Karimul Islam

Background: Gender inequality within households remains a significant barrier to accessing maternal healthcare services in many low-resource settings, including Bangladesh. Understanding the relationship between the gender inequality faced by women in households and their perceived satisfaction with maternal healthcare services is important. Objective: This study aims to identify the factors influencing gender inequality and investigate the association between gender inequality faced by women within households and their perceived satisfaction with maternal healthcare services. Design: Conducted between October and November 2022, employing a cross-sectional design. Settings and participants: 150 women who are at their prenatal or postnatal stages are systematically sampled from Khalishpur municipality and Dighalia subdistrict from Khulna, Bangladesh. Outcome measures: Gender inequality within the households is assessed using a validated five-point Likert scale of five items. Participants with an average score below or equal to the median value are considered to be facing gender inequality within households. Satisfaction with maternal healthcare services is measured across five variables using a similar scale. Based on the responses, a standardised score is generated to measure the satisfaction level with maternal healthcare services. Results: We find that women are around seven times more likely to experience gender inequality in their households if their husbands are engaged in self-employed jobs or skilled labour compared with unemployment (p<0.10). Coercive actions, such as physical assault (odds: 6.428, p<0.01) and preventing women from financially supporting their maternal kin (odds: 14.909; p<0.01), are positively related to gender inequality. Such inequality negatively relates to women’s perceived satisfaction with their maternal healthcare services (−1.851, p<0.01). Additionally, traditional home delivery, verbal abuse and the forced use of traditional medication reduce satisfaction levels. On the other hand, increased prenatal care is expected to increase satisfaction with maternal services as perceived by women (0.545, p<0.10). Conclusions: The study prioritises promoting equity in opportunities for both males and females, with access to maternal health, and educational opportunities within households. Reduced inequality within households may help minimise the extent of coercive behaviour against women. The national maternal health strategy should focus on basic health services for pregnant women, with free prenatal and postnatal check-ups for pregnant mothers to improve their perinatal healthcare services.

Climate-smart agriculture technology helps safeguard crop income from climate change-induced crop loss. Here we identify the factors determining the adoption of climate-smart agriculture and the impact of its adoption on multidimensional poverty among coastal climate-vulnerable farm households. We employ full information maximum likelihood estimation under the endogenous switching regression approach to account for counterfactual scenarios. Results indicate that the decision to adopt climate-smart agriculture is influenced by crop vulnerability, crop income, access to extension service, and training on input management. The current adopters of climate-smart agriculture experience a 41-percentage point reduction in multidimensional poverty compared to if they had not adopted this technique. Likewise, if the current non-adopters adopted climate-smart technology they could reduce poverty by 15 percentage points. Findings also claim that some specific climate-smart technologies are particularly effective in reducing poverty, providing valuable information to coastal farmers in making informed decisions about which technologies may be effective.

Purpose: Zakat, one of the fundamental pillars of Islam, holds the potential to significantly contribute to fiscal consolidation, particularly in developing nations. However, the national-level potential of Zakat often remains unexplored. This study aims to explore the potential of national-level Zakat and the opportunity to integrate it into the fiscal framework. Design/methodology/approach: This study estimates Zakat’s potential on national financial and economic components. The components include bank deposits, shares and securities, pensions (provident fund), industrial production and trade services, mining resources, Ushr on agro-crops and forestry, Ushr on livestock, Ushr on fishery, gross domestic product (GDP), national budget and national revenue. The study gathers data, ranging from FY2000 to FY2018, on national economic sectors from reliable secondary sources. The net value (NV) of each indicator is calculated as NV = TV − LA, where NV is the wage-adjusted net value after deducting the living adjustment (LA) value from the sectoral total. The proposed LA value, approximately 20%, is suggested to be deducted from the total sectoral value of each sector (excluding specific industries with preadjusted wages), equating to the Nisab value. Findings: It is estimated that the aggregate potential of Zakat in Bangladesh was US$9,749m in FY2018, compared to US$809m in FY2000, revealing the value is 3.77% of GDP and 21% of the national fiscal budget. In FY2018, the service sector was the largest contributor (30%), followed by bank deposits (23%). Pension funds made minimal contributions, whereas shares and bonds, as well as the manufacturing sector, each made a 10% contribution to the estimated Zakat potential. Zakat on agriculture output accounted for 15% of the total. The aggregate potential Zakat in FY2018 was 12% higher than that in FY2000. Originality/value: The paper highlights a novel contribution through its nuanced analysis of sector-specific Zakat on macrolevel data and its implications within the fiscal framework. The results suggest that Zakat has substantial potential to impact fiscal dynamics, providing valuable insights for policymakers and stakeholders to recognize the national-level Zakat for development plans such as the five-year plan. The study suggests piloting a central and independent national body to study the feasibility of national-level Zakat collection and its utilization in the fiscal budget. It will help the government reduce the burden of external debt and deficit budget and, instead, will promote revenue collection in collaboration with the National Board of Revenue.

