This document reports on the role of microfinance in empowering women's status. It discusses how microfinance provides small loans and other financial services to poor households and microenterprises, allowing people to start or expand businesses. While microfinance has helped provide women access to loans and savings, it still faces challenges. Women sometimes do not feel empowered to control the loans independently or benefit economically due to traditional gender norms. The conclusion states that microfinance has helped reduce dependence on money lenders but improving women's economic status requires them to independently utilize the loans received.

1. REPORT
ON
ROLE OF MICRO FINANCE
IN
UPLIFTING WOMEN STATUS
By: Rekha Bisht
MB11A23

2. MICROFINANCE
Microfinance is emerging as a powerful tool, reaching out to
poor household who have yet to be reached by formal
finance sector.
Microfinance is an effective intervention for poverty
alleviation in early seventies for developing countries. The
great visionary and Nobel Prize winner Prof. Md. Yunus has
conceptualized this intervention to eradicate poverty.

3. CONTI……
" Microfinance refers to
small scale financial services such as micro‐saving, micro
credit and micro‐insurance to the people who operate micro
enterprises which generate income and allowing them to
meet financial needs and emergency. These short term loans
are enough to start or expand business,weaving
baskets, raising chicken or buying wholesale product to sell in
the market.

4. CONTI….
During the year 2007-2008, the idea has been presented
under two models of microfinance involving credit linkage
with bank.
1) SHG-BANK LINKAGE MODEL
2) MFI BANK LINKAGE MODEL

5. MICROFINANCE AND WOMEN
ENTREPRENEURSHIP
The microfinance industry has given more attention to the
women's need for saving services and other finance services.
Studies from all part of world have found that increasing self
esteem of women is among good consequence of
microfinance. This has not only increased their self‐esteem of
confidence but also their status at home. Indian women
clients of Rashtriya Seva Samiti (RASS) found that their
contribution helped them in earning greater respect from
family.

6. CHALLENGES TO WOMEN
• Reduction in the women's household decisions.
• More workload may lead to poor health, exhaustion and
overwork.
• The problem of male influence is one of the most difficult
challenge related working with women as microfinance clients.
• It has been observed that after disbursement of loan women
does not know how to use it.

7. FINDINGS
While going through the details of microfinance in the world
especially for poor women I found following facts:
• Although SHG’s and MFI’s have provided helping hands but still
they are not able to help themselves
• Womens are not able to manage the funds or the simply think they
cant do it hence they transfer the funds to their dad/husband or
any other male relative.
• Due to above reason the motive of uplifting women’s status is not
being solved.
• In many areas even if the women’s are interested in improving
themselves they are not able to do so because at many places
women's are getting less loan as compared to male gender at the
same position.

8. CONCLUSION
It is concluded that microfinance has proved it to successful
in empowerment of women reducing dependency on
money lenders, easy access to credit to their members and
savings and moderate economic benefits. There has been
tremendous growth in the progress of SHG-Bank-linkage.
NABARD's SHG-Bank- linkage programme has been a major
effort to connect thousands of SHGs across the country with
formal banking system. Till the recent past, microfinance
programmes have confined themselves to
Distribution of loan to women but receipt of a loan and
utilization of loan is guarantee of improving economic
status of women.

9. THANK YOU