Economic Empowerment of Women through Micro Finance Institutions - An Inclusive Growth

Abstract

Microfinance has come to play a major role in many gender and development strategies because of its direct relationship to both poverty alleviation and to the empowerment of women. Women are the most crucial elements of the social fabric and are playing a pivotal role in the socio economic scenario in India. Micro finance programs among the SHGs in India have been promoted for their positive economic impact and the belief that they empower women. Micro finance programs among the JLGs in India have been promoted for their positive economic impact and the belief that they empower women and also improve repayment to MFI. The survey was conducted on around 300 respondents from various JLGs of Maharashtra and the analysis was done to study the economic empowerment of women through micro finance institutions. One way ANNOVA test was used to find the significant relation. It was found that micro finance enhanced the savings of women, which helped them to meet urgent family needs and many of the respondents indicated that they had joined the micro finance groups to save money. Microfinance resulted in improving decision making ability of women in family related matters.

Keywords- Self help Group, Economic Development, Empowerment, Microfinance Institutions, Repayment,