(This is a report on study titled Situation of SIDR Affected Rural Women Entrepreneurs in Bangladesh, which was conducted by me in the coastal areas of Bangladesh. This is my first post. I would appreciate if other blger provide me their valuable feedback, thanks......)

The study applied both qualitative and quantitative methods to collect information, which includes FGDs, informal discussion, transaction walks, and questionnaire survey. Data were analyzed using computer based statistical software namely SPSS, MS Excel, etc.
• Among the SIDR affected women entrepreneurs interviewed under this study, most of them belong to the age bracket of 30-49 years (62%). Only 16% of the respondents belong to the age group of 50 and above years. The minimum and maximum age in the sample found to be 18 and 65 years respectively. 95% of the respondents were found to be married and 89% of the total respondents are living in a nuclear family. About 68% of the households have 4-6 members in the family. The average size of the household for the respondents was found to be 4.6.
• In the total sample, 34% of the SIDR-affected women entrepreneurs have no formal education. Another 39.3% have only primary level of education.
• Before SIDR, 93% of the women entrepreneurs interviewed were mainly involved in cow rearing, producing and selling milk, and poultry. As a result of devastating SIDR, over the night, most of them (91%) became day laborers. The opportunity of being involved as day laborer is not regular.
• It is clear from the data that SIDR has decreased the employment opportunity, increased unemployment rate. It also increased the number of economically dependant people in the household.
• It is evident from the comparative feature that 75% of the households of women entrepreneurs interviewed have lost their all livestock and poultry during SIDR, which were previously used by them for income generation and livelihood. The arithmetic mean for estimated value of lost assets was calculated as BDT 21984. The median value for estimated cost of lost assets were found to be BDT 16250, which indicates that about 50% of the householders under this baseline survey lost minimum BDT 16250.
• It is also observed that the SIDR has decreased income and savings level of the women entrepreneurs at a significant level.
• SIDR-affected rural women entrepreneurs also lack the required capacity for business management. They do not have required skills in and knowledge of livestock and poultry management.
• Considering the situation of SIDR-Affected rural women entrepreneurs, it is very important to run a long term rehabilitation program so that women in the coastal areas can restart their entrepreneurial activities. It is also observed that SIDR affected rural women entrepreneurs need both software service like training, counseling, etc and hardware service like starter capital, vaccination, feeding for livestock and poultry etc. for their rehabilitation.