Empowerment of women through participation - a case study of microfinance program

Empowerment is a multi-faceted and multi-dimensional concept. Women empowerment is a process in which women gain greater share of control over resources whether it is material, intellectual or financial. Women in general and India in particular lack ownership of productive assets which hinder their independence. Self-help groups intermediated by microcredit have been shown to have positive effects on women, with some of these impacts being ripple effects. They have played valuable roles in reducing the vulnerability of the poor, through asset creation, income and consumption smoothing, provision of emergency assistance, and empowering and emboldening women by giving them control over assets and increased self-esteem and knowledge. The present study is a modest attempt to gain meaningful insights into the impact of microfinance program on women empowerment in two different agro-ecological settings in India by using primary survey data. Three components namely autonomy, economic empowerment and gender empowerment were aggregated to compute the composite index of women empowerment. Thereafter, applying regression technique it is found that microfinance participation has a positive and significant impact on women empowerment.