Abstract
The purpose of the study was to determine and compare the livelihood status of garo women of four different organizations viz. 'SAIP', 'World Vision Bangladesh', 'Caritas' and 'PDBF'. It also explored the contribution of 23 selected characteristics of garo women to their livelihood status. Garo women of Haluaghat Upazila of Mymensingh district were the population of the study. Among them 280 garo women were randomly selected as sample who were the members of above four organizations. Multistage random sampling method was followed to determine the sample size. Livelihood status of garo women was taken as dependent variable and was measured in terms of 'livelihood index'. Data were collected through face to face interview as quantitative method, however, qualitative method in the form of 'Focus Group Discussion (FGD)' was also conducted to determine the role performance of Block Supervisor and Field Organizers of concerned GO and NGOs. Data collection took place during July to December 2003.Nearly two-third (58 percent) of 'PDBF' respondents had very high livelihood status compared to 13.6 percent with 'SAIP', 11.7 percent with 'World Vision Bangladesh' and only 6.7 percent with 'Caritas' respondents. Vast majority (80 percent) of 'Caritas' respondents had medium 'livelihood status' followed by 70 percent with 'World Vision Bangladesh', 69.29 percent with 'SAIP' and 38 percent with 'PDBF' respondents. The mean value found to be significantly higher in case of 'PDBF' respondents (67.86) followed by 'Caritas' (63.23), 'SAIP' (60.47) and 'World Vision Bangladesh' (60.41).Education, family education, farm size, self confidence, agricultural knowledge, family planning knowledge, aspiration, health consciousness, decision making ability, environmental awareness and nutritional knowledge were found significantly lower with 'PDBF' respondents compared to other categories of respondents while 'World Vision Bangladesh' respondents had a significant higher values against these variables. Despite such limitations, the 'PDBF' respondents were better in the case of calorie intake, Body Mass Index, family income and savings in comparison to other categories of respondents. Such betterment might be the result of having higher amount of loan taken from 'Palli Daridra Bimochon Foundation' than other categories of respondents.Among 23 selected personal, socio-economic and psychological characteristics of the garo women, 16 variables namely education, family education, farm size, family income, self confidence, agricultural knowledge, training experience, aspiration, savings, decision making ability, calorie intake, nutritional knowledge, Body Mass Index and credit availability had significant positive correlation with their livelihood status.There were 9 selected attributes which were taken to determine the impact assessment of 'SAIP' following the pre and post intervention methodology. Among these 9 attributes, farmsize, training experience, household assets, family expenditure, housing condition and credit received were found to have significant variation in post intervention from the pre intervention situation which indicates a positive achievement of the project.The stepwise multiple regression analysis indicated that, family income, decision making ability, training experience, calorie intake, body mass index, education and credit availability were important predictors of livelihood status of garo women. These variables combinedly explained 28.20 percent of the total variation on 'livelihood status'. The result of path analysis indicated that family income had the highest positive direct effect while credit availability had the highest positive indirect effect on the livelihood status.