Empowerment of Women Through Micro Credit Based Enterprises in India: An Analytical Study Based on the Performance and Prospects of Micro Credit Enterprises

This is a study of empowerment of women and the impact of this in the context of achieving the goals of poverty reduction and rural development. It discusses empowerment with specific reference to the role of self help groups-affiliated micro credit based enterprises. Pointing out that the micro enterprise development is considered an indicator of the extent of empowerment of women in the country, it views the performance of the enterprises and the problems they face and their prospects. It analyses and measures empowerment using the Women Empowerment Index, Entrepreneurship Development Index, Paired ‘t’ Test, and ANOVA. With an inter-state comparison on empowerment of women, it gives specific attention to empowerment of women though the functioning of micro enterprises in Kerala.