Micro Credit: The Empowerment of Women

Abstract

All Micro-credit institutions of Bangladesh claim that they bring the poor women from dead end situation to a promising position by providing a very small size of loan, which is given in cash. This paper attempts to critically examine the impacts of micro credit program of micro credit institution on the empowerment of the rural poor women. In this study some major indicators of women empowerment have been specified so as to make a judgment whether or not micro credit institution could actually reach the poor women. The details of the impact analysis in this sphere have been made by using both the qualitative and quantitative tools on the basis of secondary data. The estimates show hardly any significant relationship between micro credit institute operations and a strong position of the rural women in question.

However the gloomy findings of this paper are expected to create awareness of the policy makers about the long run impact of micro credit programs of micro credit institution and followers on the rural poor women.