Purpose -This paper describes a scheme which aims to alleviate rural poverty by providing small and microinvestment to the agricultural and rural sector for generating employment and to raise the income of the rural poor. Design/methodology/approach -To assess the impact of rural development schemes on rural poor's livelihood, primary data were collected from 1,020 clients working across the country. Multistage random sampling method was followed to select the clients. Tabular, graphical, and econometrical methods were followed to analyze the data. Findings -Results show that household income, productivity of crops and livestock, expenditure, and employment had increased significantly due to the influence of invested money. Results of the Logit-model showed that clients' socio-economic factors like age, number of family members in farming, total land size and clients' ethics and morals had a positive and significant influence on household income. Practical implications -Client's opined that the microinvestment program had provided them with the opportunity to perform their economic activities in a more organized way, leading them to the higher quality of life and also develops their awareness towards health care, proper sanitation, and drinking safe water. Originality/value -The paper recommends the replication of this program in other rural areas of the country with the increment of investment size, demand-led effective training on different income generating activities and monitoring on more shariah compliance of the investment mode.
Bangladesh launched a shari’ah based micro-finance programme in 1995 under the Rural Development Scheme to uplift the overall socioeconomic standards of rural poor. It covered 0.52 million group members, 94% of whom are females. This paper presents findings on this experiment using 1,020 responses in a sample survey. Result showed that a significant of clients have improved their religious observations such as prayers and fasting. Results of the econometric models showed that household income, productivity of crops and livestock, expenditure and employment increased significantly due to the influence of changed behaviour and availability of micro-finance. Clients stated that the micro-investment had provided better organisation of their economic activities. Finally, the Islamic micro-investment programme appears to spur more ethical and economically desirable behaviour leading to poverty alleviation.
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