Asian Journal of Research in Social Sciences and Humanities

We often forget the fact that men's power is not men's power alone it is women too. Mostly women power is neglected and the development becomes one side and lop-sided. Here the development thinkers understand the significance of women empowerment as the basis of sustainable development of our nation. The term “Development” not only means economic development but also the upward movement of the entire social system. Micro finance is an effective method to cure the financial illness of rural people and gained concepts of self-reliance, self-sufficiency and self-help as its core. Common men understand microfinance as a system providing to very poor families with very small loans (microcredit) to help them engage in productive activities or grow their tiny businesses. But, microfinance has come to include a broader range of services like credit, savings, insurance, etc. Microfinance clients are poor and vulnerable non-poor who have a relatively stable source of income. The main problems faced by Indian women entrepreneurs are lack of adequate finances, technical knowhow, non-availability of new material, inadequate marketing facilities, lack of technical and managerial skills etc. In this study the researcher focuses to the development of women in rural area and how micro finance and micro credits helped to it. An investigation for getting the required data, the researcher takes the aspects like social and economic status of women, decision making capacity of women, the problems, challenges and suggestions for the better functioning of the micro finance programme. Rural women are facing a lot of social as well as economic problems like lack of sufficient income and adequate standard of living. For the upliftment of rural poor especially rural women government and many NGO's developed special programmes. Functioning of Sandhya Development Society in central Kerala in this area is noteworthy. Sandhya Development Society's microfinance division VICIB is very much active in the development of rural population especially rural women. In a district like Idukki VICIB plays an important role in the overall development of rural women. This study helps us in understanding the role of VICIB in making rural women financially independent and self-reliant.