Empowerment Of Women Through Micro Enterprises

Women empowerment is internationally recognized as a fundamental objective in achieving progress in all the areas of development and it refers the economic stability and improving the quality of life of women. Women comprise nearly half of the national population of any country and hence, development of any country is inseparably linked with developing the status of women. In this context, women empowerment is one of the millennium development goals. Geographically men and women share the same space, but they live in different. The status of women in most countries is low and their socio-economic conditions are miserable than that of the men. The imposition of 'social norms' has suppressed females considerably in a patriarchal society. Women play a vital role in the socio economic development of a country. But both in the developed and under developed countries, women are burdened with cumulative inequalities as a result of discriminatory practices. Although women have made notable progress in the realms of life, sprawling inequalities still persist in their access to education, health care, physical and financial resources and opportunities in the political, economic, cultural and social spheres.

In India, micro finance is a movement with the underlying objective of helping poor households to have access to financial services, including credit at affordable cost. Many of those who promote micro finance believe that such access will help poor people get out of poverty. For others, micro finance is a way to promote economic development, employment, and growth through the support of micro entrepreneurs and small businesses. Women in India are typically poorer than men and have fewer options for earning a livelihood that provides adequate food, housing, and education for their children. However, they are also viewed as the change agents of the family. Women are more likely to invest their earnings into improving the lives of the families. By encouraging women to take charge of their futures, micro finance institutions can impact families and whole communities. However, the pace of women empowerment in India, through micro finance, is slow, due to a variety of constraints which urgently need to be rooted out. This book examines some of the issues that need to be addressed in order to empower the lives of India's women through micro finance.

Empowering Women Through Microfinance in Developing Countries is a book that explores how microfinance can be used to empower women in developing countries. It provides theoretical and empirical insights from industry experts, experienced researchers, and policymakers on the problems, processes, and prospects of using microfinance as a catalyst for women's empowerment in the developing world. The book covers a range of topics, including the impact of microfinance interventions on women's empowerment, financial inclusion, and women's entrepreneurship, poverty reduction among women, and small and medium-sized enterprise growth. This book addresses the lack of understanding about how microfinance can be used to empower women in developing countries. The insights provided in this book will be valuable for researchers, students, microfinance institutions, policymakers, state institutions, managers, non-governmental organizations, and financial institutions looking to expand their product portfolio and outreach. The book also provides policy directions and rethinking of practice in using microfinance as a strategy for eliminating barriers to women's empowerment in developing countries.

The African Development Bank's (AfDB) Addis Ababa Forum in June 2003 focused on the role of women entrepreneurs in private sector development, poverty reduction, and sustainable growth and development. It provided an opportunity for the AfDB and the International Labour Office (ILO) to join forces using their complementary expertise in support of women-owned businesses in Tanzania, Ethiopia and Zambia. This report is based on the country assessment for Kenya, where the ILO has been researching and supporting women's entrepreneurship. Examining such issues as the economic context, micro-finance.

This book offers a critical perspective on the issues related to women’s empowerment, microfinance, and entrepreneurship in India. Written by distinguishing experts in this field, this book highlights women’s empowerment, which is a process of entrusting power to an individual on the control over resources and decisions. However, these two factors are less effective in a society where religion and cultural dominance is high. The book sheds light on the social security measures undertaken by the government aiming to the right to work helped women who are bounded by social restrictions. Over time there is a shift in rural occupational structure towards non-farm activities, which is largely distress driven self-employment. Access to credit is a great source to provide self-employment that develops self-esteem among women and uplift their position. The book highlights the discrimination against women entrepreneurs in access to credit led to gender biased entrepreneurial society. Association with self-help groups (SHGs) has made women more socially empowered. SHG members help them to change their life in a positive manner through micro-entrepreneurial activities. The book has emphasized on the role of microfinance, which has served the poor to become financially self-reliant. It is observed that for second generation borrowers, the impact of microfinance seems to fizzle out, where MFIs who are gaining efficiency are diverting their objective of servicing poor, signalling a sign of mission drift.

