Empowering women through micro-finance: A study of self-help groups operating in Northern Punjab

Empowerment of women is the core issue to bring about transformation in any society. Women are the backbone of society and on advancement of women stands the progress of country in inclusive terms. The concept of empowerment can be perceived in many ways viz; economic empowerment, social empowerment, political empowerment and so on. But most crucial of all is the empowerment of women in their families which would altogether determine their empowerment at the next higher levels such as community, society and country at large. Empowerment of women has direct linkages to their earning capacity or economic status in the family. Microfinance through its group lending approach targets mostly women and ensure them a suitable employment activity matching their skill set. Microfinance clients worldwide have achieved increase in dignity, self- worth and witnessed improvement in their psychological and economic status. This is an exploratory study aimed at analyzing the role of microfinance in empowering women at the family level working particularly in rural non-farm sector. Various indicators have been used to assess the level and extent of empowerment such as increase in confidence at family level after becoming member of Self-Help Group, improvement in decision making capacity and the degree of decision making, freedom in spending income, share of income spend on children and household, independence to purchase and ownership of assets, dominance of husband on income and loan borrowed. The study explicates that microfinance has proved to be a boon in empowering SHG women at family level in Punjab heralding inclusive growth paradigm. The study also indicates substantial grounds and concerns for empowerment of women through self- help groups in Punjab.