Political Awareness of Women at the Grass Root Level in Bangladesh: A Study of Sailkupa Upazilla in Jhenidah District

Abstract

An attempt has been made in the study to inquire into the awareness level of women about politics at the grass root level. The study was conducted among the 252 women voters and 21 women representatives in 7 selected union of Sailkupa upaz!lla under Jhenidah district in Bangladesh. The researcher followed the techniques of survey and observation method to collect field data for this study. The data were collected on different dimensions such as demographic and socio-economic background, nature of participation of the women representatives in the study area and political awareness of respondents. To investigate the political awareness of women, the researcher examined the awareness of respondents about political rights and political participation, awareness about election affairs and casting of vote, awareness about national issues and government, awareness about local problems and specifically awareness of women representative about budget and overall activities of Union Par/shad. The study revealed that women belonged to lower socio­economic status in rural Bangladesh in terms of education, occupation, land ownership, income, membership in organization and livelihoods and so on issues. The study also explored that women representatives hold better socio-economic status than women voters. An analysis of women's political background revealed that women in rural Bangladesh were not politically active. Though majority of the rural women cast their vote in the election, in this regard they influenced by the male members of the family. Even the same feature was found in the case of women representatives whereas majority of them had direct affiliation in the party politics. The study has clearly depicted that most of the women at the grass root level were not aware about politics. Though they are average aware about their casting of vote and national issues and government, they are totally not aware about their political rights and participation. However, it was found that women representatives were comparatively aware than the women voters regarding these issues. The study also explored that there is a significant relationship between academic qualifications, occupations, father's/husband's academic qualifications and occupations, political involvement of family members, total family income and political awareness of women. Finally, the study identified some issues which need serious attention to make awareness of women about politics at the grass root level.