Department of Rural Development, Xavier Institute of Social Service (XISS), Post Box No. 7, Purulia Road, Ranchi, Jharkhand, India - 834 001, Website: www.xiss.ac.in.
The present study is empirical in nature and it was carried out to assess the impact of group based microfinance on income, assets positions, savings, employment, literacy and migration of the household. A quasi-experimental design was made under which by randomisation, target and control groups were sampled from the population. The target group was compared with the control group across various variables and the mean differences were found out. This result was validated by the statistical test for significance, and the statistical results were again validated by the econometric models. The test of significance between means of target group and control group was tested through paired t-test. Models like OLS, logistic regression and probit regression were employed to measure the impact of the group based microfinance intervention. “Household” was taken as the unit of analysis. The study concluded that the group based microfinance impacted the client household positively in the increase of income, assets position, savings, and literacy and in the reduction of migration.
