Effect of Grameen Bank Micro-Credit Program on Change in Socio-economic Condition and Empowerment of Rural Women

Abstract

Nine selected personal characteristics of women were described, which include- age, education, family size, family annual income, credit availability, duration of involvement with GB micro-credit program, personal independent savings, organizational participation and level of aspiration in life with dependent variable of Effect of GB microcredit program on women beneficiaries. The result of analysis on change pattern of livelihood status in nine dimension namely ‘change in family annual income’, ‘change in clothing’, ‘change in food consumption’, ‘change in sanitation’, ‘change in mobility’, ‘change in housing’, ‘change in decision making ability’, ‘change in purchasing capacity’ and ‘change in spousal arguments and abuse’ in terms of before and after involvement with GB microcredit program were found significant. Null hypotheses were tested to explore the relationship between nine independent variables and change in livelihood status. Five null hypotheses out of nine were rejected. Among these age, education, family income, credit received and level of aspiration in life were significantly related. On the other hand family size, organizational participation, duration of involvement and personal independent savings didn’t show any significant relationship with the Effect of GB micro-credit program. This implied that the GB micro-credit program had a positive Effect on change in socio-economic condition and empowerment of rural women. Keywords: Effect, Micro-credit, Socio-Economic condition, Empowerment and Rural wome