Assistant Professor,
Women's condition continues to remain a matter of serious concern inspite of their significant contribution to the wellbeing of their families. The key to their exploitation is primarily attributed to discriminatory power structure of the society, normative social structureanddependency ontheirmalecounterpartsforfulfilment of necessities. Women remain exploited, ill-treated and denied of human space at par with men. The important contribution they make to household maintenance and family wellbeing is considered just as an extension of household domain, and is deliberately overlooked and undervalued. Besides, enactment of several laws to address women's concerns, various developmental initiatives have been in vogue to create space with opportunities that may enable them to develop and grow on their own with some motivational support made available to them from outside by the existing institutions. Microcredit through Self Help Group (SHG)isanimportantmechanismtoprovide financialservicestothe ‘Unreached Poor”, especially the women to initiate activities on their own for their development which leads to empowerment. They lead a life with full freedom and dignity. The impact of microcredit in women's empowerment is a positive change in the socio-economic and political lives of the rural women.
