Impact of Microfinance on Economic, Social, Political and Psychological Empowerment: Evidence from Women's Self-help Groups in Kashmir Valley, India

The present study attempts to examine the impact of microfinance on certain dimensions of women empowerment, namely economic, social, political and psychological. Quasi-experimental design comprising of control group (180) and treatment group (190) has been employed to assess the impact of microfinance on women empowerment. The findings revealed positively significant but moderate level of impact of microfinance on economic, political and psychological dimensions of women empowerment and only smaller overall impact on social empowerment. In addition, case studies further supported microfinance programme has substantially empowered women in terms of economic, political, social and psychological dimensions. More importantly, ambiguity over social empowerment was cleared.