Volume 29, Issue 3
DOI: 10.24205/03276716.2020.715
The Contribution of Microfinance Institutes in Women-Empowerment and role of Vulnerability
Abstract
Women-empowerment is still a problematic area in most of the developing countries including Pakistan. The women contribution is limited and not well acknowledged in most of the developing countries such as Pakistan. As the women contribution to Pakistani economy is only 25-30% which is quite low as compared to most of the developing as well as developed countries. To address this issue, the prime objective of this study is to examine the role of microfinance institutes in women-empowerment in Southern Punjab, Pakistan. To achieve this objective, cross-sectional research design was selected, and survey was carried out to collect the data from female clients of microfinance institutes. Findings of the study revealed that microfinance institutes are most significant to enhances women-empowerment. Services of microfinance institutes such as micro-credit, microsaving and micro-insurance has significant positive relationship with womenempowerment. However, vulnerability decrease the positive effect of micro-credit on women-empowerment. The current study is significant for microfinance institutes, state bank of Pakistan and government of Pakistan while making the strategies to enhance women-empowerment.
Keywords
Microfinance, women-empowerment, micro-credit, micro-saving, microinsurance, vulnerability.