Microfinance Industry out of Macro Mess-Analysing its impact on Women Empowerment

Abstract

Micro Finance Institutions (MF/s) are uniquely positioned in reaching our to the very poor and hence play an important role in facilitating inclusion. Ir is mostly the poor people who do nor gain access to credit from banks as they fail to convey that they can repay their loan promptly. Our of nearly six lakh villages in India only ten percentage of the villages have access to finance, thereby making India a country with highest number of households being excluded from banking arena. The recently launched campaign of Jan Ohan Yojana has been initiated with a target to provide universal and clear access to banking facilities. Many MF/s have been developed and have been working to11,·ards resolving the credit access issue of the poor. Women's empowerment is regarded as a process in which the existing culture and rules are challenged by women, in order to effectively improve their welfare. For analyzing the impact of MF/ on the empowerment of its members, an empowem1enr survey was administered to 373 members of MF/s and data was collected from 102 non-members in I I districts of Karnataka. Z test and correlation analysis have been employed to test the hypothesis and in all the 6 dimension.1· of empowerment ( Decision-making, Cognitive, Goal Clarity, Economic independency, Mobility and Social Status and Self Esteem) average of MF/ members is higher than Non Members of MF/. This clearly indicates that the MF/ services enhance the empowerment of members when compared with non members.