Women Self-Help Groups Are Increasingly Being Used As Tool For Various Developmental Interventions. Credit And Its Delivery Through Self-Help Groups Have Also Been Taken As A Means For Empowerment Of Rural Women.This Integrated Approach, Whereby, Credit Is Only An Entry Point, And An Instrument To Operationalise Other Aspects Of Group Dynamics And Management, Also Caters To The Need For Social Intermediation Of These Groups. A Self-Help Group Is Conceived As A Sustainable People S Institution That Provides The Poor Rural Women With Space And Support Necessary For Them To Take Effective Steps Towards Achieving Greater Control Of Their Lives.It Is With This Perspective That This Book Has Been Attempted.This Work Seeks To Elucidate And Simplify The Approach To Women S Empowerment Through Credit-Based Self-Help Groups, By Both Providing The Theoretical Perspective As Well As Practical Guidance And Tips To Operationalise The Same. This Book Is Meant Primarily As A First Level Reader For Middle Level Functionaries In The Development Sector.

Micro-credit has been taken as a prominent tool for poverty alleviation and women's empowerment. This book has presented the double-edged claim of microcredit proponents that microcredit not only supports rural poor to come out of poverty, it also empowers poor rural women in particular. This book is mainly grounded on research based on Bandipur Rural Municipality of Nepal. It has made the study of women from 3 settlements of Bandipur, who had availed microcredit facilities from some microcredit providing institutions or organizations in Bandipur. The data has been analyzed through qualitative data analysis under which both descriptive and explanatory methods. The data analysis is made on the basis of caste/ethnic group. The results showed that most of the females who availed the facility of microcredit finally got socioeconomic empowerment through acquiring the access to capital, control over resources, self-esteem, confidence level, decision making power, etc. Results are varied on Dalit, Janajati and Brahmin/Chhetri women. The findings showed that microcredit has significant impact on the upliftment of socio-economic empowerment of the borrowers of Bandipur. The income pattern of the respondent women has been changed. Daily wage earning and agricultural production were the main source of income before joining the program but after joining the microcredit program the sources of income shifted to small scale business, sale of livestock product and agricultural product. Entrepreneurship in microcredit beneficiary women has been increased. Apart from the changing income pattern, role of women in decision making about the resources mobilization for household activities, participation in societal affairs has also been increased. The economic dependency had restricted women in decision making power in all the spheres not only economical but also in other family and social affairs. But it has been changed now. Since, women are capable to generate regular income from their small enterprises; their dependency on male for money is reduced. Women's confidence and social status has increased after involvement in MC programs. Microcredit, though an effective poverty alleviating instrument, is not suitable for all categories of the poor. For those trapped in chronic poverty, no assets base to protect themselves from the countless webs of shocks, microcredit can be ineffective and sometimes counterproductive. Some cases of Dalit settlement have proved it.

Rural Women's Road to Empowerment provides original research on poor, rural women micro-entrepreneurs, whose achievement-motivation has been rigorously measured. This pioneering study establishes a clear relationship between presence/absence of achievement-motivation and the success/failure of these women in sustaining their enterprises. Authors Kiron Wadhera and George Koreth also describe in detail a replicable and scalable "cash-less" material loan model developed by the NGO Asian Centre for Organisation Research and Development (ACORD) for rural women micro-entrepreneurs, which can be used effectively to solve some of the problems related to rural backwardness.

This study was aimed to examine the role of micro-enterprises in gaining economic empowerment of women in three districts of Azad Jammu & Kashmir. The sample taken for this study is comprised of 114 women micro entrepreneurs from two services sectors belonging to three districts of Azad Kashmir. Quantitative research methodology was used. Data were collected through a five point likert scale questionnaire. In this study micro-enterprise was taken as independent variable while two components of economic empowerment namely skill up gradation through training and business related matters were taken as dependent's variables. Descriptive statistic (mean and standard deviation) were used for data analysis. The result of this study revealed that micro-enterprise have empowered the women economically as they are more empowered after improving their skills and also empowered in managing business related matters.