MICROFINANCE AND WOMEN EMPOWERMENT

THEIR SPACE AND OPPORTUNITY FOR POVERTY REDUCTION IN

NEPAL

Thesis

DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY

IN MANAGEMENT

Submitted by

Meena Karna

Enrollment No.: 1606111685

Under the supervision of

Prof. Dr. Jayant Nath Khanal, PhD

Professor, Tribhuvan University

Padma Kanya College, Kathmandu

Head of the Research Department

SCHOOL OF MANAGEMENT

SINGHANIA UNIVERSITY, RAJASTHAN

Year of Submission of thesis 2019

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Acknowledgements

The journey I have undertaken in completing this thesis, in trying to grapple with the
complexities of ‗women‘s empowerment‘ as an issue, has in many ways shaped and
continues to shape how I see the world and my identity. I count myself incredibly
fortunate to have had the opportunity to make such an amazing journey.This thesis is the
result of advice, guidance, and support of many individuals without whom I could not
have successfully completed this work.

My primary supervisor first exposed me to the ideas of feminism, women‘s

empowerment and accountability, which have shaped this thesis, through a PhD course
Prof. Dr. Jayant Nath Khanal. His passion, knowledge and ability to ignite a desire to
think in alternative ways led me to women entrepreneur and poverty reduction through
Microfinance in Nepal has also greatly influenced, encouraged and empowered me to
pursue the issues of women‘s empowerment in a developing country context. Throughout
my tenure as a PhD student, both my supervisors have given me the best possible
guidance and support I could have hoped for. Their unhesitating support for my work,
careful reading of many drafts, comments, advice and critique have enabled me to clarify
my results, sharpen my ideas and develop the organization of this thesis. To my
incredibly supportive supervisor Dr. Sherjung Khadka heartfelt thanks and gratitude for
guiding me in an empathetic way throughout my research journey, offering timely words
of encouragement and advice during the many ups and downs of this PhD study.

To my wonderful son Dr. Aaditya Prakash I can never truly convey how grateful I am
to have you as my family, without you, none of this journey would have been possible;
your unconditional love, unwavering support, encouragement and sacrifices have got me
where I am today. Er. Samir Sourav– thanks for being an amazing role model in my life
and for teaching me that ‗compassion‘, ‗humility‘, and ‗kindness‘ are signs of great
strength. If anyone were to ask me what my happiest moment was, there are not enough
 3

words to describe how important you are to me, and what a powerful influence you
continue to be in my life. Er.Smriti Misal– you have been my life-long coach and friend,
guiding and helping me plan my future; thank you for teaching and instilling in me the
importance of ‗reading‘, ‗learning‘, and ‗reflecting‘. You always inspire and motivate me
to take on new challenges and not to stop trying. Your unrelenting faith in me is my
source of strength. Thank you for your encouragement, love and friendship throughout
this project.

To my loving Lecturer, Muna Aryal, best friend, I don't know how to begin thanking you
for everything you have done throughout this journey; you provided me with the impetus,
as no other has, to complete this thesis; thank you for continually encouraging me when
the tasks seemed hard and impossible, and for staying awake with me, reading my drafts,
and making me delicious breakfasts, lunches and dinners. I am eternally grateful for your
commitment, love, dedication and compromise, and for one magical word that precedes
all these words – unconditional.

To my nephew Divya Prakash , Prof / Dr Megh Raj Dangal, Prof. Dr. Prakash Chandra
Bhattarai and Dr. Yashodham Tripathi. Thank you for your unending generosity,
kindness and love, and for being there for me through thick and thin. Special thanks goes
to my Late husband Vinay Kumar Lal karna for the encouraging and supporting me to
every steps of my life. To the research participants, particularly the women who
welcomed me and so generously shared their experiences with me – I am extremely
grateful to all of you for opening the doors to your homes, lives and hearts for me. To
Staffs of BPW, Patan – I am very grateful to you all for taking time out from your busy
lives to accompany me. I thank you from the bottom of my heart for your kindness, help
and Cordiality. I always remember the experiences we shared.

Last but not the least, I would like to thank each and everyone for supporting me
spiritually, mentally and physically throughout this study period and completion of this
thesis.
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Abstract

In Nepal, the emergence of liberalization and globalization in early 1990‘s aggravated

the problem of women workers in unorganized sectors from bad to worse as most of
the women who were engaged in various self-employment activities have lost their
livelihood. Despite in substantial contribution of women to both household and
national economy, their work is considered just an extension of household domain
and remains non-monetized. In Nepal, Microfinance scene is dominated by banking
sector for providing loan as an effective mechanism for providing financial services
to the ―Unreached Poor‖, and also in strengthening their collective self-help
capacities leading to their empowerment. Rapid progress in the Microfinance sector
now has turned into an empowerment movement among women across the country.
Microfinance is necessary to overcome exploitation, create confidence for economic
self-reliance of the rural poor, particularly among women. The present study was
carried out to identify the determinants of microcredit accessibility by rural women
households and its impact on rural women empowerment in Nepal. A face-to-face
survey was conducted with quantitative and qualitative analysis , by distributing 500
questions among them four microcredit finance companies 5 kinds of Microfinance
companies are selected for collecting data. Cranach's alpha is a measure of internal
consistency, that is, how closely related a set of items are as a group. It is considered
to be a measure of scale reliability. Descriptive statistics model are used to achieve
the objectives. The results of the study showed that most of the variables are
significant towards different questionnaires. The chi-square test is also used to
express that Microfinance has a positive and significant impact on enhancing
participation in household decision making process and women‘s legal awareness.
The study suggested that microcredit providers in Nepal should be encouraged to
review their program planning and redesign loan products by putting more emphasis
on higher income group women. The SPSS Version 24.0 for Windows was used to
analyze the data. Cranach's alpha was used to test the reliability of the questionnaire.
Additionally, Likert scale type questionnaires were distributed among the different
 5

people among loan users. Relevant qualitative and quantitative information those
were unobtainable in the survey questionnaires. The Nepalese government opened
Microfinance banks, institutions and cooperatives in order to alleviate poverty in the
country. Microfinance banks have been operating in the rural areas of Nepal,
providing microcredit, savings services, informal education, first aid health services,
training and skill development. Women‘s empowerment is a process in which women
challenge the existing norms and culture in efforts to promote their well-being
appropriate collections practices are essential in Microfinance. Debt collection
practices of providers should never be abusive or coercive. However, in Nepal
Microfinance providers force the clients to pay installments on a defined date at any
cost. They rarely take the client‘s problems into consideration and hardly extend the
payment deadline. This has further worsened the clients‘ situation.

Meena Karna

Candiate of PhD

Enrollment Number :1606111685

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List of Abbreviations

UN = United Nation

NGOS = Non-Government Organizations

MFIS = Microfinance Institutions

CIDA = Canadian International Development Agency

ADB‘S = Asian Development Bank, Manila

BPR = Indonesian peoples credit Ban

EBS = Equity Building Society

NMB = National Microfinance Bank in Tanzania

ACAs = Accumulation savings and credit Associations (ASCAs)

ATM = Automated Teller Machine.

SACCOS = Savings and credit cooperatives.

CIC = Co-operative Insurance company

PDA = Personal Digital Assistants

ADOPEM = Domain Republic

PDAS = Personal Digital Assistants

PSLP = Priority Sector Lending Program

SFCL = Small farmer cooperatives limited

SEWA = Self Employed Women's Association

IRNET = International Remittance Network

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EBS = Equity Building society

NMB = National Microfinance Bank in Tanzania

ASCAs = Accumulating Savings and Credit Associations

AMA = Management Agencies

SACCOs = Savings and credit cooperatives

CIC = Cooperative Insurance Company.

NMB = National Microfinance Bank in Tanzania.

NBC = National Commercial Bank.

ADOPEM = Dominican Republic

PDA = Personal Digital Assistants

ADB = Agricultural Development Bank

RBB = Rastriya Banijya Bank

RMDC = Rural Microfinance development Center

IBP = Intensive Banking Program

RSF = Rural self-Reliant Fund

RRB = Regional Rural Banks

NBFC = Non-Banking Finance Companies

PCRW = Production Credit for Rural Women.

MCPW = Micro-credit project for women.

RSRF = Rural Self-Reliance Fund

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Table of Contents
Acknowledgements..................................................................................................................... 2
Abstract ...................................................................................................................................... 4
Chapter I ................................................................................................................................... 13
INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................................ 13
Background of the study ....................................................................................................... 13
In Context of Nepal ............................................................................................................... 14
Problem Statement ............................................................................................................... 16
Significance of the Study ....................................................................................................... 17
Purpose of the Study ............................................................................................................. 17
Objective of the Study ........................................................................................................... 18
Research Questions............................................................................................................... 19
Theoretical Framework ..................................................................................................... 19
Dependent variable ........................................................................................................... 22
Independent Variables ...................................................................................................... 22
Women’s Demography.......................................................................................................... 24
Chapter II .................................................................................................................................. 37
LITERATURE REVIEW ................................................................................................................. 37
Empirical Review ................................................................................................................... 45
Microfinance and Institutions to empower women ........................................................... 45
Microfinance and change the life style of women entrepreneur ........................................ 49
Microfinance and space and opportunities to access the empowerments ......................... 53
Microfinance and reduce the poverty through women empowerment .............................. 55
Economic Decision Making .................................................................................................... 58
Research Gap ........................................................................................................................ 66
Concluding Remarks.............................................................................................................. 68
CHAPTER III ............................................................................................................................... 70
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY ....................................................................................................... 70
Research Philosophy ............................................................................................................. 70
Ontology ........................................................................................................................... 70
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Epistemology .................................................................................................................... 72
Research Design .................................................................................................................... 73
Research Strategy ................................................................................................................. 73
Research Variables ............................................................................................................ 74
Population and Sampling....................................................................................................... 75
Population Frame .............................................................................................................. 75
Sampling Technique .......................................................................................................... 76
Sample Size ....................................................................................................................... 77
The Level of Precision: Precision is a description of random errors, a measure of variability. In
simplest terms, given a set of data points from repeated measurements of the same quantity,
the set can be said to be accurate if their average is close to the true value of the quantity
being measured, while the set can be said to be precise if the values are close to each other.
............................................................................................................................................. 78
Table 3.1.2 Demographic characteristics of sample respondents .......................................... 79
Data Collection Process ......................................................................................................... 80
The Format of the Research Questionnaire ....................................................................... 81
Description of research questionnaire ............................................................................... 82
Quantitative questionnaire................................................................................................ 82
Pre-Test the Research Questionnaire ................................................................................ 84
Administration of Research Questionnaire. ........................................................................... 86
Reliability of the Research Questionnaire .......................................................................... 86
Analysis and Interpretation of Data ....................................................................................... 88
Chi Square P-Values. ............................................................................................................. 89
Ethical Issues of the Research ............................................................................................ 90
Autonomy ............................................................................................................................. 91
Concluding Remarks.............................................................................................................. 92
Chapter IV................................................................................................................................. 93
RESULTS , FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION ..................................................................................... 93
Demographic Characteristics ............................................................................................. 93
Address ................................................................................................................................. 93
Group Name ..................................................................................................................... 95
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District .............................................................................................................................. 96
Educational Qualifications ................................................................................................. 98
Marital Status.................................................................................................................. 100
Age ................................................................................................................................. 101
No of family members Adult............................................................................................ 103
Number of Children Family Members .............................................................................. 104
Land Owned .................................................................................................................... 105
Year of Formation of Group ............................................................................................. 106
Maximum and minimum loan obtain year of group formation......................................... 107
Frequency of joining the group ........................................................................................... 110
Group Internal Loan ........................................................................................................ 111
Actual utilization of Microfinance loan ............................................................................ 112
Descriptive Analysis ............................................................................................................ 113
Chi-square........................................................................................................................... 125
Chi – Square Test between dependent and independent variables .................................. 125
Association between women entrepreneur and role of Microfinance to enhance decision
making power of women entrepreneur. .......................................................................... 125
Association between women entrepreneur and women entrepreneur and available
resources to get the space and opportunity to reduce poverty ....................................... 126
Association between women entrepreneur to obtain their understanding of all
relationships between women’s access to the resources to change the life style. ............ 128
Association between women entrepreneur and effectiveness of Microfinance towards
women empowerment.................................................................................................... 129
Association between women entrepreneur and to help children’s education and family
living style. ...................................................................................................................... 130
Association between women entrepreneur to empower women which helps to improve
towards children education and family living style. .......................................................... 131
MEAN STANDARD DEVIATION AND STANDARD ERROR OF WOMEN ENTREPRENEUR .......... 132
Relationship between Women Empowerment and Demographic Variables ..................... 133
Age and results of ANOVA. .............................................................................................. 134
Women empowerment and Education Status ................................................................. 137
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Analysis of Women Empowerment and factors helping women entrepreneur................. 137

Decision making power ....................................................................................................... 138
Poverty Reduction ........................................................................................................... 139
Change in lifestyle ........................................................................................................... 139
Effectiveness of women empowerment .......................................................................... 140
Space and Opportunity .................................................................................................... 140
Multiple Regressions ........................................................................................................... 145
Part B Qualitative Analysis................................................................................................... 148
Method of collecting data ............................................................................................... 149
Data Analysis................................................................................................................... 151
Comparing quantitative and qualitative analysis. ............................................................. 157
Chapter V................................................................................................................................ 161
SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION................................................................................................. 161
Conclusion .......................................................................................................................... 163
Demographic ...................................................................................................................... 163
Response of Employees....................................................................................................... 164
Women Empowerment and Demographic Variables ....................................................... 166
Relationship between demographic variables and women empowerment .......................... 167
Correlations between women empowerment and empowerment factors ....................... 168
Multiple regressions between women empowerment and empowerment factors .......... 169
Recommendation................................................................................................................ 170
Further research suggestion ................................................................................................ 174
REFERENCES ........................................................................................................................... 175
Appendix I............................................................................................................................... 182
Appendix II.............................................................................................................................. 186
Appendix III............................................................................................................................. 188
Appendix IV ............................................................................................................................ 191
Appendix V ............................................................................................................................. 192
List of Microfinance Companies in Nepal ........................................................................ 192
Appendix VI ............................................................................................................................ 196
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Table of Figures

Figure 1 Theoretical framework based on Shoaib et al., (2009, p. 7), Umer & Naseem (2011, p.
93), Khan, Kashif, Safwan, & Ahmad (2011, p. 959), Ramasamy (2011, p. 30) and Ng‟ethe,
Iravo, & Namusonge (2012, p. 210). ......................................................................................................21
Figure 2 Source: ―Conceptual Framework: The Role of Microfinance on the wellbeing of Poor
People. Cases Studies from Malaysia and Yemen.‖ Article: December, 2013Error! Bookmark not defined.
Figure 3 Address ....................................................................................................................................95
Figure 4 District .....................................................................................................................................97
Figure 5 Educational Qualification .........................................................................................................99
Figure 6 Marital Status ......................................................................................................................... 101
Figure 7 Age Group ............................................................................................................................. 103
Figure 8 Demographic ......................................................................................................................... 150
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Chapter I

INTRODUCTION

This chapter gives the background information of the financial services offered to women
entrepreneurs. It states the context of the study and the historical background. It also
defines the research problem and the research questions. Furthermore, states the main and
specific objectives, the relevance and significance of the research and the limitations
encountered.