Beggars have largely been leading miserable lives in the lower stratum of society since time immemorial. Government or private-led policies are rarely undertaken to improve the lives of this unfortunate societal segment. The local governments in divisional cities of Bangladesh have adopted a series of interventions aimed at improving the socioeconomic wellbeing of beggars and equipping them with alternative livelihood management options. We evaluated the effectiveness of this intervention (the rehabilitation of beggars) in the Khulna City Corporation (KCC) area, Bangladesh; we gathered a sample of 385 beggars by employing the non-equivalent group design and instrumental variable regression method. The results provide an interesting inference, showing that the rehabilitation program seemingly has no far-reaching significant impact on the socioeconomic wellbeing of the beggars. To be precise, the program provides evidence of no significant differences in earnings, expenditure, food security, or personal wellbeing between the beneficiary and the non-beneficiary group of beggars. In addition, the program fails to deter beggars from continuing to beg, as the result shows no significant association between taking part in the program and begging demotivation. Consequently, the beggars are continuing begging, which indicates a critical policy failure on the part of both government and implementation bodies. Therefore, the study implicitly recommends on-track monitoring and timely evaluation of such interventions so that immediate action can be taken beforehand to empower beggars and move them up the social ladder both socially and economically.

Aim: The study aims to investigate the implication of employment status on individuals’ mental and physical health status in Bangladesh. Method: Administering a semi-structured interview schedule, data were collected from 320 participants applying the multi-stage random sampling technique from the metropolitan area of Khulna city. An unpaired t-test was executed to observe the comparative scenario of mental health and socio-demographic conditions of different health-bearing classes. Also, logistic regression and the OLS model were executed to assess the association between employment status and physical and mental health status. BMI and Depression Anxiety Stress Scales 21 (DASS-21) were applied to measure the physical and mental health status, respectively. Results: Results revealed that employed individuals were more exposed to physical and mental health disorders compared to unemployed individuals. The employed individuals were at higher risk of being unhealthy, and suffering from back pain and sickness than the unemployed individuals. Results suggested that the employed individuals were expected to get involved more in mental health risk behavior (0.766, p Recommendations:Insurance coverage, motivational programs, change in lifestyle and workplace environment development can be initiated from both employer and government levels for better health outcomes.

Purpose: Presenteeism is the productivity loss due to working with ill health. This paper aims to develop a presenteeism scale for students (PSS) and reveals its association with the academic achievement of undergraduate (Bachelor) students.Design/methodology/approach: This is a cross-sectional study based on a reputed public university in Bangladesh. The study collected data from 164 undergraduate students by relying upon the systematic random sampling technique.Findings: Nearly 70 percent of the study population have reported some health problems, with male students reporting frustration (59.6 percent) and female students reporting migraine (61.2 percent) as the most prevalent issues. Predictors such as gender, living status, television and social media use, absenteeism, physical activity, BMI (body mass index), hygienic meal intake, exhaustion score and PSS score have significantly influenced presenteeism and reduced academic performance. As many students face multiple health issues, it is recommended that the issue of presenteeism on university campuses be addressed.Originality/value: This study breaks from the conventional approach of studying presenteeism in business settings and expands knowledge in the education domain. Additionally, it examines the interconnection of primary health conditions, work impairment score, presenteeism and academic performance.

The provision of clean water and sanitation has been one of the challenging targets of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) for developing countries like Bangladesh. The southern cities of the country confront the scarcity of fresh and improved water for drinking and sanitation. The study aims to investigate the demand for improved water service among city dwellers and the potential revenue for the water supply authority. The study surveyed 100 households in Khulna city by administering a simple random sampling method. The single-bounded dichotomous choice contingent valuation method revealed that years of schooling, household income, and excessive time in water collection positively affect willingness to pay (WTP) for improved water service. The households are willing to pay US$ 5.05 per month on average for enjoying improved water service, which in turn produces annual revenues of US$ 4.26 million, overriding the current level of revenue by 2.5 times. Additionally, the water supply authority is incurring around US$ 2.14 million of revenue loss annually which can be recovered by supplying improved water to the city households. This study suggests that the government may be able to address the fresh and improved water scarcity in the urban territory by capturing and utilizing the potential revenue efficiently through removing the structural barriers.