Role of Women in Remittance-earning Households: Evidence from Sylhet City, Bangladesh

Abstract

Women in remittance earning household have to perform various sorts of roles and responsibilities in and out of their house. The present study investigated the socio-economic characteristics of remittance earning household as well as the part of women in remittance-earning households in Sylhet city. In this study, through using snowball sampling technique, 60 respondents (women) were drawn from two randomly selected areas namely “Uposhahar” and “Shibgonj”. The survey result showed that 68.33 percent of the sampled respondents belonged to the age group 36-45, and 21.67% was in 25-35 age groups. Near about 36.67% of the respondents passed the higher secondary level of education and only 8.33% completed primary degree of education. Most top 71.67% was the member of the nuclear family. Moreover, the study also depicted that 42 of the total 60 respondents were dependent on foreign earning and in the most family, foreign remittances were the primary source of their household income. However, key findings of the study stated that females mostly performed remittance-receiving household’s activities. A remarkable 95% of the respondents usually go to the bank for banking deal. The study also ascertained that about 80% of the female used to go for paying the bill. Besides this, they teach their children, take with and bring them from school as well as perform others households chores. Moreover, in the absence of household head, most of the women execute the prime functions of the household head. They also undertake several tricky strategies for their survival along with the betterment of the family. These indicate that in the absence of their male counterparts, most of the sampled female people were capable of running their family and other functions in remittance-earning households. Finally, areas and context-specific data are essential to identify the role of the female in remittance earning household and also for future policies, effective surveillance initiatives.