Background of the study

The word Microfinance is literally comprised of two words 'micro' and 'finance' which
means 'small' 'loan'. Microfinance goes the provision of small loan for the poor. Christen
(1997) defines Microfinance as the means of providing a variety of financial services to
the poor based on market-driven and commercial approaches. This definition
encompasses provision of other financial services like savings, money transfers,
payments, remittances and insurance, among others. Microfinance is a joint liability
lending means it must borrow within a group of other borrowers. Participants of
Microfinance must organize themselves in groups and act as security for each other's
loans. In reality, the individual is not only responsible for loan repayment to the
Microfinance institution. The groups use peer pressure and peer monitoring to ensure that
loans acquired by members are repaid.

The United Nation proclaimed 2005 as the "Year of Micro-credit" while 2006 went a
score higher to award a Nobel Peace Prize to the largely acclaimed founder of modern
Microfinance Prof. Muhammad Yunus and the bank he founded in the 1970s the
"Grameen Bank".

Microfinance is emerging as a powerful instrument for poverty alleviation in the new

economy. Microfinance refers to a collection of banking practices built around providing
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small loans (typically without collateral) and accepting tiny deposits. This program aimed
at providing a cost-effective mechanism for providing financial services to the
"unreached poor".

The core of empowerment lies in the ability of a woman to control her own destiny. This
implies that to be empowered woman must to only have equal capabilities (such as
education and health) and equal access to resources and opportunities ( such as land and
employment) , they must also have the agency to use those rights, capabilities, resources
and opportunities to make strategic choices and decisions (such as are provided through
leadership opportunities and participation in political institutions) and to exercise agency,
women must live without the fear of coercion and violence.

Throughout the world, poor people are excluded from formal financial system. This
exclusion ranges from partial exclusion in developed countries. This makes poverty an
important development challenge and explains why poverty became an issue.

In Context of Nepal
Nepali women are born into a patriarchal society. In all cases woman's rights are
subordinate to those of men. Married early, with little or no education, no land rights or
independent income, women are a voiceless section of society dependent on men for their
welfare and bearing the continued weight of cultural and social discrimination and
violence against them. If a woman does not feel safe within a society then she cannot be
empowered within it. The threat of violence towards women is a pervasive and
unmanaged threat in Nepali society. Women face domestic violence, often unreported or
violence through organized trafficking of young girls sold for sex across Asia. The
general immunization, health and nutrition situation of women in Nepal remains very
poor, particularly in rural areas. Statistics shows that one out of every 24 Nepali women
is died during pregnancy or child birth-making reproductive health care a major focus of
intervention.

Women's empowerment is central to the empowerment and prosperity of a community.

While the Nepali government, the United Nation (UN) and Non-government
 15

Organizations (NGOs) have made some impact in relation to women's needs, there are
still significant problems that need to be overcome.

At the organizational level, women's representation in decision-making is still low among

MFIs (Microfinance Institutions). Women were found to represent 31% of the governing
body of MFIs. This figure paints quite a positive picture in terms of women's
representation. However, a third of them, MFIs had no women in the governing board.
Similarly about 65% (17 out of 26) of the MFIs had no women in senior level
management. As clients, although women represent almost 75% of the clientele of MFIs
those women are rarely involved in the decision-making processes of matters such as
interest rate structure or repayment schedule. The common approach of MFI is a top-
down delivery system whereby women are given the details of the loan mechanism fixed
by Microfinance service providers

The focus on women's empowerment in the context of Microfinance brings to light the
significance of gender relations in policy development circles more prominently than
ever before. Women are vaunted as a "weapon against poverty" (DFID/World Bank,
2006).

The rationale for providing women access to Microfinance services is that gender
inequalities inhibit economic growth and development. Hence, the Canadian International
Development Agency provides increased access to productive assets (especially land,
capital and credit) processing and marketing for women (Cornwall, A., Harrison, E., &
Whitehead, A., 2007).

The alternative perspective emphasizes that women's empowerment emerges as a result

of cultural, economic and other changes, such as the availability of new technologies in
their lives (e.g. mobile, phones and satellite televisions) as women's current opportunities
and constraints and as a process in time, across generations (Cornwall, A., Henry, L., &
Pasteur, K, 2000) Since the context of women's lives matters and the same interventions
are not effective everywhere, most of the policies remain ineffective .
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The experiences of empowerment and disempowerment are related not just too material
means and interventions, but also to social relationships (Kabeer and Hag, 2010,
Sardenberg 2010) narratives voice choice and Negotiations (Kabeer, N., Mahmud, S., &
Castro, J., 2012) and negotiations

It is not that MFIs do not pay attention to women's empowerment issues however; they
do not marginally by adhering to the latter two paradigm. As (Mayoux, L.,
1998)eloquently explains- "In the financial self-sustainability paradigm, women's
empowerment strategies are seen as entailing unacceptable costs as the paradigm's
explicit aim is to develop fully financially self-sufficient MFIs. In the poverty alleviation
paradigm, women's empowerment is seen as an external imposition by Western-
influenced middle class feminist elite with little relevance to the needs of poor women. It
is also seen as politically sensitive and involving conflicts within households and
communities that may undermine organizational sustainability. Both paradigms perceive
conflicts between women's empowerment and development rims.

Problem Statement
The study focuses on the role of Microfinance to empower the women in Nepal. It
particularly highlights women's perception about Microfinance schemes and their
experience with everyday life in post-conflict Nepal. The findings are drawn from an in-
depth analysis of data obtained from Microfinance issue to women beneficiaries.

Despite many international agreements affirming their human rights, women are still
much more likely than men to be poor and illiterate. They usually have less access than
men to medical care, property ownership, credit, training and employment. They are far
less likely than men to be politically active and far more likely to be victims of domestic
violence. Therefore the study aims at examining the impact of Microfinance on women
empowerment. The present study specially attempts with the assumption to following
issues:

( i ) Is Microfinance plays the role in decision making power for women entrepreneurs?
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( ii) Is Microfinance contributing women to get the space and opportunity to reduce
Poverty?

(iii) Is Microfinance help to obtain their understanding of all relationships

between women's access to the resources to change the life style?

(iv) What is the effectiveness of Microfinance on women empowerment?

(V) Is Microfinance helps women to reduce towards children education and family living
style?

Significance of the Study

Microfinance Institutions around the world have been quite creative in developing
products and services that avoid barriers that have traditionally kept women from
accessing formal financial services such as collateral requirements, male or salaried
guarantor requirements, documents requirements, cultural barriers, limited mobility and
literacy. Nevertheless in a number of countries and areas few or no institutions offer
financial services under term and conditions that are favorable women. Together these
findings confirm that the type of products offered their conditions of access and the
distribution of an institution's portfolio among different products and services affect
women's access to financial services. They also suggest that much more can be done to
serve poor women in certain cultural and economic contexts

Purpose of the Study

The study has its own importance. So far, there have been studies made on the situation
of Microfinance, impact. But there are no adequate research made to find out the specific
problem that why women entrepreneurs are not improving their socio-economic
activities. Without identifying the Microfinance issues as appropriate policies and
programs for the overall development cannot be formulated. As women cover more than
half of the country's population, development cannot be made without their development.
In order to make their development it is necessary to empower them through
Microfinance. The study's importance lies on including home and the country. The study
also explores the forms and intensity of empowering the women through Microfinance
that are changing over time. This helps to see the changes that are taking place to
improve their socio-economic activities. The study probes into the Microfinance related
 18

issues interplaying in other aspects such as poverty elimination. If the study identifies
Microfinance as one of the poverty elimination factors then appropriate policy to
reducing poverty by Microfinance could be formulated. The study has significance in the
sense that it is helpful for the policy makers and planners to formulate and implement the
policies and programs on Microfinance by addressing the poverty elimination issues.

Objective of the Study

The general objective of this study is to determine the contribution of Microfinance in
women empowerment to get the space and opportunity to reduce the poverty. This study
is also to obtain better understanding of all relationships between women‘s access to
small loans and change in households as well as role and responsibilities.

Based on the general objective, the specific objectives are on:

1. To study the role of Microfinance plays in the decision making power of women
entrepreneurs.

2. To evaluate the effectiveness of Microfinance on women empowerment.

3. To examine the role of Microfinance Institutions play in poverty reduction.

4. To evaluate the contribution of women entrepreneurs to change the life style

through socio-economic activities.
5. To find out how the women entrepreneurs get the space and opportunity to access the
resources.
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Research Questions

The research questions of the study are as follows:

1. Is a Microfinance play a role in decision making to the women entrepreneurs?

2. How effective Microfinance Institutions to empower the women?

3. How the women entrepreneurs get the space and opportunity to access the resources?

4. What type of role Microfinance Institutions play to reduce the poverty through
women entrepreneurs?
5. What is the contribution of Microfinance to change the life style of women
entrepreneurs?

Theoretical Framework
Theoretical framework endeavors to give clarification of the variables as considered
in the conceptual framework. This study is related to empowering the women through
Microfinance. In this area Microfinance is the best instrument to help empowering the
women. Microfinance gives emphasis to improve the life style of the poor family.
The role of women in society in development aspects is identified.

The theoretical review consists of review of different types of theories that are
relevant to this study. The theories that researcher have reviewed through literature
are the women and poverty and impact of Microfinance. Similarly, policy documents
on poverty elimination have reviewed to know on the poverty eradication. The
reviews of theoretical studies have made to know the findings that have been so far
made in the area of Microfinance. Such type of review helps to know about the
studies that have already made in particular area. It further enables the researcher in
establishing the research to focus of on the research.
 20

The present study is focus for empowering women as in order to understand the role
of Microfinance to empower the women to reduce the poverty Theoretical framework
has been developed, which is shown below (Figure 1.1). This has been developed
based on an initial literature review undertaken on the impact of Microfinance,
poverty reduction, space and opportunity for women‘s development and effects. The
conceptual framework consists of six major components Role of Microfinance to
enhance decision making power of women entrepreneur / Microfinance institution
and women empowerment / Space and Opportunity to reduce poverty of women of
Microfinance group member/ Microfinance and changing the life style of women
entrepreneur. Loan is a main product of Microfinance institutions which refers to
small amount of credit given to poor people at reasonable interest for generating
income through self-employment. The terms of the given loan are important
determinants to the clients‘ wellbeing and household improvement and their
businesses‘ performance. For example, increasing the size of the given loan is
important for extend the market and the size of micro and small enterprises. So,
Present study consists of the role for women in the sector of empowerment by using
Microfinance loan for making space in the society.
 21

Theoretical framework outlines the possible courses of action. It provides the foundation
on which the study is conducted. The figure 1.1 purposes the theoretical framework.

Demographic Characteristics
(Control Variables)

Age
Gender
Educational Qualifications
Marital Status

Women Empowerment
(Dependent Variable)

Empowerment Factors
(Independent Variable)

Decision making power of women

entrepreneur

Effectiveness of Microfinance

Space and Opportunity to access the resources

Poverty Reduction.

Microfinance and changing the life style of

women entrepreneur.

Figure 1 Theoretical framework based on Shoaib et al., (2009, p. 7), Umer & Naseem (2011, p. 93),
Khan, Kashif, Safwan, & Ahmad (2011, p. 959), Ramasamy (2011, p. 30) and Ng‟ethe, Iravo, &
Namusonge (2012, p. 210).
 22

Dependent variable
Dependent variable depends on independent variables. ―Women empowerment‖ is
dependent variable in the present study.

Independent Variables
The independent variables in present study are making decision making power of women
entrepreneur, effectiveness of Microfinance, space and opportunity, poverty reduction and
changing the life style of women entrepreneur.

In a number of countries credit has been identified as a major constraint on women‘s

ability to earn an income and to escape poverty. From the early 1970‘s credit programs
and savings gained more attention both as a strategy to increase women‘s incomes and to
bring women together to address wider gender issues (Mayoux, 2000). From the 1980
onwards poverty targeted micro-finance institutions emerged with a claim to be
empowerment-oriented. The 1990s saw an increasing emphasis on targeting women in
micro-finance programs, for efficiency considerations, such as high female repayment
rate. Furthermore evidence has shown a contribution of women‘s economic activity to
economic growth. It is widely recognized that in order to have sustainable development
and poverty reduction inequalities among gender need to be eradicated first. As Menu
and (Arnold, P., & Hammond, T 19(2), 1994) put is: ―Explicit attention should be paid to
the different needs and interest of men and women in order to maximize and sustain
development results‖. (Cheston and Khun, 2002) even continue to argue that the
development of a nation depends upon the empowerment of women (Meenu & Arora,
1999). Microfinance has come to play an important role in these efforts because of its
direct relation to both poverty alleviation and gender, consequently, a large number of
donors have included Microfinance in their overall development strategies. In Kabeer‘s
study on the potential of loans that lead to empowerment (Neu, D. (2001), 25(4)) she
argues that increasing women‘s access to working capital and credit helps mobilize their
productive capacity to maximize economic outputs and alleviate poverty. (Kabeer, N.,
2003)
 23

Another often articulated rationale for including women in microcredit programs is that
micro credit is considered to be an effective tool to empower women. A diverse body of
literature has emerged regarding the concept of women‘s empowerment and it
relationships with microcredit. One of the theories from Cheston and Kuhn on
Microfinance and empowerment holds the idea that lending capital to women allows
them to participate in income generating activities which is going to strengthen their
bargaining position within the household, thus gaining greater control over and influence
on strategic decisions within the household. Cheston and Kuhn continue to argue that
women are more likely than men to spend their income on household and family needs. It
is therefore assumed that when women‘s say in economic decisions of the household is
strengthened, they are going to optimize their own and the household‘s welfare, as their
ability to spend credit on themselves and their children is being increased. Providing
women with access to credit for income-generating activities generates a multiplier effect
as the whole family benefits as well. In short, increasing women‘s economic activities
and incomes are assumed to improve their overall well-being and that of their families
(Meenu, 2011). This so-called economic empowerment is in turn expected to generate
respect, increased self-reliance and self-esteem and other characteristics that empower the
beneficiaries (Cheston, S., & Kuhn, L, 2002).

