The chapter presents the vital role of micro credit in the empowerment of rural women. Indian women who live by the countryside generally isolate themselves within the confines of their homes and are actively involved in agricultural and related activities. Since women comprise 48.5% of the total Indian population, it becomes imperative to address the economic needs of this segment and hence this chapter is proposed. The chapter highlights the various schemes and non-governmental initiatives that help provide micro credit to rural, marginalized Indian women. These initiatives directly and indirectly make Indian rural women empowered financially, psychologically, and physically. The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) have been laid out by the United Nations because of the decades of hard work by various countries. It can be inferred by the chapter that the SDGs related to health, education, and women empowerment in rural areas can be very successfully managed by micro credit channels.
TopIntroduction
To awaken people, it is the women who must be awakened. Once she is on the move, the family moves, the village moves, the nation moves.
Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru (Gill, 2015)
Most of the women in rural areas of India live in isolated environments with very limited access to even the most basic services (Samal, 2015). They have a vital contribution in rural and agricultural domains of development, namely, crops, food security, horticulture, livestock, nutrition, fisheries and energy. According to the Census report, 2011, females comprise 48.5% of the total Indian population. Although their economic contribution is noteworthy, they have limited access to markets, economic services, education, and healthcare (Parveen and Chaudhury, 2009). In addition, they are also responsible for household chores such as cleaning, cooking, childcare, fetching water and so on as they are considered traditional duties of a rural woman (Sultana and Hasan, 2010). According to the Oxfam report,
More than 40% of the 400 million women who live in rural India, are involved in agriculture and related activities. However, as women are not recognized as farmers and do not own land, they have limited access to government schemes and credit, restricting their agricultural productivity (Rao, 2017).
Therefore, women need to obtain the power to raise their voice, to exercise informed choice and accomplish their potential as equal to men in the society. Accordingly, empowerment of women has become a subject of great concern in India (Selvaraj, 2011). Empowerment means moving from a position of enforced powerlessness to one of power. Thus, women empowerment would promote women’s inherent strength and positive image (United Nations, 1995). Empowerment of women is a crucial prerequisite for alleviation of poverty, defending human rights, and capacity building, as a base for social change (Jensen et al., 2006). However, it is often difficult to involve poor women in India in economic and social activities. According to the Government of India’s Ministry of Statistics and ProgramImplementation Report, 2017, the workforce participation rate of women in India is meagre 25.51% as compared to men which is 53.26%. For poverty reduction and economic development of any nation, it is very important to enhance participation of women in economic activities. The lack of finance, education, enterprise, and the inability to take risks are important constraints in this context. It is supported by the education and literacy data provided by the Census of India report, 2011. According to the comparative figures of literacy rates in India, 59.3% females are literate as compared to 78.8% males at the national level. In developing nations such as India, where it becomes difficult to directly involve rural women in mainstream activities, policymakers often rely on self-help groups (hereinafter-SHG) and micro credit programs. The reason for the same is to mobilize and empower women and use their collective enterprise to involve them in economic and social activities (Husain et al., 2013). Micro credit is a well-suited choice for rural women as it provides them the required economic and social skills to face challenging environments. Micro credit for women, as a popular support, consists most typically of the provision of small loans, either to individuals or groups (Leach and Sitaram, 2002) and transform idle women into a productive workforce with their proven creditworthiness (Chavan and Ramakumar, 2002). Thus, micro credit can play a key role for boosting economic growth in any developing country. It is a well-planned system of providing small loans to poor communities for income-generating activities and help them gain partial economic stability without encouraging debt (Sultana and Hasan, 2010). So, access to micro credit is one of the most important elements of empowering poor women. But, literature review reveals that very few studies have so far been concentrated on micro credit’s impact on women’s empowerment in India. Keeping these views in mind, the present chapter, is an attempt, firstly, to introduce micro credit’s origin in India and its differentiation from micro finance in functional and conceptual context. Secondly, the chapter tries to explore the impact of micro credit on women empowerment and provisions of applying micro credit loans and resources in the process of empowerment.