Impact of Microfinance: Does Economic Well-Being leads to Economic Empowerment

Lack of access to financial services is one of the main reasons accounted for the poverty of households. Microfinance program has emerged as a poverty eradication tool that mainly target rural woman. Initiated by a social entrepreneur Muhammad Yunus in Bangladesh, microfinance program has gained popularity across the developing countries as an effective tool to overcome the rural poverty. Under this program, collateral-free loan is provided to rural population with no or little access to finance by commercial banks. In India, microfinance services are mainly provided by Self-Help Groups (SHGs) where members have access to microfinance services for various purposes. Members of SHGs benefit from the microfinance program and are able to overcome the problem of poverty. The present paper attempts to study the impact of microfinance program through SHGs on economic well-being and to find conclusive evidence if economic well-being also leads to economic empowerment of rural woman in Delhi. It is found from the sample of 500 SHG members that microfinance program through SHG leads to economic well-being, but there is no statistical evidence that economic well-being leads to economic empowerment of Woman.