Empowerment is giving power. Power is the key word of the term empowerment.
According to the International Encyclopedia (1999), power means having the capacity
and the means to direct one‘s life towards desired social, political and economic goals or
status. Power means control over material assets, intellectual resources and ideology. In
Webster‘s English Dictionary the verb empower means to give the means, ability and
authority. Empowerment is a multi-dimensional social process that helps people gain
control over their own lives and in their society, by acting on issues that they consider as
important. Empowerment occurs within sociological, psychological and economic
spheres and at various levels such as individual, group and community and challenges our
assumptions about the status quo, asymmetrical power relationships and social dynamics.
(sheetal sharma, 2006).
 24

Women’s Demography
Age, marital status, name of the group, no of family members adult, land owned, house
details are the main attributes or characteristics of women empowerment of the present
study. Year of group formation, joining the group, loan obtained after joining the group,
purpose of Microfinance loan and utilization of Microfinance loan are the next general
characteristics of Microfinance and women empowerment.

Age of the women: Age of women empowerment is a crucial attribute of employee

demography. The researcher has divided employees age into eight different categories
such as up to-25 year, 26-30, 31-35, 36-40, 41-45, 46-50, 50-60, 60-70 ,70-80 year. This
study has described age of women empowerment and relationship between age and
purpose of loan. The previous study reveals that ―there were no significant differences
between age groups on any of the variables‖. Similarly, another previous study reveals
that there was no difference in the Age and Purpose of loan.‖ (Malhotra, 2002).

Educational Qualifications: Education is the key factor for women empowerment,

prosperity, and development and. welfare. Discrimination of women from womb to tomb
is well known. Education of Employees: Education is the academic qualification such as
under SLC, SLC, PCL/+2, Bachelor, Master, PhD and others. The present study has
attempted to find out mix of the women and impact of education related to women
empowerment. The Present study shows that there is significant association between
education level and women empowerment while measuring with chi-square test. Though
the other factors are the most important for women empowerment, education of the
women is very most effective to the female empowerment over the world. Many studies
consider the formal education and organizational work as the effective factors of women
empowerment (Sandarac et al., 2014; Sindhe, 2011). When women have formal
education and enter in the higher education they start doing part time or full-time jobs in
organizations, they can have a better control over their lives (Singh &Praveen, 2006).
 25

Marital Status of Women: The term, ―empowerment‟‟ has been overused, misused, and
coopted. It is commonly deployed as a synonym for enabling, participating, and speaking
out. The notion that education leads to women‘s empowerment has gained popularity,
although we still have much to learn about how married women empowers status of
women .Nevertheless, in the past 10 years, the goal of women‘s empowerment (often
linked with married women‘s) has received serious attention, as well as funding by
donors and international agencies . (Rozario, S., & Samuel, G, 2006)

Gender: Gender of women empowerment is a crucial attribute of employee demography.

This study has described gender of women empowerment. Gender equality is not only a
fundamental human right, but a necessary foundation for a peaceful, prosperous and
sustainable world. Gender is the range of characteristics pertaining to, and differentiating between,
masculinity and femininity. The gender for women empower is basically related with women and
married women rather than Single women.

Role of Microfinance to enhance the decision making power of women.

Kishore (1997) has conceptualized empowerment in terms of ‗control‘ by which women

would be able to access information, take decision and act in their own interest or for
their dependents. She has considered three categories of composite indicators to measure
women‘s empowerment. These are ‗direct evidence of empowerment‘, ‗source of
empowerment‘ and ‗the settings for empowerment. She has grouped the indicators of
behavioral and attitudinal factors into ten dimensions. We have listed these indicators
including the variables.

He has tried to conceptualize the concepts, needs and context of whole issue of
empowerment and has reviewed the various approaches of empowerment of women. He
has defined empowerment as a process of gaining or accessing control over self and the
resources as well as the ideology which determine power relationships. The process of
empowerment tries to change the existing balance of power in a given context. Analyzing
the earlier literature he argued that empowerment is a process of capacity building and
 26

skill development. According to author, empowerment may help the women to

participate more effectively at different socio-political forum. With this end in view,
Verma has set twin goals of women‘s empowerment , to challenge subordination and
subjugation and to transform all the structures, systems and institutions which in any
way, may cause or support gender discrimination and inequality. In order to achieve these
goals she has opined that women need to be empowered in the contexts of individual,
social, economic, physical and psychological aspects. To suggest the suitable strategy for
empowering women in true sense, this study has presented a critical assessment of the
existing alternative approaches and strategies for women‘s development, emancipation
and empowerment. It is revealed that most of the approaches are over-lapping in concept
and practice. The discussion of this paper has come to the conclusion that for
empowering women we need the full participation of the people who are already
empowered in the formulation, implementation and evaluation of the action strategies.
Verma (2009) has found that social work approach to women‘s empowerment is suitable
in this respect.

The concept of empowerment has been recognized as an instrument of human

development since the inception of the UNDP‘s Human Development Report in 1990. In
this section we have planned to review the studies, which have investigated the impact of
women‘s empowerment on family as well as social welfare. The studies under this
category have tried to explain the contribution of women‘s empowerment in investment
and income generation, in women and child health, in child education and awareness and
social capital, broadly, in family well-being as well as social well-being.

In Nepal (Gutu F. and Mulugeta W. , 2010) has examined the impact of women‘s
characteristics on pre-natal care and on the incidence of delivery at hospital. They
analysed the data on about 2000 couples from the 1997-98 Indonesia Family Life Survey.
Individual assets, education and social status of the women have been considered as
indicator of her empowerment. This empirical study has revealed that volume of
 27

individual assets, level of education and social status of the women increases the
probability of getting pre-natal and delivery care of the women in Indonesia.

(Schaedel, 1999)has discussed the role of mother‘s empowerment in advancing the

education of their children under the School Family Partnership program (SFP) in Israel.
This study has reported that women‘s empowerment indicating the involvement and
familiarity with the SFP program is suitable for student‘s achievement. However, the
education of mother is not so important for her ward‘s achievement.

Chowdhury, et. al. (2009) have evaluated pattern of domestic violence pattern in nonfatal
deliberate self-harm (DSH) attempters by analyzing 89 DSH cases admitted at three
Sundarban, BPHCs. The authors found that most of DSH attempters were young,

female, low-educated and married. They also found that 69.6% of DSH attempters
experienced more than one form of domestic violence and among female DSH
attempters; husband was responsible for 48.48% cases followed by in-laws for 16.67%
cases.

Microfinance institutions and women empowerment

Financial and development experts have stressed for the need of external factor to aid
women in their drive to break the circle of poverty (Kiiru & Kenia 2007). An external
factor in the sense of giving women access to financial inclusion. It is reported women
are the poorest among the poor in any society. According to Kato & Kratze (2013)
women in developing countries are denied access to credit facilities from conventional
banks because they lack quality education. As a result of this, they do not have the
specific skills to manage their work. In addition, most conventional banks in Africa deny
women loans because of lack of collateral. It also argued that because of the profit
motives of some of the micro-finance institutions they deny women who do not have the
collateral for loans.

The agitation for financial inclusion for woman came into the international limelight in
1975 at the International Women‘s Conference in Mexico. The subsequent edition in
 28

Nairobi in 1985 paved ways for income generation mechanism for women (International
Fund for Agricultural Development, 2009). In the 1990s, micro-finance institutions
intensified their patronizing of women clients because of the insinuation that women are
prudent with their resources and they hardly default in loan repayment compared to the
men. Furthermore, the United Nations (UN) in 2005 initiated the international year for
micro-credit for the promoting of financial inclusion for woman (Awojobi, 2013).

Economic Empowerment: Mayoux (1999), Taha (2012) and Awojobi (2013) are
proponents of the school of thought that believe that micro-credits empower women
economically. The scenario is that when women started saving in micro-finance
institutions, after six months they have access to loans. They use the loans to support
their business which increases their profits. However, not all who use their loans for their
business can ‗break even‘ (profit maximization). The savings and profits from their
business act as income to the women which empowered them economically. In some
cases, they use the profit and savings to expand their business.

Different definitions have been used to conceptualize empowerment. Mayoux (2005)

defines empowerment as ‗‗a multidimensional and interlinked process of change in
power relations‘‘. In understanding women‘s empowerment, defines women‘s
empowerment as ‗‗the process of increasing the capacity of women to make choices and
to transform these choices into desired actions and outcomes‘‘

The topic of women empowerment is one of the intense debated current issues in social
and political arena. Even behavioral scientists have touched upon this issue in recent
decades. Corsun and Enz (1999) defined empowerment as the intrinsic motivational
process of a person‘s experience of feeling empowered.

Indeed, ―unless the intervening processes involve women as agents of that change rather
than merely as its recipients, the overall process would not be considered or defined as
empowerment‖ (Malhotra , 2002).
 29

Entrepreneurial drive among women entrepreneurs prompts them to secure psychological

freedom which consequently makes them feel empowered. (Datta and Gailey, 2012)
reported that women are actively involved in collective entrepreneurial activities to
secure financial and personal empowerment in developing economies. As a result of
entering entrepreneurship women entrepreneurs have witnessed good business, social and
personal life (Ozgen, 2001)

Space and opportunity to reduce poverty of women entrepreneur.

Living standard is very important issue in all developing countries. In many developing
countries like Bangladesh, Pakistan, India and Nepal Microfinance is now using as a tool
to increase the living standard of poor community. There is positive impact of micro
financing on income level and better services of Microfinance institutes increase
satisfaction level of customer (Akram and Hussain, 2011)

INAFI SAP-Nepal Microfinance enabled the poor to enhance their access to financing for
income growth and welfare improvement through micro-enterprise development and
increased ability to address vulnerability and economic empowerment; Microcredit was
used for production (66%) and the remaining for consumption. Microfinance contributed
to reduce poverty in client households. Respondents increased their incomes by 56
percent after participation in the Microfinance programs. Beneficiaries have increased
slightly more financial, physical and human capital than non-clients; Microcredit has
served to lessen their dependency on moneylenders, reducing the average interest rate
burden especially for the poor; Microcredit has promoted micro-enterprise activities,
which in turn have increased wage and self-employment opportunities for the
beneficiaries and the community people. There is great need to expand the MFIs in high
hills and mountains, where the majority of poor lives.

Different factors have significant effect on low loan recovery rate. These factors include
borrower‘s wrong attitude repayment, Microfinance institute staff‘s weak skill, corrupt
 30

tendency and poor infrastructural provision by the government. These factors has a direct
impact on NPLSs (nonpayment loans) and on micro credit services (Anayo, 2011).

The basic idea of micro-finance services is to provide the financial assistance to the poor
at the time he or she needs it at the doorstep and at a very convenient condition. Recently
Microfinance has special attention not only in the academic debates but also in the area of
policymaking (Smailbone and Wyer, 2000)

Microfinance sector required innovative ideas beyond traditional financial system. Social
intermediation increase human capability and group base lending schemes reduce
processing cost and decrease financial risk in relation to providing credit to poor.
Microfinancing is the tool to decrease financial cost and expenses in an efficient way
(Dusuki, 2008).

Microfinance and changing the lifestyle of women

Poverty is one of the major problems of the world at this juncture. Of course, Nepal is not
an exception to it. It is proven that poverty can be reduced from Microfinance. It is also
admitted that role of Microfinance is not just restricted to poverty alleviation but it also
diversifies income-carrying sources, builds assets and improves the status of women. It
has a positive impact on income and assets levels (Greetha, 2006).

Economic empowerment of women is recognized as women‘s control, access to credit,

contribution to family support and increased household ownership of properties and
assets. Women‘s access to savings and credit gives them a greater economic role in
decision making through their decision about savings and credit. Women control over
decisions regarding credit and savings could benefit men through preventing leakage
of household income to unproductive and harmful projects. Economic empowerment
includes women‘s control, access to credit, contribution to family support and
increased household ownership of properties and assets.
 31

Control Variables

Control variables also affect the dependent variable. Nine control variables are taken to
see the impact on dependent variable in this study. They are: age, gender, marital status,
educational qualification and Marital status

Limitations of the study

The present study is not free from limitations like other studies. The main limitations of
this study are as follows: Firstly, results of the present study represent different
Microfinance companies. Secondly, sample survey was conducted for the present study
from the employees working at present in different microcredit companies like Grameen
Vikash bank, Bhagwati Mahila Vikash Kendra, Bungmati Mahila Vikash Kendra,
Daksinkali Mahila Vikash Kendra, Gadhimai Mahila Vikash Kendra, Grameen Vikash
Bank Kendra 5, Grameen Vikash Bank Kendra 52, Shree. The different working sector
women entrepreneurs were chosen in random basis. Thirdly, the study examines how
women play their loan in Microfinance companies. It does not examine the other factors
of how remote area people get access of the facilities. Fourthly, some women deny
providing their information as well as personal information like name of purpose of loan
so on. Collection of information was very difficult and challenging because of tight
schedule of the employees. In conclusion, the findings of the study are solely based on
the information provided by the respondents. The study is limited up to the higher level
education level. The study excluded poor people level who don‘t have idea regards
Microfinance loan, the questionnaires were distributed accordingly and finally the
research is based on quantitative and qualitative research design.
 32

Key Terminology

Microfinance, Women Empowerment, Decision making for women entrepreneurs,

Empower the women, space and opportunity, Poverty reduction, life style of women,
Financial Services.

Definition of Key Terms

Microfinance

Microfinance is the arrangement of financial services including loans, savings, insurance,

money transfers and remittances offered to the lower income groups or poor
entrepreneurs, who otherwise cannot avail the standard banking services. The motive
behind Microfinance is to give people in poverty a privilege to become self-sufficient by
offering them crucial banking services at considerable smaller monetary amounts.

Women Empowerment

Women's empowerment is the process in which women elaborate and recreate what it is
that they can be, do, and accomplish in a circumstance that they previously were denied.
Empowerment can be defined in many ways, however, when talking about women's
empowerment, empowerment means accepting and allowing people (women) who are on
the outside of the decision-making process into it. ―This puts a strong emphasis on
participation in political structures and formal decision-making and, in the economic
sphere, on the ability to obtain an income that enables participation in economic decision-
making.. Empowerment includes the action of raising the status of women through
education, raising awareness, literacy, and training. Women's empowerment is all about
equipping and allowing women to make life-determining decisions through the different
problems in society

Decision making for women entrepreneurs

 33

Women Entrepreneurs and Strategic Decision Making in the Global Economy is a pivotal
reference source that provides vital research on understanding the value of women
entrepreneurs and the strategies they can use on the economy and examines gender
impact on strategic management and entrepreneurship. Women entrepreneur has been
recognized as an important source of economic growth. The researcher is able to analyses
female entrepreneurs create new jobs for themselves and others and also provide society
with different solutions to management, organization, and business problems for poverty
reduction as well as women‘s development.

