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Article
A Study on Empowerment of Rural Women Through Microcredit Facilities in Sri Lanka
Author(s)
Rathiranee Yogendrarajah, Semasinghe Dissanayake
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DOI:10.17265/2328-2185/2015.0910.002
Affiliation(s)
Rathiranee Yogendrarajah, senior lecturer, Faculty of Management Studies & Commerce, University of Jaffna, Jaffna, Sri Lanka.
Semasinghe Dissanayake, Ph.D., senior lecturer in commerce, Faculty of Commerce and Financial Management, University of Kelaniya, Kelaniya, Sri Lanka.
ABSTRACT
This study seeks to examine the impact of micro credit facilities on women empowerment in the context of the great importance being given to the entrepreneurs. Access to credit can help women by enabling them to start and expand small businesses, often accompanied by market access. This study has the research problem—whether the micro credit facilitates in empowering women entrepreneurs in the rural areas of Sri Lanka. Therefore, the study has the primary objective to identify the impact of micro credit on empowerment and the sub to assess the relationship among them. The study adopts a causal survey research design through which 337 members of microfinance institutions (MFIs) in the study area of Northern Province in Sri Lanka were selected using stratified random sampling and data collected from them by using a structured questionnaire. Correlation and regression analysis has been used to find out the impact of micro credit facilities on empowerment of women entrepreneurs in the rural areas of Sri Lanka. Linear multiple regression analysis was used to determine the micro credit facilities that affect women empowerment by using SPSS. The model summary indicates that 10.9% of the variation in the women empowerment can be explained for the micro credit facilities and remaining 89.1% influencing by other factors, such as education, experience, income, etc. The study concluded that micro credit facilities alone do not support the entrepreneurs to enhance them and it makes the policy recommendations to guide development of micro credit facilities that are beneficial to the clients and other stakeholders of the MFI institutions.
KEYWORDS
empowerment, entrepreneurs, micro credit, microfinance institutions (MFIs), small business, rural women
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