Abstract

Microcredit and poverty alleviation have become the two sides of a coin as the role of microcredit on poverty alleviation is well accepted in the arena of economic development. This study is an attempt to analyse the impact of microcredit on poverty alleviation in the rural areas namely Hathazari, Mirsharai and Sitakunda upazilla (sub-units of district ) of Chittagong district, Bangladesh. A cross sectional survey was conducted on the rural part of these three upazillas. Data have been collected through a well-structured questionnaire from 100 microcredit-recipients/borrowers of Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee (BRAC) and Association for Social Advancement (ASA) - two giant microcredit providers in Bangladesh and from 50 non-borrowers of the study areas. Respondents were selected randomly. Tabular method was used to describe the data. Hypothetically, the outcomes were found significant resulted from chi-square test (X ² -test) and ANOVA (Analysis of Variance) without an exception for clothing expenditure. The study revealed that microcredit disbursed through BRAC and ASA, plays a dynamic role to reduce poverty in the study areas by income generating activities of the poor women borrowers and by improving their living standard. It is found from the study that microcredit has  positive impact on income, expenditure, condition of dwelling house, education, health and decision making ability of the poor women borrowers who spent at least five years in BRAC and ASA comparing to the non-borrowers.

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