Empower the women

Women's empowerment is the process in which women elaborate and recreate what it is
that they can be, do, and accomplish in a circumstance that they previously were denied.
Empowerment can be defined in many ways, however, when talking about women's
empowerment, empowerment means accepting and allowing people (women) who are on
the outside of the decision-making process into it. ―This puts a strong emphasis on
participation in political structures and formal decision-making and, in the economic
sphere, on the ability to obtain an income that enables participation in economic decision-
making

Space and opportunity

Women's economic empowerment refers to the ability for women to enjoy their right to
control and benefit from the resources, assets, income and their own time, as well as the
ability to manage risk and improve their economic status and wellbeing. While often
interchangeably used, the more comprehensive concept of gender empowerment refers to
people of any gender, stressing the distinction between biological and gender as a role.

Reduce the Poverty

Women empowerment is one of the most discussing issues in the present world,
especially in the developing country. Nepal is one of the developing countries with
almost 50% women of its total population. In labor force women participation is around
 34

57.30%, and facing many kinds of obstacles like they have family burden, social burden,
and religion burden mostly in rural area. Empowerment can be defined by giving power
and authority to take decision in every part of life, including household, economic, social,
political etc. Women empowerment can be considered as a weapon for alleviating
poverty. Since achieving independence, poverty has been dominating in Nepal.
Empowerment is, first and foremost, about power; changing power relations in favor of
those who previously exercised little power over their own lives. Women empowerment
is power as having two central aspects—control over resources (physical, human,
intellectual, financial, and the self), and control over ideology (beliefs, values and
attitudes). If power means control, then empowerment therefore is the process of gaining
control.

Life style of women

There is equality between men and women in some places. But at times women have
been marginalized. The researcher women‘s themselves are responsible for such things as
we often take ourselves for granted. If a little effort and courage is shown by women to
come to the fore using their capability and skills, then the researcher think no need to
chant the slogan of women empowerment. Women need to make decisions on their own
rather than depending upon men, it help them get a step closer towards being empowered.

Financial Services

Women and their empowerment is one of the burning issues in developing world, as they
are confined to less remunerative jobs, specially the disadvantaged women. In many
developing countries, female headed households are the poorest among the poor
households. Experience shows that the ‗hard-core‘ poor are largely the women, because
they face social barriers in accessing economic assets such as skill, property and credits
that make it is much harder for them to overcome poverty and they are more susceptible
to becoming poor when they lose the male earning member of the family due to
abandonment, divorce or death
 35

Structure of the thesis

The present thesis comprises five chapters. They are as below:

Chapter No Name of the Chapter

1 Introduction
2 Literature Review
3 Research Methodology
4 Results, Findings and Discussion
5 Summary and Conclusion

The first chapter contains introduction to the study, which explains the theoretical
background of women empowerment and their space and opportunity to reduce poverty.
This chapter also explains the statement of the problem, purpose of the study,
significance of the study, research questions, conceptual framework, limitations of the
study, objectives of the study and structure of the thesis. Similarly, the second chapter
contains literature review. It presents overall scenario of the women‘s empowerment and
their space and opportunity for women‘s development as its evidence in the world as well
as in the context of Nepal. It consists of review of empirical studies, research articles and
thesis or dissertations about Microfinance, Women empowerment, decision making for
women entrepreneurs, empower the women, space and opportunity, reduce the poverty,
life style of women, poverty reduction, Financial Services.Reviews of related research
studies are discussed in the following sections: In the same way, the third chapter is the
research methodology which explains the tools and techniques which are used in carrying
out this study. This chapter deals with research philosophy, research design, research
strategy, population and sampling, techniques of data collection and analysis. It also deals
with reliability of research tool and ethical issues of the study. The fourth chapter
contains results, findings and discussion of the study. It represents analysis of quantitative
as well as qualitative data using statistical tools like chi-square test, p value. This chapter
presents relationship of purpose of loan with role of decision making power of women
 36

entrepreneurs, effectiveness of women empowerment, Role of Microfinance for poverty

reduction; change the lifestyle of women and space and opportunity for poverty
reduction. It also examines the prediction ability of independent variables. The last
chapter deals with summary, conclusion and findings of the study.

Concluding Remarks

This chapter especially discusses the introductory part of the study. Women
empowerment is the burning issue of competitive as well as challenges faces by the
women. Empowerment has been used to represent a wide range of concepts and to
describe a proliferation of outcomes. The promotion of women‘s empowerment as a
development goal is based on a dual argument: that social justice is an important aspect
of human welfare and is intrinsically worth pursuing; and that women‘s empowerment is
a means to other ends. The word ‗empowerment‘ is used in many different contexts. Its
meaning and understanding largely depends on the context in which it is being used.
Empowerment means being able to challenge the existing oppression and inequality in
society. Women‘s empowerment has become a global phenomenon in the contemporary
discourse of development. Inclusive governance, sustainable development, poverty
alleviation and reduction of gender discrimination are not possible in any country unless
and until women are included and associated with mainstream development. Women‘s
participation in their household‘s decision-making process is a cornerstone of their
empowerment.
 37

Chapter II

LITERATURE REVIEW

This chapter deals with the review of different types of literature related to this study.
A literature review interprets and synthesizes what has been researched and published
in the area of interest. A literature review is required to be familiar with the previous
research and theory in the area of the study that helps in conceptualizing the problem,
conducting the study and interpreting the findings. Literature review is also done to
assure whether the study that the researcher is going to do is already done or not. This
study is concern with Microfinance. The study is connects certain part of Nepal.
There is an influence of location in case of Microfinance. The findings of the study
may be different if the study is going to be concern in a different location. So, the
findings of this study cannot be generalized.

Conceptual Review

Women empowerment, as a basic parameter in measuring social development index,

is gaining wider interests all over the world today. The various studies at micro and
macro levels both in developed and developing nations bear testimony to this. As the
problems and constraints faced by women are more or less the same all around
(though there could be certain points of difference between developed and developing
countries), it is worthwhile to examine the various approaches to women
empowerment.

The present study has examined the impact of micro loans on women‘s economic
activities. It has specifically highlighted how women‘s income generating activities
through small loans help to improve their status in household and local communities.
This study is based on eleven semi-structure interviews, two focus group discussions
and field observation. The term „empowerment‟ including its three dimensions:
identity, agency and critical consciousness, has been applied as a theoretical lens to
 38

further clarify the informants‟ views on the role of micro loans to improve their
household and community role and responsibilities

The present research topics is ―Microfinance and Women Empowerment Their

space and opportunity for poverty reduction in Nepal .The review of literature based
on this thesis is related with Microfinance with demographic status and women
empowerment and poverty reduction ,Role of Microfinance to enhance decision
making power of women entrepreneurs, Microfinance institutions and women
empowerment, Space and opportunity to reduce poverty of women of Microfinance
group members , Microfinance and changing the life style of women entrepreneurs,

Figure 2 Source: “Conceptual Framework: The Role of Microfinance on the wellbeing of Poor People. Cases Studies from
Malaysia and Yemen.” Article: December, 2013

Conceptual Framework of Microfinance and Women Empowerment

Microfinance and Role in decision making to the women empowerment

According to (Cheston, 2004), women tend to have higher saving ability and repayment
of loan is higher than men. It is stated that rural poor women despite of being illiterate,
work on group base and guarantees rather collateral. They focus not only in investing
 39

opportunities for income but also manage risks against emergencies and planning for
their kids‘ future and family members. They therefore value saving and are more careful
about investment decision which helps to continue business for long term. The present
study suggests that there is positive relationship that women use to save more than men.
The next study shows that has been argued that the MF services do not reach the very
poorest of the poor. Whether it is true or not true, MFIs still reach to millions of poor who
do not get loans from commercial banks easily. Before MFI starts poor used to get loan
from landlords and other rich people in excessive interest rate. This used to take
borrowers into a lifelong debt cycle or even slavery (Yunus, 2009).

Empowerment is an ability on women to make strategic life choices which were

somehow in some point had been denied to be provided in their life (Sevefjord& Olsson,
2000). It is a process for women to increase self-reliance, independent right to make
choices, and to control available resources which helps to assist in challenging their own
subordination. It is very used in present context in developing countries in various ways.
The present study in Nepalese context shows that there is positive relationship between
women empowerment and their self-reliance due to investment and earning from
different factor. One of them is in the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by UN as
‗Gender equality and women‘s empowerment‘ in form of the third goal (Kabeer, 2003).
According to her, ―the empowerment of poor women must clearly be part of an agenda
that addresses the empowerment of the poor in general. At the same time, however, poor
women are generally subordinate to poor men. The reduction of poverty thus has to take
account of gender inequalities among the poor, including inequalities of power.‖

Nepal ranked 151 in global ranking is listed among the poorest and least developed
countries with low socio-economic status in the world. Having one- quarter of its people
(7.05 million) are living under poverty line, the country‘s main economy is based on
agriculture employing 70% of the population and contributes 37% of GDP (Gross
Domestic Products). However, in recent years, remittances play significant role in the
economy of the country contributing 29% in GDP. As per the World Factbook , there is a
 40

growth in GDP by 1.3% in 2014 from 4.1% in 2013 to 5.4% in 2014 which later
decreased sharply to 3.4% in 2015. Inflation is increased by 7.9% in 2015. The GDP-per
capita income in equivalent to US $2,500 in 2015 US $100 more from 2014 and US $200
more from 2013 (Agency, 2016).

With regards to microcredit‘s effect on control over finance and decision making, results
suggest medium positive effects. With the support from MFIs (which includes
microcredit and training) women are able to take better control over their financial assets
including their savings and income (Li et al., 2011). This, in the long-run, affects their
participation in household decision making (Hashemi et al., 1996; Mizan, 1993; Pitt et
al., 2006. The present study is related to Microfinance and women empowerment in
Nepalese context. Most MFIs aim to assist women achieve financial independence.
Thus, women are said to have become empowered economically when they begin to take
control over their financial assets (Li et al., 2011).

Economic empowerment underpins other dimensions of empowerment (Ashraf et al.,

2010; Mayoux, 1998, 2001). As Goetz and Gupta (1996) and Anderson and Eswaran
(2009) emphasise, with economic empowerment, there is an augmentation in the
autonomy of women, which is usually evidenced in decisions made in terms of
purchases. Furthermore, Armendariz and Morduch (2010) argue that Microfinance
affects the bargaining power of women by influencing the level of resources they have.

It is however observed that, with the exception of insignificant averages, the effect sizes
explaining the association between microcredit and the various empowerment measures,
although positive are quite small. This, amongst other things, suggests that some other
factors may be in play that hinder Microfinance‘s effect on female empowerment. One of
such factors could be interference from spouses. In some communities, women receive
microloans and end up giving them to their spouses who fail to use them productively

Furthermore, as discussed by Supriya Garikipati (2008), it is likely women are more

concerned about the improvement of their household rather than their individual
 41

wellbeing and status in the family. Evidence suggests that lending to women strengthens
the household 17 as a whole by improving the household‘s ability to cope with various
vulnerabilities. However, the women themselves do not experience significant changes in
their status. This suggests that women are more concerned about the wellbeing of their
homes and families. As a result, they usually make purchases and invest in items that
would benefit the entire family, rather than themselves individually.

In addition, the presence of social and cultural constraints in some communities, which
are imposed on women, impede the process of female empowerment (Bali Swain
&Wallentin ,2012). In this regard, although Microfinance positively affects female
autonomy as well as accumulation of resources, this does not necessarily empower them
as there are various dimensions to empowerment. Some of which are hindered by the
presence of social and cultural constraints.

MFIs has emerged as a strategy for economic survival in the life of poor women. The
main idea is to empower them by generating income for themselves or for household by
providing earning opportunities (Lendwithcare, 2016). The Present study is related with
Microfinance and their space in poverty reduction. This may lead in the growth of self-
esteem, self-confidence and their status within the family and society. According to
Katharine (Esty, 2014), MFIs target women because women make better use of small
loans in compare to men which means women value money by not spending it into
luxurious items. Instead they make proper use of it by investing into some small business,
for instance, in poultry farms which over the time improves the health and education,
contributing to the cycle of poverty alleviation

(Hossain & Rahman, 2001) had mentioned that women living in rural developing
countries position in bottom line in both class and gender. Moreover, social, economic,
legal structure and cultural factors restrict them having control over their own life. They
find difficult in productive activities as commercial banks show less faith in women as
debtors due to little or not having any collateral. Even when they seek loan from the
bank, the manager questions them if their husbands are made aware of that or not. This
 42

kind of barrier allow them to very little chance in financial autonomy, spatial, and
occupational flexibility. The present study prevails that there is significant relationship
between poverty reduction and women empowerment. That is the preset study shows that
Microfinance has target rural poor women as main borrowers to help them enhance their
income and contribution to economic growth. MF ensures that women get control over
resources, land, employment and income to improve their status relative to men.

Microfinance has become an effective financial development tool in the economic credit
market and targets deprived people who cannot gain access to conventional credit. The
central aim of Microfinance is to alleviate poverty and empower its beneficiaries,
especially women, through financial services, such as microcredit, savings, insurance and
training. Women are the main clients of many Microfinance institutions (MFIs),
especially in Muslim societies, because they have been marginalized and subjected to
control by men for a long time, and because more than 70 percent of the world‘s poor are
women (CGAP, 2011). The present study has attempted to find out the role of
Microfinance and their factors for reducing poverty reduction.

Recently, many Microfinance institutions have extended their services to urban areas,
especially in Malaysia, to target low income households. Despite the rapid growth of
MFIs and their clients, impact assessment studies on urban areas are still scarce, while
controversies have emerged

The impact of Microfinance still varies from one country to another. For example, a study
by van Rooyen, Stewart, and de Wet (2012) revealed that the impact of microcredit was
mixed in the sub-Saharan African countries, ranging between no impact, positive impact,
and negative impact. Marital conflicts have also been known to rise when men force their
wives to seek microcredit for their households. (Haile, Block & Folmer, 2012).

The literature suggests that the impact of Microfinance varies in different contexts due to
factors such as financial literacy, type of services provided, population density, attitudes
to debt, and group-cohesion (Armendáriz & Morduch, 2005)
 43

The word ‘Poverty‘ indicates the situation where people cannot meet their basic
requirements for livelihood of food, shelter and clothing. It is not only about fulfilling
these basic needs, it is also about not getting a chance to participate in major
requirements of life, for instance, sending kids to school, not being able to pay for illness,
or making any trip as per own wish (Brunswick, 2016).

Poverty gets even worst when poor are recognized with little representation and less
public and political priorities in the society. This problem may vary from nation to nation
but always exists in rich or poor countries. In general, research suggests that the longer a
person has been poor, the less likely it is that he or she is going to escape poverty
(Iceland, 1997).

According to the World Bank‘s (1980) definition of poverty, ―A condition of life so

characterized by malnutrition, illiteracy, and disease as to be beneath any reasonable
definition of human decency‖.

According to (Cheston 2002), women tend to have higher saving ability and repayment of
loan is higher than men. It is stated that rural poor women despite of being illiterate, work
on group base and guarantees rather collateral. They focus not only in investing
opportunities for income but also manage risks against emergencies and planning for
their kids‘ future and family members. They therefore value saving and are more careful
about investment decision which helps to continue business for long term.

