Abstract
In Nepal, the lowest group in the Hindu caste system has been termed as Dalit. The Dalit women are a marginalized ground and continue to face caste and gender discrimination in society. In such circumstances, the Dalit women have started microfinance (MF) which have been effective in improving their income by starting businesses with small loans. The concept of social capital (SC), which is defined as trustworthiness, the norms and networks that enable people to act collectively, is getting more important in social development programs. The objective of this chapter is to verify the effectiveness of SC with specific reference to the MF programs practiced by Dalit women’s groups and investigate their relationships with Governmental Organizations and Non-Governmental Organizations (NGO’s). This paper is based on field surveys including interviews conducted with Dalit women in Nepal from 2009 to 2018. The study concludes that the MF program and SC have synergistic effects, as a result of empowering such as awareness building, capacity building, and decision making on women’s group of the Dalits. It also found that NGOs have played an important role since they connect women’s groups and Nepalese geographic regions to the market economy and international networks. The empirical findings suggest that building SC through MF promotes sustainable development.
Published Version
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