Title: Impact of microfinance institutions on women empowerment - a qualitative study in the Indian context

Authors: Richa Das

Addresses: Atria Centre for Management and Entrepreneurship, Atria Institute of Technology, Bangalore, 560064, India

Abstract: Feminisation of poverty can be attributed to lack of economic opportunities and access to economic resources like credit for the women. An important part of development is empowering women economically and microfinance institutions are rising as an important measure for the same. The present study tries to examine the impact of MFIs on women empowerment. Semi-structured depth interviews were conducted to collect data. Data analysis is done using grounded theory method. The study findings suggest that access to credit have significant impact on five different aspects of women's empowerment. The study highlights MFI has a positive impact on employment generating activating, income, savings and living standard. MFI guided an improvement in decision making, self-confidence, social attitude and political participation among women borrowers.

Keywords: women empowerment; microfinance institutions; grounded theory method; poverty.

DOI: 10.1504/IJBG.2021.117405

International Journal of Business and Globalisation, 2021 Vol.29 No.1, pp.61 - 79

Received: 07 Jun 2018
Accepted: 02 Apr 2019

Published online: 06 Sep 2021 *

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