Empowerment is an ability on women to make strategic life choices which were

somehow in some point had been denied to be provided in their life. (Sevefjord &
Olsson, 2000)

For Oxfam, empowerment is about challenging domination and inequality. It states,

‗Empowerment is a challenge to face domination in the society that exists in millions of
people‘s life which are inequitable, or in ways which deny their human rights .

Important India explains Women Empowerment as an environment for women where

they can make decisions for themselves for personal benefits and for the society by
 44

increasing and improving social, economic, political and legal strength by making those
confident enough to claim their rights and get their voices heard (India, 2015).

According to the Nepal Demographic and Health Survey (2011), husband or male
counterparts are heavily involved in decision-making on issues related to women. In the
case of women‘s health care, the decision is made jointly by husband and wife, while for
men‘s health care; it is largely the husband who makes the decision.

Some of the most common social issues in Nepal affecting women‘s existence are child
marriage, social exploitation, domestic violence, lack of education, and cultural and ritual
abuses. Among other religious practices, a Chupardy Prather (tradition), Kumara Prather,
Human, Deuki Pratha, which violate child rights, are banned in Nepal‘s Children Act of
1992; however the imposed prohibition was challenged by the violation of cultural rights.
(Sarkhar, 2014) .

The issue on ‗the rights of citizenship through mother‘s name‘ has been raised in the new
constitution of Nepal. The Citizenship Act and the Interim Constitution draft explicitly
states that the children may obtain 9 citizenship in various ways including by birth,
descent and neutralization. Contrary to it, the provision of citizenship to the children
through mother‘s name has made legal only in special condition. The ‗special condition‘
here states children born out of rape or accidental intercourse. The interim constitution
makes the provision discriminatory stating foreign and stateless women married to Nepali
men are entitled to get the Nepali citizenship, and their children is going to grant the
citizenship. But, Nepali women married to foreigner, or single mothers do not have
option to obtain birthrights of being Nepali citizen to their children.

The core concept of equality states equality between women and men refers to the equal
rights, responsibilities and opportunities of women and men and girls and boys Demo
Finland, a Finnish Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) works as a co-operative
organization for Finnish parliamentary parties. All parliamentary parties are represented
in the governing body of Demo Finland. The organization action plans are based on
 45

Finnish Government‘s Resolution (2004) ,which states the important factors for
development, which are, respect for human rights, promotion of gender and social
equality, good governance and sound economic management. (Demo Finland, 2014)
(Demo Finland 2014).

Empirical Review

Microfinance and Institutions to empower women

MF industry is becoming mature and more dynamic, associated with market changes.
Recently, MF sector has changed radically and is going to continue to develop over the
next several years as there are millions of poor demanding financial services for
livelihoods. To challenge their needs, MF industry must move beyond from credit
oriented to be more variety products and services such as deposit facilities for
accumulating capital and investment, payments services, money transfer and foreign
exchange transactions. In addition, there is a concern of other financial services such as
micro leasing as an alternative for business financing and micro insurance for coping
with risk. Furthermore, Marguerite Robinson in her book The Microfinance Revolution,
Sustainable Finance for the Poor also states ―The Microfinance revolution is a
commercial revolution, based on new financial technology and greatly accelerated by
information revolution that developed concurrently‖. This implies that there is a need to
combine advance financial technology and the rapid development of ICT to driven MF
industry to be part of modern financial mainstream. But Present study shows that due to
Nepal underdeveloped countries unable to make implement technology in remote area
for enhancing the power of women. The income status is positively related with women
economic empowerment (r=0.208). The correlation between income status and women
economic empowerment is significant (p=0.003). It implies that the probability of
correlation between credit facility and women economic empowerment not being true is
0.3% (Gyawali, 2011, p.13).
 46

A combined research project of the Nepal studies and the World Bank, find significant
evidence that the programs help the poor in smoothing consumption and enable
microenterprises to accumulate capital. The findings also substantiate the claim that
Microfinance programs promote investment in human capital (i.e. schooling) and raise
awareness about family planning (i.e. use of contraceptives) among poor families.
(Chandler , 1998).

Access to capital to poor individuals has revolutionized the development world, proving
that as small as $50 or $100 loan in the poorest countries, and somewhat larger ones in
middle income developing countries, can transform lives of the poor. There are examples
where if poor individuals are given opportunity to start their own businesses can provide
basic necessities for themselves and their family and generate sustainable income. The
present study shows that the women take loan through different cooperatives to run their
business for living. If they can maintain that income, it can lead to improved living
standards and escape out of poverty. If individuals achieve economic freedom, it can lead
to a series of improvements such as wellbeing of families, communities and society
(CGAP 2002). Exact benefits that Microfinance brings to individuals and society may be
difficult to measure from a technical standpoint. There are relatively few rigorous studies
about the impact of Microfinance services. Various research/studies had uncovered
Microfinance to be an important catalyst for poverty reduction, generate self-
employment, improve overall income and increase decision making power. ( (Bauchet,
2011).

MF industry is becoming mature and more dynamic, associated with market changes.
Recently, MF sector has changed radically and is going to continue to develop over the
next several years as there are millions of poor demanding financial services for
livelihoods. To challenge their needs, MF industry must move beyond from credit
oriented to be more variety products and services such as deposit facilities for
accumulating capital and investment, payments services, money transfer and foreign
exchange transactions. In addition, there is a concern of other financial services such as
 47

micro leasing as an alternative for business financing and micro insurance for coping
with risk. Furthermore, Marguerite Robinson in her book The Microfinance Revolution,
Sustainable Finance for the Poor also states ―The Microfinance revolution is a
commercial revolution, based on new financial technology and greatly accelerated by
information revolution that developed concurrently‖. This implies that there is a need to
combine advance financial technology and the rapid development of ICT to driven MF
industry to be part of modern financial mainstream.

The vicious cycle of poverty is the reality of poor people in the developing countries.
Their subsistence production, rules out any saving to invest in future production. Women
are further vulnerable as they generally have even less access than men to formal credit
markets (Coleman, 1999). Against this backdrop, Microfinance has long been considered
as an effective and powerful tool for poverty reduction (Morduch and Haley, 2002;
Halimana and Zwizwai, 2004). The development of the Microfinance sector is based on
the belief that the poor possess the capacity to implement income generating activities
and it is limited by a lack of access and inadequate provisions through saving, credit and
insurance facilities (Hulme and Mosley, 1996)

The vicious cycle of poverty is the reality of poor people in the developing countries.
Their subsistence production, rules out any saving to invest in future production. Women
are further vulnerable as they generally have even less access than men to formal credit
markets (colomen, 2001).Against this backdrop, Microfinance has long been considered
as an effective and powerful tool for poverty reduction . (Morduch and Haley, 2002)

The development of the Microfinance sector is based on the belief that the poor possess
the capacity to implement income generating activities and it is limited by a lack of
access and inadequate provisions through saving, credit and insurance facilities (Hulme
and Mosley, 1996).

Cooperative Act, 1992 was enacted in 1992. It provided legal framework for the
cooperatives to function as people-based institutions. No Savings and Credit
 48

Cooperatives were established till 1993/94. It was only in 1994/95 that a total of 228
SCCs were registered. The number increased to 343 in mid-July 1996, 1,271 in mid-July
1999 and 2,262 in mid-July 2002. Of a total of 2,262 SCCs in mid-July 2002, 34 had
been licensed by NRB under the Cooperative Act, 1992 to undertake limited banking
activities Microfinance Against Poverty : Source : The Nepalese Scenario Shalik Ram
Sharma* Microfinance institutions, both formal and informal

The history of formal Microfinance in Nepal began during 1950s when the Government
established 13 credit cooperative societies to provide financial services to the flood-
affected people in Chitwan district. The history of formal Microfinance in Nepal began
during 1950s when the Government established 13 credit cooperative societies to provide
financial services to the flood-affected people in Chitwan district .Microfinance has
encouraged income generating activities among the rural entrepreneurs by providing
small loan and saving facilities. It was acknowledged as an official poverty alleviation
mechanism only in the country‘s Sixth Plan (1980/81-1984/85).

(Shakya, 2016)conducted thesis of International Business on '' Microfinance and Women

Empowerment'' concluded the following findings. The study establishes the concept
about poor villagers as less risk taker to continue credit as they are highly depending on
agriculture sector. Since urban women are completely on commercial business (no matter
the type of business), they tend to be determined to continue loan rather dropping out
caused by natural disasters for instance, floods.

(Neupane, 2014)conducted thesis on ―The effectiveness of Microfinance in Nepalese

economy‖. A case study of Pratapur VDC, Nawalparasi, concluded that Microfinance has
supported to respect the needs of the poor small clients of small loan. Due to the MFPs
women and indigenous groups of deprived sector are greatly benefited.

(Neupane, 2001)explained about the Microfinance and its socio-economic impact on

rural women. He studied about the self-help banking program in Dhading district. He had
concluded that involvement is the micro-finance programs have empowered women in
 49

varying degree. It has offered opportunities for poor women to come out of their
household confines, to organize themselves in group and to work in productive and social
activities. The present study is related to Microfinance and institutions to empower
women. There is increase in healthcare, in case of women and children, sanitation,
reduction in smoking, alcohol consumption to due to awareness programmes .Members
have become more aware of gender equality, human rights and women rights. The study
reveals that intervention of the MFI is significant in increasing the consumption pattern,
health situation, sanitation.

Microfinance and change the life style of women entrepreneur

Nepal has an annual per capita income of US $200, which makes it the tenth poorest
country in the world (UNDP, 2010). More than 31.8% of the total population of Nepal
lives below the poverty line (The World Bank, 2010). While extreme poverty is still one
of the biggest challenges Nepal faces, there is also a need for social reform to end
discrimination against women. From birth, women in rural areas are bound by strict
social norms . Women from many rural families are bound to spend most of their life
maintaining the household, working in the fields and collecting firewood. Only the lucky
few complete high school, and a large percentage of the women who can read or write go
on to spend the rest of their lives as housewives (Singh, 2002) In rural Nepal, most males,
who are the sole breadwinners for their families, work on lands owned by one of a few
rich village landlords. The pay is often insufficient to support the families‘ basic needs
for a whole year. They make up for the insufficiency by raising and selling chickens,
goats and milk from cows. Due to lack of savings, it is hard for the poor not only to be
prepared for medical emergencies, but also to escape poverty on their own. Male children
in the family often inherit their father‘s debt and place of employment. This cycle of
working on lands owned by landlords and struggling to save money continues for
generations. The case of the ‗Kamaiya‘ system in western Nepal is a classic example
(GEFONT, 2007).
 50

Recent studies suggest that, with the assistance of financial services and economic
opportunities, the very poor can lift themselves and their families out of poverty (Woller,
GM and Woodworth, W, 2015, 2001). However, since they can be high credit risks, the
formal credit market discriminates against the very poor. In fact, the lack of substantial
property that can be used as collateral cuts off their access to the majority of the loans
provided by the formal credit market Since microcredit is designed so that the very poor
can have access to it, it allows the very poor to work their way out of poverty over time.

The inefficiencies of microcredit programs become evident when their outreach is put in
the context of the entire population or the population living below the poverty line. More
than Rs. 20 billion (about $285 million) has already been invested in microcredit
programs in Nepal. More than 433,000 households have received collateral free loans and
the total number of borrowers has reached approximately 2.2 million (ekantipur, 2005).
Even though these numbers look big, they aren‘t very impressive given that the total
Even though these numbers look big, they aren‘t very impressive given that the total 11
population of Nepal is about 29 million and approximately 32 percent of the population
(about 9 million) lives below poverty line

The fact that microcredit programs in Nepal have not been as effective as they should be
becomes even more apparent when their performances are compared with the case of a
successful country like Bangladesh, where more than 75 percent of poor families have
received assistance from microcredit organizations covering almost 90 percent of
villages, and more than 95 percent of borrowers are women (Grameen, 2007).

The poverty rate of Nepal declined from approximately 42 percent to 31 percent from the
year 1995/96 to 2003/04 (BBC News, 2010). Decline in poverty was greater in urban 12
areas than in rural areas during this period. However, Gini coefficient, a measure of
income inequality, has increased from 34.2 to 41.1 in the same period in Nepal (The
World Bank, 2015). This means that the gap between the rich and the poor has also
increased despite the reduction in poverty. An interesting question to ask is how much of
the poverty decline or widening of income inequality is due to microcredit programs. Of
 51

particular importance is the fact that, in the past decade, the number of Nepalese workers
going abroad has dramatically increased (The World Bank, 2015).

Reason for lack of savings in rural areas and in turn a reason for extreme poverty was
found to be consumption expenditure. Due to extreme poverty, most of the people in rural
areas of the country struggle for day-to-day living expenses. 50-90 percent of formal and
informal credits received by these poor populations are used in consumption expenditure
instead of investing in new businesses . (Zeller, 2000).

MFIs have not been able to reach the extreme poor in remote areas of Nepal due to lack
of proper transportation infrastructure. They are concentrated more in the Terai region
and other easily accessible parts of hilly region. People in the rural areas have access to
30 percent of the total roads compared to those in the Terai region that have access to 60
percent of roads (Development Project Service Center and Ledgerwood, J, 1997). The
implementation of Microfinance programs has been a function of the accessibility of the
target population. Unfortunately, the majority of the target population lives in areas that
are not easily accessible- 85% of the population of Nepal lives in rural areas (ARCM,
2007).

Women in Nepal constitute of approximately 52 percent of the total population (Bhatta

G, 2001) and suffer from discrimination that is weaved into the cultural and social
framework of the country. A bill was passed by the Parliament to make the 11th
amendment to end the existing discrimination against women by giving women equal
right as men on their parental properties before marriage (Singh, 2002) . Besides this, 20
abortion has been legalized in Nepal (Dahal, K, 2004). This was an important step in
giving women the freedom to make their own decision about their life and future, and to
help them overcome long-held discriminatory social norms. However, the condition of
the majority of Nepalese women is still far from satisfactory. For instance, the female
literacy rate is still appalling - more than two- thirds of women in Nepal are illiterate
(DAHAL, 2004) To this date, women are discriminated against and lag far behind in
many areas including education, healthcare, career opportunities, etc.
 52

Various studies have now established that microcredit programs do have the potential for
women empowerment (Cheston, S and Kuhn, L, 2007). Indeed, one of the main goals of
Microfinance programs around the globe is to empower poor women. In the case of
Nepal, the problem of women empowerment and microcredit programs is however a
circular one: while microcredit programs seek to empower women by providing them
with loans for independent ventures, the very problem of discrimination against women
prevents these programs from reaching those women who need help the most.

