Impact of Micro-Finance with Special Reference to Socio-Cultural & Interpersonal Empowerment of Women: An Empirical Analysis in Gandhinagar Region

Abstract

Rationale - Globalization is having two sides like a coin, which gives enormous benefits but also brings in evils of competition which is having questions on the sustainability of the existing organizations. Micro-finance institutions are required to meet double bottom lines, maintaining a balance amongst access, impact and sustainability. The purpose of the empirical study is to gauge the impact of micro-finance on the empowerment of women, so as to check whether micro-finance justifies main objective of offering such a facility. Objectives - The main objectives include understanding the different benefits of micro-finance services, demographics of women who have availed micro-finance and accordingly determining the features which enable a better understanding of the processes of self-help groups (SHGs) and testing whether becoming a part of SHG has empowered women in the context of freedom to take important decisions which can be considered as socio-cultural and interpersonal empowerment. Design/methodology/approach - The data is collected using a self administered questionnaire. The sample size for the study is 56 respondents. SPSS 20 and MS Excel packages have been used for analysis. Descriptive statistics and nonparametric tests like Fisher and Wilcoxon tests have been used for determining the findings.Findings - The study suggests that micro-finance facilities benefit the women in the context of interpersonal and socio-cultural factors. The study also indicates that educated women and mature members of SHG understand the process of SHG quickly and easily. Also women feel empowered in terms of taking decisions related to money matters after availing micro-finance services. Research Limitations/implications - A key limitation of this study is the sampling frame and size. Also the study focuses only on socio-cultural and interpersonal dimensions of empowerment. Future studies should replicate this study in different contexts.