We have started a long term project to analyse the role played by bars in bulge formation and the formation and evolution of bars from the point of view of their star formation histories and stellar populations. To this aim, we have obtained high S/N long slit spectra of 22 barred galaxies ranging in morphological types between S0 to Sb galaxies. We have obtained Lick/IDS indices along the bar for all the sample galaxies. In this talk, I will present the results obtained for the age and metallicity distribution in the bar region and some results from the comparison between the bulges of barred and unbarred galaxies of otherwise similar galaxies. I will discuss some implications of these observational result in constraining the different scenarios of bar and bulge formation.