According to the World Bank, societies that discriminate based on gender have greater
poverty, slower economic growth, weaker governance and a lower standard of living
(Kakkar, 2009) . Women are at the frontline of every household in Nepal and most third
world countries. Without progress of women, progress of the society or nation as a whole
is considerably more difficult, if not impossible. Microcredit programs, if implemented
correctly, have the potential to reduce gender gap and empower women in such societies.
A survey of 60 Microfinance institutions and Opportunity International‘s 42 partners
along with Sinapi Aba Trust (SAT) found strong evidence that Microfinance institutions
contribute to women‘s empowerment .Moreover, women‘s empowerment is believed to
be the very basis of economic empowerment of a nation. (Chadha, S, 2006)

The microcredit Summit Campaign reports that 14.2 million of the world‘s poorest
women now have access to financial services. However, in the case of Nepal, the
majority of women still work 10 to12 hours in the household compared to 7.5 hours for
men, and the literacy rate for women is 35% compared to 63% for men (Chadha, S, 2006)
Even if women get financial assistance from microcredit programs, it is less likely that
this woman is going to start a business that is going to benefit them in the long term.
Therefore, simply providing financial assistance to these women is not enough to
empower them. Complementary steps to help them take advantage of the opportunities
provided by MFIs are equally important. MFIs should work alongside INGOs that seek to
decrease the gender gap in Nepal.
 53

Microfinance and space and opportunities to access the empowerments

Nepali women are born into a patriarchal society. In all cases woman‘s rights are
subordinate to those of men. Married early, with little or no education, no land rights or
independent income, women are a voiceless section of society dependent on men for their
welfare and bearing the continued weight of cultural and social discrimination and
violence against them. If a woman does not feel safe within a society then she cannot be
empowered within it. The threat of violence towards women is a pervasive and
unmanaged threat in Nepali society. Women face domestic violence, often unreported or
violence through organized trafficking of young girls sold for sex across Asia. The
general immunization, health and nutrition situation of women in Nepal remains very
poor, particularly in rural areas. Statistics shows that one out of every 24 Nepali women
is going to die during pregnancy or child birth-making reproductive health care a major
focus of intervention.

Financial services are the driving force of socio-economic development of poor people
and poverty reduction. The financial services of Microfinance are generally known as the
credit and saving, insurance, payment and repayment services (Ledgerwood, 1999) .
Loan is a main product of Microfinance institutions which refers to small amount of
credit given to poor people at reasonable interest for generating income through self-
employment. The terms of the given loan are important determinants to the clients‘
wellbeing and household improvement and their businesses‘ performance. For example,
increasing the size of the given loan is important for extend the market and the size of
micro and small enterprises. The flexibility of loan disbursement which includes the
facilities of easy access to services, time responsiveness and providing adequate
information about the terms of service is important determinants for improving the
clients‘ wellbeing. Moreover, the flexibility of loan repayment policy which includes
loan grace period, repayment period, and interest rate all are critical factors for
determining the role of Microfinance services on clients‘ wellbeing. (Hulme, 1996)
 54

The core of empowerment lies in the ability of a woman to control her own destiny. This
implies that to be empowered woman must to only have equal capabilities
( such as education and health ) and equal access to resources and opportunities
( such as land and employment ) , they must also have the agency to use those rights,
capabilities, resources and opportunities to make strategic choices and decisions ( such as
are provided through leadership opportunities and participation in political institutions )
And to exercise agency, women must live without the fear of coercion and violence.

Critics of the development perspective argue that the policy development approach to
empowerment is extremely instrumental. As (Cornwall and Edward , 2010)put it
―Women‘s empowerment is heralded as a means that can produce extraordinary ends
their empowerment extolled as the solution to a host of entrenched social and economic
problems. The predominant image of empowerment in development is that women
gaining (material) means to empower themselves as individuals and putting this to the
service of their families and communities. This is primarily because empowerment is
understood in relation to deliberate and planned interventions such as electoral quotas
education, economic empowerment initiatives, legislative change and non-governmental
public action.

The alternative perspective emphasizes that women‘s empowerment emerges as a result

of cultural, economic and other changes, such as the availability of new technologies in
their lives (e.g. mobile, phones and satellite televisions) as women‘s current opportunities
and constraints and as a process in time, across generations (OECD). Since the context of
women‘s lives matters and the same interventions are not effective everywhere, most of
the policies remain ineffective (Abdullah, Aisha and King 2010, Sardenberg 2010). The
experiences of empowerment and disempowerment are related not just to material means
and interventions, but also to social relationships (Kabeer and Hag, 2010, Sardenberg
2010) narratives (Priyadarshini and Rahim 2010) voice (Goetz and NyamuMusembi
2008) choice (Kabeer 2008) and negotiations (Hug 2010, Johnson 2010).
 55

Microfinance and reduce the poverty through women empowerment

Nepal is one of the poorest countries in the world with per capita GDP of $1100 (CIA,
2008). ‗Poverty‘ and ‗Rural Poverty‘ are analogical realism in the context of Nepal. The
way to alleviate poverty is only when the rural sector is developed. Poverty in Nepal has
persisted for decades, and it is recognized as a deep-seated and complex phenomenon.
According to a Poverty Report of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP
2000), poverty has increased since the late seventies, mostly in rural areas where 85 per
cent of the population resides. Poverty increased at the rate of 3.1 percent between mid-
eighties and the midnineties, the highest rate in South Asia (Devkota, 2007, p 286 as
citied in Tamang 2009 p 4). The latest Nepal Living Standard Survey (NLSS) 2003–04
conducted by the Central Bureau of Statistics revealed that Nepal‘s poverty level had
declined to 30.85 percent in 2003–04 compared to 41.76 per cent reported in the previous
NLSS survey of 1995–96.

Poverty alleviation targeted through the provision of economic opportunities to the

women is one of the ways for improving the women‘s status. Almost all poor women in
Asia are economically active in agriculture, trade, small-scale manufacturing and craft
production but women‘s low socio-economic status and limited access to information,
skills and resources mean that these income generating opportunities are not fully
exploited (ADB, 2006, p 5). ADB further maintains that NGOs can play a contemporary
role by undertaking projects that would be technically or administratively difficult for
governments to implement, projects that government may have difficulty in financing due
to competing demands on public resources or projects that cut across a number of
government departments (ADB, 2006, p 5).

Several studies investigated the elements that can be helpful in poverty reduction. All the
studies had consensus upon the importance of economic growth in alleviating poverty.
Though there are numerous studies which emphasize inclusive economic growth for
poverty reduction. (Montalvo , 2010)found that China‘s rapid economic growth has been
 56

the flanking cause of the huge reduction in the incidence of poverty since 1980. The
impact of globalization on rural poverty was studied by (Anwar, 2013) and found it
insignificant whereas positive relationship was observed among literacy rate, agricultural
products and globalization. There existed a highly significant correlation between literacy
rate and agricultural products.

In 1999, the annual meeting of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF)
declared the new approach. Countries are asked to design their own Poverty Reduction
Strategy, which is written up into a Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP), which was
the basis for donor support. Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) must have at least
an interim PRSP to access debt relief. Nepal also introduced PRSP which is also its tenth
development plan (2002-2007). The Tenth Plan is government's main medium-term
strategic planning sharply focused on poverty alleviation.

Most of the empowerment projects and income generation schemes combine direct action
by low-income women and men working in community based organizations along with
local NGOs and with some support negotiated from one or more external agency (local
government, national agency, national or international donor). These initiatives include
community based organizations and NGOs developing savings and credit schemes for
emergency credit or credit for micro-enterprise and/or housing; building or housing
improvement initiatives; installing some

infrastructure; and setting up and managing some basic services. Most have recognized
the need to act on different fronts - in response to the many different kinds of deprivation
that most low-income groups face (Anzorena et al, 1998)

Low-income women face restrictions on the amount of government aid they can have,
which makes it extremely difficult for many to start business (Dumas 2001). They also
face limitations in the number of hours they can work, the amount of health care and
other assistance they receive as well as regulations that do not distinguish between
personal and business assets. These barriers make it hard for many low-income women to
 57

support themselves. In addition, the majority of low-income women do not possess the
training, resources and skills necessary to start businesses. A recent study on low-income
micro entrepreneurs conducted by the Aspen Institute (as cited in Dumas, 2001) found
that among the 53 per cent who moved out of poverty, many derived their income not
from a micro business alone, but from a combination of self-employment and wages.

Micro Enterprise Training and Development Small-scale enterprise development is being

seen as a viable strategy for creating economic opportunity for self-selected individuals
who are low-income and unemployed. Micro enterprise development programs focus on
creating jobs, increasing the economic stability of individuals and communities,
alleviating poverty, and increasing economic self-sufficiency. Encouraging micro
enterprise development also has spin-off effects. Micro enterprises create jobs in a
community; they provide for financial stability of neighborhoods and also help in
restoring and building communities through a philosophy of self-help (Dumas, 2001) .

Many scholars have debated the extent to which empowerment can be considered as
process or an outcome. Some scholars like East (2000), Staples (1990) cited in Carr
(2003), declared that empowerment is both process and outcome. Whereas, theorists like
Gutierrez (1995), Kaminsky, Kaufman, Graubargh, and Robins (2000) have taken it as a
process implying that the personal transformation of the individual who is becoming
empowered is at the foundation of the process (Perkins and Zimmerman, 1995). Gutierrez
(1990) clearly mentions empowerment as ‗a process of increasing personal, interpersonal
power so that individuals, families or communities can take action to improve their
circumstances‘ (as cited in Carr 2003, p 11). Thus empowerment is a transforming
process constructed through action.

Income is an essential element in household livelihoods, and those who control it have
considerable power. Gender and Development policy makers and practitioners see
control of assets and freedom to earn income as crucial elements in the 'empowerment'.
NGOs have been facilitating women's access to income, through Income-Generation
Programmes (IG Programmes), which are widely assumed to be the first step in the
 58

process of ensuring women's control over resources and decision-making (Endeley,

2001).

Making people aware of their own capacities and resources can help increase the options
available to them. So too can showing how to use these to leverage more choice.
Professional advice and support can increase the choices further - but successful
professional intervention requires that the value of such intervention is recognized and
accepted by low-income households (Anzorena et al, 1998).

Poverty alleviation targeted through the provision of economic opportunities to the

women is one of the ways for improving the women‘s status. Almost all poor women in
Asia are economically active in agriculture, trade, small-scale manufacturing and craft
production but women‘s low socio-economic status and limited access to information,
skills and resources mean that these income generating opportunities are not fully
exploited .ADB further maintains that NGOs can play a contemporary role by
undertaking projects that would be technically or administratively difficult for
governments to implement, projects that government may have difficulty in financing due
to competing demands on public resources or projects that cut across a number of
government departments (ADB, 2006, p 5).

Economic Decision Making

Table 2.1.1Economic Decision Making

S.No Authors / Researcher(s) Findings

1  Rathiranee Relationship between decision making power and

Yogendrarajah (2013) empowerment and it explains that there is
positive relationship between decision making
and interpersonal empowerment during decision
making (0.724) at 0.01 significant level
 59

2 Augustine Ndaimani2018 A systematic review by Pratley (2016) revealed a

No. 139 statistically significant positive effect of women’s
empowerment on for economic welfare.

3 Dickson A. Amugsi (2015) The analysis showed that women participation in

decision-making regarding household purchases
was significantly associated with higher DD, after
adjusting for individual and household level
covariates. The odds of achieving higher DD were
higher among women who had a say in deciding
household purchases, compared to women who did
not have a say (OR = 1.74, 95 % CI = 1.24, 2.42).
Women who had more than primary education
were 1.6 times more likely to achieve higher DD,
compared to those with no education (95 % CI =
1.12, 2.20). Compared to women who lived in
polygamous households, those who lived in
monogamous households had higher odds of
achieving higher DD (OR = 1.42, 95 % CI = 1.04, 1.93)

4 Campbell RK, The logistic regression models were adjusted for

covariates at the individual level (age, parity,
education, occupation, ethnicity and religion), and
household 4level (sex of household head, place of
residence, wealth index, co-wives, number of
 60

children under 5 years and number of household

members). Results were considered statistically
significant when P < .05.

5 Bhagowalia P, Menon P Women educational level was also associated with

(2010) higher DD—women who had higher than primary
education were 1.6 times more likely to achieve
higher DD than those with no education (95 % CI =
1.12, 2.20). Compared to women in the poorest
wealth quintile, women in the richer and richest
quintiles were 1.7 (95 % CI = 1.07, 2.64) and 1.8 (95
% CI = 1.05, 3.14) times respectively, more likely to
achieve higher DD. Women who live in non-
polygamous households had higher odds of
achieving higher DD than those who lived in
polygamous households (OR = 1.42, 95 % CI = 1.04,
1.93). There were significant negative associations
between Christian religion and Akan ethnic group,
and higher DD respectively.

6 Arimond M, Torheim LE A related study observes that women in

(2016) monogamous households have considerable
decision-making power, including what the
household is going to consume, while women in
polygamous households have noticeable smaller
decision-making power

Table 2.2.2 Household Decision Making and women empowerment

 61

S.No Authors / Findings

Researcher(s)

1  Prof. Kerosi Evans The presence of household avoidable factors

strengthened the association between under-five
mortality and low decision-making scores, and low
social capital and economic status

2 Gladys KendiMwirebua Women’s empowerment were effective to enhance

women’s lifestyle , whose life is under control.
Women’s empowerment technique , micro loan
significantly develop the status of the women.

3 Abubakar2012 Women’s Empowerment and household decision

making have significant positive correlation .

Table 2.2.3 Role of decision making to empower the women

S.No Authors / Researcher(s) Findings

1 Tam O’Neil and Pilar The international community can better support
Domingo women’s political leadership by investing in women’s
education and economic assets, their organizations
and their political apprenticeship; focusing on
political systems and not just elections; and
supporting locally led and problem-driven responses.

2 RathiraneeYogendrarajah The prime objective of this study is to examine the

women empowerment through decision making
power at household level. It has been assumed that
 62

there is positive relationship between women

empowerment and decision making at household
level.

3 Gladys Kabutel The significant positive relationships existed between

women’s educational attainment and their decision-
making roles with respect to reproductive decision-
making (r=0.57), cultural decision making (r=0.3) and
socio-economic decision making (r=0.47) at 99% level
of significance.

4 Dickson A. Amugsi, Anna The results show that women who participate in
Lartey taking household decisions making regarding
household purchases are more likely to achieve
higher decision compared to those who don’t
participate.
 63

Table 2.2.3 Space and Opportunities to access the empowerment.

S.No Authors / Findings

Researcher(s)

1 EugenAvram The aim of the study is to emphasize the impact of

empowerment dimensions (access to information,
resources, workplace support, and development
opportunities) over the workplace satisfaction,
commitment, justice and workplace exhaustion. Two
questionnaires were administered to measure
empowerment and organizational climate in a sample of
108 hospital workers.

