Impact of Microfinance on the Rural Households: Empirical Evidence From a Coastal District of Orissa

Abstract

An empirical study was conducted to understand the impact of microfinance interventions on change in income, asset position, and consumption pattern of the rural households. Under the study, an attempt was made to understand the inequality of income distribution among the microfinance clients by employing statistical model. Also the pattern of income distribution after the microfinance intervention among the households was compared with that of before the microfinance intervention. The study revealed that there was an increase in income and consumption pattern among the rural households due to microfinance programmes. Also the study found out that the income among the rural households after the microfinance programmes was much fairly distributed, and the Lorenz Curve was much nearer after the microfinance programmes than that of before microfinance programmes.