Phone ladies - change agents to shape the bottom of the pyramid: experience of Bangladesh

"If we stop thinking of the poor as victims of as a burden and start recognizing them as resilient and creative entrepreneurs and value -conscious consumers, a whole new world of opportunity will open up"(Prahalad, 2005). 'Village phone' is such a weapon of social revolution in rural Bangladesh that fights against poverty by facilitating entrepreneurship , reducing transaction costs, and substituting for slow, unreliable transport and postal systems. It is a tool to empower the nation's rural women with earnings, information, dignity and status. The women are now acting as change agents in rural Bangladesh by serving the community as an umbrella of information to solve all the problems at the robust pace. This paper seeks to determine the factors that are influencing the growth of village phone in Bangladesh. Our findings suggest the role of personal characteristics and social factors as crucial determinants for playing the role of change agents in the society.