ZCZC
BSS-38
WOMEN-VIOLENCE-REDUCED
Cash transfer, behavior change reduce 26 pc gender violence: Study
DHAKA, Nov 04, 2018 (BSS)- Direct cash transfers coupled with behaviour
change communication can reduce violence against women inflicted by their
partners by 26 percent, a study has revealed.
“Our study in Bangladesh found that the combination of transfers and
behavior change communication led to women experiencing less violence from
their partners…. but transfers alone did not have this effect,” said the
study conducted by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI)
and Cornell University.
The IFPRI (Researchers of the International Food Policy Research Institute)
and Cornell University conducted the study in Bangladesh titled “Transfers,
behavior change communication, and intimate partner violence: Post-programme
evidence from rural Bangladesh”.
“The study results suggest that adding behavior change communication, which
we found economically and socially empowered women more than transfers alone,
was necessary to sustain the reductions in violence. Given that the behavior
change communication was focused on child nutrition, not violence or gender,
we think a key function it played was to bring women together and increase
their social status,” said Shalini Roy, an IFPRI research fellow.
The reductions in violence were found 6-10 months after the intervention
ended, providing the first evidence that such benefits can be sustained after
cash transfers and related programming cease, the study said.
Researchers’ analysis suggests that, in cultural contexts like rural
Bangladesh, partner violence may be curbed by giving mothers cash as well as
behaviour change communication to further empower them.
The study draws on the Transfer Modality Research Initiative (TMRI), a
pilot safety net program in rural Bangladesh implemented from 2012 to 2014.
TMRI’s primary aim was not to change gender dynamics, but to improve
household food security and child nutrition. To assess its effectiveness, the
World Food Program in collaboration with IFPRI conducted an impact evaluation
of the program.
The study examines how providing cash or food transfers to very poor women
in Bangladesh – with or without intensive nutrition behavior change
communication – affected Intimate Partner Violence (IPV).
BSS/PR/PSB/TA/KU/1917 HRS