Impact of microfinance on women empowerment

Microfinance provides financial assistance to poor people for starting their businesses without collateral security. In 1992, SHG-Bank Linkage program was inaugurated by NABARD to give monetary backing in form of microfinance to the underprivileged people. Microfinance has emerged as a powerful tool for the economic development of developing countries like India. This study is related to India because India is the fastest growing economies in the world but India has a major problem of poverty. In India, 21.9 % population is below the poverty line in 2011-12. The government spends enormous resources on these microfinance programs to alleviate poverty so that it became necessary to analyse the growth of the microfinance program in India. Objective: (1) To know the growth of SHG-Bank Linkage Program during the last seven years (2011-2018) in India. Research Methodology: This is a quantitative study based on secondary data which is collected from NABARD annual reports, websites, journals etc. In this paper suitable statistical techniques such as tables, percentage and diagrams are used to analyse the data. Numbers of SHGs, savings, bank loan disbursed, bank loans outstanding are the selected parameters of SHG-Bank linkage program. Significances: This study will be fruitful for the government, microfinance institutions, banks, and society. Conclusion: This is revealed from the analysis of SHG-Bank Linkage Program that program is growth is very much satisfactory during the last seven years in India.