Impact of Microfinance on Women Empowerment: An Empirical Evidence from Andhra Pradesh

Abstract

This paper makes an attempt to evaluate the effectiveness of microfinance on empowerment of women. A crosssectional research on 215 women in the State of Andhra Pradesh, India through a structured questionnaire was conducted. Population of study is women who are associated with Self Help Groups (SHG’s). These women are married and have at least one child. Exploratory factor analysis is used to study the indicators of women empowerment. Results reveal that indicators of women empowerment are household economic decision making, legal awareness, mobility, economic security and family decision making. Five hypotheses are developed to evaluate the effectiveness of microfinance on empowerment of women for mentioned five indicators. Paired samples t test is used to know the difference in women’s perception before joining microfinance program and after joining microfinance program. The findings of this study reveal that microfinance is a powerful tool in enhancing women empowerment for its all indicators like household economic decision making, legal awareness, mobility, economic security and family decision making.