2 Bjorn SorenGigler The analysis has shown that ICTs have tremendous
potentials to benefit indigenous peoples and poor
communities. Anecdotal evidence and case studies exist
making thecase that the Internet is a powerful tool to
improve their livelihoods and to provide new economic
and social opportunities, particularly for young peoples, in
poor communities directly getting connected with the rest
of the world and overcoming social exclusion providing a
"digital bridge" out of poverty.

3 Cecilia Luttrel This paper presents an overview of the different definitions

of and conceptual approaches to empowerment.

4 Sitna Quiroz The note provides details on the differing approaches to

empowerment in a variety of donor agencies and NGOs,
 64

according to a selection made from official documentation

associated with these agencies.

5 World Bank Group This report explores evidence of how the Community-
driven Development (CDD) approach can create and
enhance participation and decision making when women,
as well as men, are to be included in the “community”
voice and choice. It reviews the theoretical and empirical
literature and analyzes World Bank–supported CDD
projects.

6 LustinPriescu The study highly supports the role of empowerment in

a health organization. The aim of the study is to
emphasize the impact of empowerment dimensions
(access to information, resources, workplace support, and
development opportunities) over the workplace satisfaction,
commitment, justice and workplace exhaustion.

Table 2.2.4 Role of decision making to empower the women

S.No Authors / Researcher(s) Findings

1 Tam O’Neil and Pilar The international community can better support
Domingo women’s political leadership by investing in women’s
education and economic assets, their organizations
and their political apprenticeship; focusing on
political systems and not just elections; and
 65

supporting locally led and problem-driven responses.

2 RathiraneeYogendrarajah The prime objective of this study is to examine the

women empowerment through decision making
power at household level. It has been assumed that
there is positive relationship between women
empowerment and decision making at household
level.

3 Gladys Kabutel The significant positive relationships existed

between women’s educational attainment and their
decision-making roles with respect to reproductive
decision-making (r=0.57), cultural decision making
(r=0.3) and socio-economic decision making (r=0.47)
at 99% level of significance.

4 Dickson A. Amugsi, Anna The results show that women who participate in
Lartey taking household decisions making regarding
household purchases are more likely to achieve
higher dietary diversity compared to those who
don’t participate.

5 Elizabeth KimaniMurage Improving women decision-making autonomy could

have a positive impact on women’s dietary intake.

6 Blessing U. Mberu This study seeks to examine the association between

women’s decision-making autonomy and women’s
achievement of higher dietary diversity (DD) and
 66

determine the socio-demographic factors that can

independently predict women’s attainment of higher
DD.

7 Lina V. Castro Gender equality in decision-making at the household

level by which resources are allocated is important
for a family/household and society. Collection of
these indicators should be done regularly to be able
to assess if gender equality is achieved. Further,
other areas of decision making and women’s
empowerment can be explored in the succeeding
surveys.

Research Gap
Over the last few decades Microfinance has become an integral part of the economic
development of the less developed countries with regional governments, the multilateral
donor agencies such as the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank and other
donor organizations investing in the industry to build its capacity and widen the outreach.
There are various studies that have been done on Microfinance and women empowerment
.

Microfinance institutions provide a broad range of services including deposits, loans,

payment services, money transfer and insurance to the poor or low-income households
and their enterprises.

- Some of Microfinance institutions provide non-financial services such as training,

business advice, market assistance and counseling to their clients.
 67

- However these studies have not clearly addressed the issue of collateral
requirements since most Microfinance institutions were only lending small
amounts of money.

- MFIs provide loans to mainly women whom they think has less social and
economic status.

- The focus on lending women is as common for micro-funding schemes as they

think women are containing lots of caliber in paying back the loan in time than
men. However, it does not clear the facts on difficulties these women face when
they have to perform duel role inside as well as outside of the house. Neither has
it stated the level of support they get from their family members especially
husbands.

- Social empowerment refers mainly to the literacy rate and social awareness,
especially of women who are much oppressed in many parts of the developing.
Countries.

Nepal, there were no any goal-oriented programmes concerning poverty issue during that
period. Panchayat system and its development were assumed all in all. Although the
ruling class didn't prioritize for poverty alleviation in that time, the all rounding
development in the country was directed to the interest of all classes in the society. To the
mid-1970, economic poverty was emphasized as the "basic needs" after it was explained
in detail. Under the new concept of poverty, the issue was raised that it was not only
linked with the economic lack, but also with the necessity of health, education and other
services.
 68

The concept of poverty embraces not only those who are unemployed and poor but also
those who are fully or partially employed having very low productivity or low wages.
Poverty is the bane of society and a curse on human being.

One position holds that poverty is feminized, and that donors and development agencies
should focus on the interlink age between gender, women and poverty. The other position
is that evidence on feminization of poverty is weak, and conflating gender issues with
poverty, takes attention away from the broader agenda of women‘s empowerment

It is disappointing that, in the 21st century, and in fields like the space sector, which is
known for breaking boundaries, we are still not making the most of what women have to
contribute.

The Sustainable Development Goals seek to change the course of the twenty-first century
by addressing key challenges such as poverty, inequality and violence against women.
Women's empowerment is a precondition, as women have a critical role to play in efforts
to achieve all of the Sustainable Development Goals, with many targets specifically
recognizing women's equality and empowerment both as the objective and as part of the
solution.

Space matters when it comes to the right of women to benefit from science and
technology and all the sectors and also as a dimension of achieving the SDGs.

This study attempts to fill this gap with international studies.

Concluding Remarks
This chapter especially discusses the literature review part of the study. The researcher
has discussed many research studies in the following sections- women empowerment and
their space and opportunities for women's empowerment. This chapter has disclosed the
different methods, techniques and strategies of the women empowerment for poverty
reduction. actually women‘s empowerment is a process of personal and social change,
taking place over interlinked and mutually reinforcing psychological, political, social and
economic domains, and through which women individually and collectively gain power,
 69

meaningful choices and control over their lives It also stated the results of different
researchers on the impact of Microfinance and women empowerment and space and
opportunities for poverty reduction. This chapter also has discussed the level of
satisfaction of employees of different studies. The common theme in this literature
review is that empowerment factors influence the poverty reduction, space and
opportunity.
 70

CHAPTER III

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

Research can be defined as ―an activity that involves finding out, in a more or less
systematic way, things you did not know‖ (Willaim, 2011) ―Methodology is the
philosophical framework within which the research is conducted or the foundation upon
which the research is based‖ .Research Methodology chapter of a research describes
research methods, approaches and designs in detail highlighting those used throughout
the study, justifying my choice through describing advantages and disadvantages of each
approach and design taking into account their practical applicability to our research.
Research methodology is a science of studying and solving research problem. This
chapter deals with research philosophy, research design, research strategy, population and
sampling, data collection and analysis and interpretation of data. It also deals with
reliability of the data collection instruments and ethical issues of the study.

Research Philosophy
Research means simply to search again. It is ―systematic, controlled, empirical and
critical investigation of hypothetical propositions about the presumed relations among
natural phenomena‖ (Kerlinger , 2007).Research is systematic and organized effort to
investigate a specific problem that needs a solution (Sekaran , 1992). ―It is undertaken not
only to solve a problem existing in the work setting, but also to add or contribute to the
general body of knowledge in a particular area of interest to the researcher‖ . (pant, 2007)

The possible purpose for carrying out research may be either one or more of the
following: ―to get research degree along with its consequential benefits; to face the
challenge in solving the unsolved problems; to get intellectual joy of doing some creative
work; to provide service to society and to get respect‖. (kothari, 2008).

Ontology
Microfinance is the process of providing financial assistance as well as other services
such as insurance and savings to underprivileged people while microcredit is one aspect
 71

of Microfinance and is the process of extending credit to the poor. Microfinance was
developed for people who find it hard to get financial assistance from mainstream
institutions while microcredit was developed to provide credit and loans to the same
people. However, a number of crises in the industry have recently threatened both
financial sustainability and the industry‘s social reputation. While the social mission of
Microfinance industry gives specific importance to protecting the interest of customer,
the 2008/2009 global banking crises has pointed out that an unsustainable financial
services offer based on irresponsible lending implies risk for the industry as a whole. In
this context, over-indebtedness is currently one of the most serious risks of Microfinance,
endangering both social impact and industry stability. It has the potential to push
customers further into poverty, accompanied by the material, psychological and
sociological consequences of debt. Increasingly rigorous impact studies are questioning
the original impact and poverty alleviation of Microfinance. Microfinance customers
have good reasons to take loans but little reason to borrow to the extent of over
indebtedness. Neither should lenders and even less so MFIs with a social mission have an
interest in over indebting their customers. Over indebtedness is thus an undesired
consequence for both parties and in perfect markets should not exist.

Prior to clarifying the type of ontology used in these studies, it is important to define
ontology. It is concerned with ―what kind of world we are investigating, with the nature
of existence, with the structure of reality as such‖. Ontological assumptions are those that
respond to the question ‗what is there that can be known?‘ or ‗what is the nature of
reality?‘

Ontology is associated with a central question of whether social entities should be

perceived as objective or subjective. Accordingly, objectivism (or positivism) and
subjectivism can be specified as two important aspects of ontology

Ontology is concerned with the reality of the society. It is about the form and nature of
the reality of society and its concerned with the questions like what is there that can be
known, how they are and how they work (Parajuli, 2005). The researcher is clear about
 72

her position while doing the research. The researcher also understands the way of
translating the knowledge and understanding into the research.

Researcher constructs the reality through the use of narrative methods. The researcher has
gone to see the reality from the perspective of a management theory. So, the reality that
the researcher is able to find multiple theories based on various sources. The researcher
has found the reality through the subjective approach. Here the researcher shows the
multiple those reality of women‘s empowerment with different perceptions like power of
women, rights of women, the process of enhancing women‘s economic empowerment,
women‘s individual and collective experiences, education, skills development and
training, access to quality, decent paid work and financial services.

Epistemology
Epistemology in a business research as a branch of philosophy deals with the sources of
knowledge. Specifically, epistemology is concerned with possibilities, nature, sources
and limitations of knowledge in the field of study. Alternatively, epistemology can be
branded as the study of the criteria by which the researcher classifies what does and does
not constitute the knowledge. In simple words, epistemology focuses on what is known to
be true. It is a way of thinking opposite to ontology.

The study is objective and subjective. Subjective research is generally referred to

as phenomenological research. This is because it is concerned with the study of
experiences from the perspective of an individual, and emphasizes the importance of
personal perspectives and interpretations. Subjective research claims to describe a true
and correct reality, which is independent of those involved in the research process.
Although this is a simplified view of the way in which research can be approached, it is
an important distinction to think about. Whether researcher think about the research topic
in objective or subjective terms is going to determine the development of the research
questions, the type of data collected, the methods of data collection and analysis the
researcher adopted and the conclusions that have drawn. Quantitative and qualitative
 73

data are collected and analyzed with different software based on the objective and newly
developed scientific method.

Research Design
The present study has adopted the quantitative and qualitative research design. It involves
counting and measuring of events and performing the statistical analysis of a body of
numerical data. The researcher tests a theory by ―specifying narrows hypothesis and the
collection of data to support or refuse the hypothesis‖. Quantitative research is social
research that employs empirical methods and empirical statements (Cohen, J., 1998) .It
adopts a scientific approach and focuses on measurement and proof. It is based on the
premise that something is meaningful only if it is observed and counted (Hesketh, E. A.,
& Laidlaw, J. M. (n. d.)., 2003). It refers to the systematic empirical investigation of
social phenomena via statistical, mathematical or computational techniques (Lisa,
2008).The objective of quantitative research is to develop and employ mathematical
models, theories and hypothesis (Lisa, M. , 2008). It is the numerical representation and
manipulation of observations for the purpose of describing and explaining the phenomena
which the observations reflect (Sukamolson, S, 2013).

The study attempts to describe the various aspects of entrepreneurship, like

characteristics, attitudes, problems, nature and perception of women entrepreneurs as
well as it described the various aspects of empowerment such as individual, family,
economic, social parameters of women empowerment. Therefore research design is
descriptive in nature.

Research Strategy
A research strategy introduces the main components of a research project such as the
research topic area and focus, the research perspective. It refers to how the researcher
proposes to answer the research questions set and how the researcher implements the
methodology. The researcher want to build on the growing body of research on the topic,
combine academic theories, what is done in practice and field experiences, and encourage
further exploration and dialogue on the area of women empowerment. Throughout the
 74

thesis, the researcher is interested so that those interested in exploring specific aspects of
empowerment, poverty reduction and space and opportunities for women empowerment
is needs in depth. The strategy related to thesis is to find out how Microfinance empowers
the women in general and particularly in Nepal with certain area.

The survey research strategy is followed in the present study. It is the survey strategy of
research. It is a ―method of collecting data in which a specially defined group of
individuals are asked to answer a number of identical questions‖ (Chaudhry I., Nosheen
F., 2009). The data is usually obtained through the use of standardized procedures whose
purpose is to ensure that each respondent is able to answer the questions at a level playing
field to avoid biased opinions that could influence the outcome of the research or study.

Multiple research methods were used during the different phases of this study.This is an
empirical study, and first hand data and a comprehensive empirical study were needed to
answer the central research question of this study. Therefore, various methods and
techniques of qualitative and quantitative research have been used to collect first hand
data from Bangladesh such as content analysis, thematic interviews, formal and informal
discussion, participant observations, interviews, participatory of women entrepreneur and
formal questionnaire methods. In addition, a sizable data has been collected from the
secondary sources.

Survey can be used to understand the status of women entrepreneur. Thus, the present
research study has used the survey strategy in order to explain and analyze the variables
like women‘s women in domains including: more rights, improved Self-esteem, increase
political power and thus increased participation in household Decision
making.development and show their relationship with women empowerment in banking
industry of Nepal.

Research Variables
Purpose of loan is the dependent variable, which is going to be measured for a
relationship with independent variables like Role of Microfinance to enhance decision
making power of women entrepreneur, Microfinance institution and women
 75

empowerment, space and opportunity to reduce poverty reduction of women of

Microfinance group member, Microfinance and changing life style of women
entrepreneur, These research variables are described in the theoretical framework of this
study.

Conceptual framework is developed like Microfinance and role in decision making to the
women empowerment, Institutions to empower women, space and opportunity to access
the resources, reduce the poverty of women through women empowerment.

Population and Sampling

The topics deal with population frame, sampling technique and sample size e.g the level
of precision, degree of variability and determination.

Population refers to a collection of humans. Demography is a social science which entails

the statistical study of human populations. Population in simpler terms is the number of
people in a city or town, region, country or world; population is usually determined by a
process called census (a process of collecting, analyzing, compiling and publishing
data).This topic deals with population frame, sampling technique and sample size e.g. the
level of precision, degree of variability and determination of sample size.

