Women empowerment is a widely acknowledged goal in health and development internationally.  This was made evident in the International Conference on Population and Development held in Cairo in 1994 and the Women’s 1995 Beijing Fourth World Conference, both which underscored the need to empower a woman if any country is to shape the outcomes of health and demographic processes.

Bangladesh is a country in East Asia which has a high population growth which poses a challenge for the economic growth of the country.  Bangladesh is one of the most densely populated countries with about 1280 per km square and reached 167.9 million people by 2018. For the past four decades, the government has worked to address the issue of population growth by empowering its women. One of the approaches that the government uses is through education.  For the past two decades, enrollment in schools has increased to 98% and 54% in primary and secondary schools respectively. This is a great achievement since the older generation is mostly illiterate and only 4% of the population has more than secondary education.  Banks have also helped to fund the education sector by providing loans to the government to enable the government to support learning.

Also, there is a training program for Imams who are trained in dispensing of reproductive health to their congregation and society. For the tertiary education, the students face challenges of inadequate teaching-learning facilities, lack of qualified teachers and lack of enough classrooms. To counter the problems, the Government of Bangladesh is working with the World Bank which will fund the $310 million College Education Development Project which was approved in June 2016. Thirdly, the rural folks are taught the importance of reproductive health and having a manageable family.

Through these strategies, the fertility rate has dropped from 6.3 to 2.3 births, and the rate of contraceptive use has increased to 62.5% from 7% in the 1970s. According to, a study has revealed that educated women in Bangladesh want smaller families and also they have taken advantage of the family planning services. Education levels mean that women are delaying in getting into early marriages and therefore population is reducing significantly. Education will also pave the way for economic empowerment and better living standards. In Bangladesh, education is proving to be a better contraceptive.