A STUDY ON WOMEN EMPOWERMENT THROUGH

MICROFINANCE ENTERPRISES

HARITHA.H under the guidance of Dr.J.SANKARI

In India, the emergence of liberalization and globalization in early

1990’s aggravated the problem of women workers in unorganized sectors from
bad to worse as most of the women who were engaged in various self-
employment activities have lost their livelihood. The role of micro enterprises in
rural development and women empowerment is widely recognized the world
over, particularly in developing nations like India. Micro enterprises play a
vital role in poverty alleviation and socio-economic development of the
poor, and help to bring about equitable and balanced economic development
with relatively low amount of capital investment. Through their contribution to
women’s ability to earn an income, these programmes have potential to initiate
a series of ‘virtuous spirals’ of economic empowerment, and wider social and
political empowerment. The focus of this paper concerns a study on women
empowerment through microfinance enterprises.

The specific objective of the study was to assess the role of micro
enterprises in empowerment of women in terms of economic, social and
psychological spheres and to identify the problems that women face in
accessing microfinance enterprises. The study also helps to suggest effective
measures for the promotion of improvement of women enterprises.

For this purpose, 75 respondents were selected and obtained various responses
through adopting questionnaire method. Through convenient sampling method
50 completed samples were taken for the study. SPSS and EXCEL were used to
analyse the collected data. The statistical tools used for analysing the data were
percentage analysis, descriptive analysis, chi-square test and correlation.
It was inferred from the study that most of the respondents belong to the age
above 35 and married. The study revealed the most of the respondents were
satisfied with the improvement in participation and communication skills and
increase in standard of living. From the study on empowerment in terms of
economic, social and psychological spheres it is found that women are highly
satisfied in economic development and social identity in the society. On the
other hand, it was found that women are less satisfied with the interest rates and
awareness on financial services. It was further found that there was a close
association between occupation and empowerment of women in terms of
economic, social and psychological spheres. It was also found that the source of
loans have no significant relationship with the measures for the improvement of
women enterprises.

Some suggestions were given by the women respondents to further improve the
amount of loan, eradication of illiteracy towards women empowerment, proper
and timely guidelines to the women according to their needs by microfinance
enterprises, and to provide vocational training and life skills to lead an
economically productive life. The government should make efforts to enable
women to become economically empowered. Thus the study concludes that the
microfinance is a necessary tool for the welfare and empowerment of women.