Microfinance: The Challenges and Opportunities in Rural India

Abstract

Women are essential part of the society. A key concern in developing countries is the empowerment of women. The role of women in economic activities and decision making is very low. Micro-financial schemes play a vital role in increasing women’s participation in economic activities and decision making. In this research paper, an effort is made to investigate various causes of women empowerment especially through micro-financial schemes. Micro-finance or micro-credit, both used interchangeably, is an important tool for the growth of the economy of our country. There has been enormous growth of organizations, known as Micro-finance Institutions (MFIs) in this field to deal with the micro-financial activities. The present paper focuses on the challenges and opportunities of micro-finance activities in rural areas of our country. The motto of this paper is also to test the role of micro-finance in the empowerment of downtrodden people especially women and the realization of financial inclusion in rural India. With increasing demand for rural finance, and the shortages of formal sources, the MFIs have tremendous challenges and opportunities in micro-finance in India. Some suggestions are given how MFIs should be administered with better exploration in terms of finance and technology as well as social responsibility.

Keywords: Empowerment, Micro-finance, Financial inclusion

JEL Classification: A13, F30