Micro Finance and Rural Women Empowerment: A Case Study

Women empowerment is a process of awareness and capacity building leading to participation, to greater decision-making power and control and to transformative action. A study was undertaken on different aspects of rural women empowerment i.e. educational, economic, personal, social and psychological empowerment. The study was conducted to know the empowerment among rural women through CBIGA [Community Based Income Generating Activity - A kind of micro financings] which has been provided by Informal Women Education Centre, Banasthali Vidyapeeth in Tonk district of Rajasthan state in India. 12 rural women from different villages of selected district formed the target group/case for the study. The design used in the study was the Multiple Case Study Design for the purpose of exploring the phenomenon under study through the use of a replication strategy. A semi structured interview and observation were used to collect the information and required data through personal interview with these rural women and supervisor. The data was analyzed by using qualitative data analysis techniques. The findings of the study concluded that high empowerment of beneficiary rural women could take place in personal, educational, economic, social and psychological walk of life through micro financing or CBIGA.
CBIGA - Community Based Income Generating Activities