Contribution of PalIi Daridro Bimochon Foundation Activity on Socio-economic Development of the Beneficiaries in Bangladesh

Abstract

The main purpose of the study was to determine the extent of socio-economic development of the beneficiaries through PDBF activities. PDBF-selected beneficiaries of three selected Upazilas of three districts of Rajshahi and Dhaka division constituted the population of the study. A total of 338 beneficiaries were finally selected which constituted the sample of the study by using random numbers. Data were collected from the beneficiaries during September, 2011 to February, 2012 by using a pre-tested interview schedule. Fourteen selected characteristics of the beneficiaries were considered as the independent variables. Socio-economic development activities by the beneficiaries were the dependent variable. Overwhelming majority (99.41 per cent) of the respondent beneficiaries increased their socio-economic development ranged from low to medium level compared to O. 59 per cent of the respondent increased at high level socio-economic development. Constraint Faced Index (CFI) among the types of constraints faced by the beneficiaries that new loan issued until final repayment of loan, high interest rate and not properly use of loan were the most important constraints encountered by the respondents. The correlation co-efficient was initially computed to determine the relationships among the variables. Step-wise multiple regression and path analyses were used to explore the contribution and effect of the selected characteristics of the respondent beneficiaries on their socio-economic development towards working with PDBF activities. Out of 14 selected characteristics 8 characteristics namely age (r - 0.058), education (r - 0.084), farm size (r - 0.050), savings behavior (r - 0.058), credit utilization (r - 0.053) and participation with PDBF (r - 0.049) of the respondents and contribution of socio-economic development was not found significant and the correlation co­efficient between family size ( r - 0 .111 *), group cohesion ( r - 0.315 * *), credit received (r - 0.315**), credit repayment behavior (r - 0.564**), training exposure (r - 0.140**), income generating activities (r - 0.257**), innovativeness (r -0.161**), attitude toward PDBF activities (r - 0.320**) of the respondents were found significant. Multiple R, R2 and adjusted R2 in the step wise multiple regression analysis were 0.615, 0.379 and 0.367 respectively and the corresponding F-ratio of 33.497 were significant at 0.000 level which means that all the independent variables jointly explained 36. 70 per cent of total variation of the changes in socio-economic development of the respondents. Results of path analysis revealed that credit repayment behavior (X9) had the highest direct effect (0.470) in the positive direction followed by attitude towards PDBF (X14), training exposure (X11) and group cohesion (X6) had appreciable positive direct effect on the socio-economic development of the beneficiaries through PDBF activities. Family size (X3) and innovativeness (X13) had the lowest direct effect (0. 70) in the positive direction on the socio-economic development of the beneficiaries through PDBF activities. The variable group cohesion (X6) had the highest (0. 760) total indirect effect followed by attitude towards PDBF (X14), family size (X3) and credit repayment behavior (X9), training exposure (X11) had appreciable total indirect effect while the variable innovativeness (X13) had the lowest (0.214) total indirect effect on the socio-economic development of the beneficiaries through PDBF activities.