knowledge, attitude, and practice of fami ly planning in rural Bangladesh. By analyzing a 1992 national level ho usehold sample survey data collected from the female recipients of col lateral-free loans of three relatively large rural development agencie s in Bangladesh - the present study shows that the participation in in come-generating projects by poor rural women has led to an increased l evel of contraceptive use and to a decreased level of desire for addit ional children. These effects are much higher than those of the corres ponding levels for Bangladesh as a whole, indicating both the addition al effect of income-generating projects as well as the effects of thei r population education components. Implications of these findings for inducing further increase in contraceptive use in Bangladesh are discu ssed in the paper.