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Microcredit has become a key instrument to the path of women empowerment in Bangladesh and has been replicated in many parts of the globe. However, the credit-based model does not go beyond the academic debates. Many scholars have argued that microcredit has brought substantial changes to the pathway of women empowerment. Challenging this view, others scholars have claimed that microcredit has no significant effect on empowerment of women rather very often it causes harm to poor women. This paper assumes that the existing literatures have lack in finding the concrete impact of microcredit due to the perception of empowerment from a narrower view. Thus, this study defines empowerment from a broader perspective considering the different levels of empowerment and assesses the impact of microcredit on these levels based on empirical evidences from Bangladesh. This paper reveals that microcredit has very minimal effect on empowerment due to its overemphasis on income and economic empowerment. This paper concludes that microcredit alone often cannot bring desired changes to the lives of women in a patriarchal society unless further interventions are made at their social, cultural, perceptual and psychological levels.

Purpose
Bangladesh is facing an alarming situation with the drinking water in its most areas, as groundwater used for drinking has been contaminated with naturally occurring inorganic arsenic. Many entrepreneurs along with the government are trying to cope up with this problem. SONO filter is one of them that is based on the social innovation concept. Social innovation is defined as innovative products/services motivated by the goal of meeting a social need, with the opportunity to create new social collaborations. This paper aims to examine the concepts of social innovation, which advocates enhancing values to society and the social benefit to all the stakeholders.


Design/methodology/approach
This is an exploratory study and presents the evolution, the development of the social business model and its implementation. Abul Hussam initiated the social business concept through SONO filter that is commercialized through the Manob Sakti Unnayan Kendro. The study has been conducted entirely on the basis of documentary information and data available in the public domain.


Findings
The findings show a hopeful contribution toward enhancing social benefits to society especially in arsenic-affected areas. SONO filter helps to mitigate the water-borne diseases and make people clean and safe, as well as healthy, by providing pure drinking water. Even by drinking pure water, people with arsenic-related diseases are getting better day by day through this social initiative.


Originality/value
Business based on social innovation is a new and really a good working concept. It has faced many hurdles in its journey to meet social objectives. Many researchers, entrepreneurs, non-profit organizations, national planners and society leaders will surely be benefited by its solution.