Abstract
Bangladesh poses an important role to promote sustainable livelihood status for tribal
community. The objectives of this empirical research arises from the perceived need to get
better understanding about tribal women empowerment and their way of living.
Considering the broad thematic areas of entrepreneurship development, this research has
drawn upon livelihoods improvement in Sylhet region of Bangladesh. The main objective of
the study was to analyze the changing livelihood capitals and its impact on household
income and expenditure after entrepreneurship development for tribal women. Besides, the
differences of socioeconomic characteristics between entrepreneurs and non-entrepreneurs
are also compared. The profitability of managing enterprises were assessed and identified
and determined which one was more profitable for tribal economy. The study also focused
on the situation of women participation and empowerment for both entrepreneurs and nonentrepreneurs. Primary data were collected from 360 tribal women, of them 180 for
entrepreneurs and those of other 180 for non-entrepreneurs in two districts namely Sylhet
Sadar and Moulvibazar of Sylhet division of Bangladesh. Multi-stage random sampling
technique was used. For examining women's conditions, empowerment and livelihood
status, the present research included four enterprises (i.e., pig farming, shop keeping,
handloom weaving, bamboo handicrafts, etc.) for four tribal communities such as Garo,
Khasia, Monipuri, and Patro, respectively. The study used a livelihood framework within a
methodological context of participatory action research at individual, household and
community level. Independent t-test, Propensity Score Matching method, Logit model,
Livelihood Index, Participation Index in Economic Activities (EAs), Women Empowerment
Index (WEI), and Constraint Index (CI) were used to determine the impact of
entrepreneurship development. The research findings revealed that women entrepreneur
were in better condition in terms of age, education, family size, annual personal income, and
housing, sanitation etc., than non-entrepreneurs. Considering tribal community, all (100%)
women entrepreneurs were educated in Patro and Garo communities, respectively. It was
found that non-entrepreneurs' household spent more on food items (about 65%) than
entrepreneurs, whereas entrepreneurs spent more on non-food items. The poorest
livelihood was for Monipuri entrepreneurs (48.4%) due to poor contribution to improve the
overall five livelihood capitals. Spatial variation appeared that access to livelihood assets
was the largest in Patro community (65%) followed by Garo (54.2%) and Khasia (51.9%),
respectively. Entrepreneurship development had also positive and significant impacts on
enterprise income, total expenditure and income at household level. The study found that
the increasing participation in intra-household decision making process facilitated a
development process involving women in all spheres especially on entrepreneurship
development and empowerment. The enterprise of handloom weaving was profitable for
Monipuri entrepreneur after shop keeping. Selecting profitable enterprises for tribal women
entrepreneur, it appeared that Garo and Khasia entrepreneurs were benefited by the pig
farming rather than shop keeping, but shop keeping enterprise was profitable for Monipuri
entrepreneurs than handloom weaving. The study made recommendation that enterprise
should be local, cultural, and social based with more financial and technical support from
GO and NGOs. Government should also give emphasis on developing sufficient road,
bridge, water supplying facilities and development of specific marketing channel for
improving the livelihood of tribal community.