Population Frame
Population is a complete set of elements that possess some common features defined by
the researcher. ―Population comprises all the possible cases (persons, objects, events) that
constitute a known whole‖ (Jacobs, & Asghar, 1972, p. 125). ―A research population
relates to the total universe of units from which the sample is to be selected‖. It is
generally a large collection of individuals or objects that is the main focus of a scientific
query (Castillo, 2009). The present study has covered all Microfinance companies of
Nepal. According to NRB, there are 63 Microfinance company altogether at National
Level.
 76

Sampling Technique
Sampling is a process used in statistical analysis in which a predetermined number of
observations are taken from a larger population. The methodology used to sample from a
larger population depends on the type of analysis being performed but may include
simple random sampling or systematic sampling.

Sampling can be probability and non-probability. Probability sampling is also called

random sampling. Everyone in the population has equal opportunity for selection as a
subject in probability

There are four main methods of random sampling namely-simple random sampling,
systematic sampling, cluster sampling and stratified sampling.

(i) Simple random sampling: This is a sample in which every member of the
population has an equal chance of being chosen (Creswell, J. W. ,
2011).sampling but there is not every element of the population that has the
opportunity for selection in the sample in non-probability sampling.
(ii) Systematic sampling: This sampling method involves the random selection
of the first item and then the selection of a sample item at every nth interval
(Wolf and Pant, 2007).
(iii) Cluster sampling: It is a simple random sample of clusters of a population,
each member of the chosen clusters becomes a part of the final sample
(Dresser, R., 2005)
(iv) Stratified sampling: This sample is obtained by dividing the population into
mutually exclusive groups, or strata and randomly sampling from each of
these groups (Donnelly , 2005).

The present study has adopted simple random sampling technique, in which every
women entrepreneur and their space and opportunity for poverty reduction has chance of
being chosen, in order to evaluate and analyze the women empowerment and power of
poverty reduction, enhancing their knowledge in their field doing business using loan in a
proper way.
 77

Sample Size
Sample size is the act of choosing the number of observations or replicates to include in
a statistical sample. The sample size is an important feature of any empirical study in
which the goal is to make inferences about a population from a sample. In practice, the
sample size used in a study is usually determined based on the cost, time, or convenience
of collecting the data, and the need for it to offer sufficient statistical power. In
complicated studies there may be several different sample sizes: for example, in
a stratified survey there would be different sizes for each stratum. In a census, data is
sought for an entire population; hence the intended sample size is equal to the
population.

Kathmandu, Lalitpur, Morang, Parsa Daksinkali MahilaVikash Kendra, Bungmati Mahila

Vikash Kendra , Daksinkali Mahila Vikash Kendra, Gadhimai Mahila Vikash Kendra,
Grameen Vikash Bank Kendra 5, Grameen Vikash Bank Kendra 52, Shree Kalika Mahila
Samuha, Birgunj, Kirtipur, Magar Gaun, Nakhudol, Thapagaun

Table 3.1.1 List of Loan users

Framework for sample Total Loan Users

Kathmandu 7555

Lalitpur 5400

Parsha 1045

Morang 3000

The sample size is simply the size of the sample of the total population. ―It is generally
proportional to the size of the population‖ (Rossouw, D., 2003). It is concerned with how
many individuals is going to I need to study? Sample size should be large enough. Very
small sample size may be quite unrepresentative. Sample size is determined in part by
 78

practical constraints such as the number of the population, finance and the time available
(Michael, 2008). The researchers (Gay, L. R., 2003) have suggested that ―in a population
of fewer than 100 people, the entire population must be sampled‖ (as cited in Odendaal,
2010, p. 36). Considering the purpose of the study and population size three criteria are
usually needed to be specified to determine the appropriate sample size. They are: the
level of precision, the level of confidence or risk and the degree of variability in the
attributes being measured (Miaoulis & Michener, 1976) Considering the purpose of the
study population size three criteria are usually needed to be specified to determine the
appropriate sample size. They are: the level of precision, the level of confidence or risk
and the degree of variability in the attributes being measured.

The Level of Precision: Precision is a description of random errors, a

measure of variability. In simplest terms, given a set of data points from
repeated measurements of the same quantity, the set can be said to
be accurate if their average is close to the true value of the quantity being
measured, while the set can be said to be precise if the values are close to
each other.

The confidence level: The present study has been carried out at 95 percent confidence
level. This means that ―if a 95% confidence level is selected, 95 out of 100 samples is
going to have the true population value within the range of precision specified earlier‖
(Israel, 2012). In statistics, a confidence interval (CI) is a type of interval estimate,
computed from the statistics of the observed data, that might contain the true value of an
unknown population parameter. The interval has an associated confidence level,
or coverage that, loosely speaking, quantifies the level of confidence that the
deterministic parameter is captured by the interval. More strictly speaking, the confidence
level represents the frequency (i.e. the proportion) of possible confidence intervals that
contain the true value of the unknown population parameter. In other words, if
confidence intervals are constructed using a given confidence level from an infinite
 79

number of independent sample statistics, the proportion of those intervals that contain the
true value of the parameter is going to be equal to the confidence level

gree of variability: The degree of variability affects the sample size of the study. ―The
degree of variability in the attributes being measured refers to the distribution of
attributes in the population‖ (Israel, 2002). The sample size becomes smaller in more
homogeneous or less variable population and vice versa. The degree of variability of the
population is small in the present study, in other words, there is more homogeneous
population in the present study.

Determining sample size: The researcher has used following simplified formula to
calculate sample sizes (Yamane, 1967, p. 886):
n= N/ {1+N (e2)}

The calculated sample size is 390 (See Appendix V ) but the present study comprises of
17000 from different Microfinance company who are the users of loan regarding
Microfinance and at 95 percent confidence level and 5 per cent sampling error. The
sample size was determined by using simple random sampling method.

Table 3.1.2 Demographic characteristics of sample respondents

Characteristics Types Descriptions

Name String …………………………

Address String …………………………

Name of the group String …………………………

Village String …………………………

 80

District String …………………………

Age Numeric 0-5 =1, 6-10=2,11-15=3, 16-20=4,

21-25=5 , 26-30=6, 31-35=7, 36-40 =
8, 41-45=9, 46-50=10, 51-55=11.

Educational Qualifications Numeric 1= Literate

2=None

3=PCL

4=SLC

Marital Status Numeric 1= Married, 2= Single

No of Family Members Audit Number 1,2,3,4,5,6,7

Children Number 1,2,3,4,5,6,7

Total Number 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10

If Land Owned Number Yes / No

Data Collection Process

Data collection is the crucial step of research study. Data should represent the real world
of the subject matter as far as possible (Ledgerwood, J., 1999). Method of data collection
should be systematic to address the research objectives and research questions. It should
be step wise which ―include setting the boundaries for the study, collecting information
through unstructured or semi-structured observations and interviews, documents and
visual materials as well as establishing the protocol for recording information‖ (Creswell,
J. W., & Plano Clark, V. L., 2007). ―It is the connecting link to the world of reality for
the researcher‖.
 81

In the present study, multiple sources of data have been used keeping in mind the
purposes of the research and nature of research questions. The researcher visited different
library, Microcredit Company like Bagwati Maila Vikas Kendra, Bungmati Maila Vikas
Kendra, Daksinkali Mahilavikash Kendra, Gadimai Maila Vikash Kendra and many
places for the purpose of procuring relevant documents during the course of secondary
data collection for this study. The researcher also used several related journals, e-
journals, websites, and Review different articles. Major tool of data collection for the
present study is survey questionnaire qualitative as well as quantitative questionnaire.
The development of survey questionnaire mainly contains the following steps: the format
of the research questionnaire, description of the research questionnaire, pre-tests the
research questionnaire, administration of the research questionnaire and reliability of the
research questionnaire.

The Format of the Research Questionnaire

The Format of the Research Questionnaire is the most common tool of collecting data in
the social science. It is research instrument, which consists of relevant questions. The
objective of the questionnaire is to gather information from respondents. ―The
questionnaire should investigate about poverty reduction, women empowerment,
financial services,loan, economic status . questionnaire usually consists of a number of
measurement scales and elicits demographic information from respondents (Mitchell, T.
R., Holtom,, 2001). ―The questions and design of the questionnaire should be adapted to
the educational levels and background of the respondents‖, (Ghauri, P., & Gronhaug,
2005) .

Questions in the questionnaire are quite clear, short and complete, relevant and
appropriate, precise, explicit and understandable in the present study. The questions are
closed-ended, ―which offer the respondent a range of possible answers from which the
respondent must select his/her appropriate choice‖ (Welman, C., Kruger, F., & Mitchell,
B., 2005). They covered all the research questions or purposes of the research. The
researcher designed survey questionnaire in Likert five scale close ended format like
strongly disagree (1), disagree (2), neither (3), agree (4) and strongly agree (5). The
 82

researcher considered honest, dishonest, sincere, negligible, optimistic and pessimistic

respondents at the time of developing survey questionnaire.

Description of research questionnaire

The present study is based on survey questionnaire. The present survey questionnaire is
divided into three sections comprising questions. They are personal details (Name /
Address / Name of the Group / Village / District / Age / Educational Qualifications /
Marital Status / No of Family Members Adult / If Land Owned. In Part B General
Questions related to Year of formation of group / when did you join the group / Loan
obtained after joining the group / Purpose for which Microfinance was obtained / Purpose
of actual utilization of Microfinance loan. The third part related to quantitative questions.
Role of Microfinance to enhance decision making power of women entrepreneurs,
Microfinance and changing the life style of women entrepreneurs, Space and Opportunity
to Reduce Poverty of Women of Microfinance group members, Microfinance. The
research questionnaire covered the following four independent variables and one
dependent variable:

Quantitative questionnaire
(i) Role of Microfinance to enhance decision making power of women
entrepreneur. (4 questions / statements).
(ii) Microfinance Institutions and Women Empowerment (10 questions /
statements).
(iii) Space and Opportunity to reduce poverty of women of Microfinance group
members. (8 questions / statements).
(iv) Microfinance and changing the life style of women entrepreneurs.(4 questions
/ statements ).
(v) contribution of Microfinance to change the life style of women entrepreneurs
(3 questions / Statements )

Qualitative questionnaires

Empowerment: Their Space and Opportunity to Reduce Poverty in Nepal" –

 83

Name:

Address:

Age:

1. What do you know about Microfinance?

2. Do you think that participation in Microfinance group increase the power of
decision making? How?
3. What is domestic violence and how a woman can be able to fight with this after
joining the Microfinance group?
4. How Microfinance loan empower the women?
5. What are the opportunities for the women in our country?
6. How Microfinance provide employment to the women?
7. How Microfinance Institutions help the women to start their own business?
8. Do you think Microfinance loan is enough to solve their family's economic
problems?
9. How Microfinance provides financial literacy to the women entrepreneurs?
10. Do you think Microfinance loan helps to uplift the lifestyle of the women
entrepreneurs?
11. How Microfinance Institutions educate then women to protest against the
injustice?
12. How do you think Microfinance develops skills to start small business?
13. What is awareness programs and how its help to participate women in local
activities?
14. How Microfinance Projects help the poor women to overcome from Poverty
level?

15. Do you think Microfinance is a powerful instrument to reduce the Poverty

level of the country? If yes how?
 84

Pre-Test the Research Questionnaire

Pre-test the Research Questionnaire Pre-testing of the questionnaire is very essential ―to
determine its effectiveness and problems‖ (Baker, T. L, 1999). ―It provides an
opportunity to ensure that the questionnaire covers all the information that it is intended
to cover‖ (Odendaal, 2010)(). The researcher has done pre-testing in two stages namely
preliminary testing and formal testing. Open-ended research questionnaire had been
constructed with very careful as per instruction of supervisor. They were discussed with
friends, financial manager‘s cooperative staff, finance companies and financial Professors
for preliminary pre-test. In this process especially PhD Scholars, finance managers and
professors gave couples of comments such as complexity of language, coverage,
duplications and so on. The questionnaire was revised after series of discussions with
them. Then, it was discussed with friends who have PhD degree and the Professors. The
copies of research questionnaire were printed out and distributed to the different women
of different Microfinance companies for formal pre-test. Out of fifty questionnaires, only
thirty five were returned back. Cronbach‘s alphas were 0.70 calculated to test the
reliability of questionnaire, the value of alpha of all variables was found more than 0.80.
Thus, it was confirmed that there were not any problems with the questionnaire. Then the
final shape was given to the questionnaire and distributed to the rest of research
population.

Table 3.1.3 Reliability Testing of Pre-Test Questionnaires

Variables No of Items Cronbach’s Indicator

Items Dropped Alpha

Role of Microfinance to 36 0 0.725 Reliable

enhance decision making
power of women
entrepreneur
 85

Microfinance Institutions 30 0 0.725 Reliable

and Women
Empowerment

Space and Opportunity 34 0 0.875 Reliable

to reduce poverty of
women of Microfinance
group members

Microfinance and 35 0 0.775 Reliable

changing the life style of
women entrepreneurs

Effectiveness of 36 0 0.899 Reliable

Microfinance on women
empowerment

Reliability is a measure of the stability or consistency of test scores. Reliability is going

to accurately measure mathematical knowledge for every student who takes it and
reliable research findings can be replicated over and over All items are responded to on a
Likert scale of 1-5, where 5 = strongly agree and 1 = strongly disagree. *Asterisked items
are reverse scored, so that the opposite is true (i.e. 1 = strongly agree and 5 = strongly
disagree). This is so throughout the scale a high score on a question indicates a high
belief in perceived task value. To establish whether the items on this questionnaire all
reliably measure the same construct (perceived task value), we could ask 100 participants
to complete this questionnaire, so we can calculate Cronbach‘s alpha based on their
scores.
 86

Administration of Research Questionnaire.

Research questionnaire is a very important tool for research work. The researcher has to
developed survey research questionnaire to collect the information from respondents
which can be filled in either by the respondent (i.e. self-administration) or by an
interviewer (Kothari, C, 2008). The questionnaire in the present study is self-
administered. ―It is cost effective but assumes that participants are not visually impaired
and have a good literacy level‖ (Koponen, P., Maki-Opas, J., & Hanna Tolonen, H.,
2013). ―It should be relatively short and all questions need to be completely self-
explanatory format and question wording must be simple, without complex skip
patterns‖.

From the 500 questionnaires distributed, 350 responses were received, out of them, 100
questionnaires were incomplete and thus, 300 complete questionnaires were received
representing a response rate of 75 percent and the rest of 100 questionnaires remained
outstanding. These are represented in Table below.

Table 3.1.4 Total population response rate

S.no Responses Frequency Percent

1 Complete 390 78
2 Incomplete 40 8
3 Outstanding 70 14
Total 500 100.00

Reliability of the Research Questionnaire

The reliability of questionnaire is measured to ensure the reliability of the research. It is a

measurement procedure that provides accuracy of the fact. ―Reliability refers to
consistency, concerning whether the measurement of a concept is stable‖ (Parmar, A,
 87

2003) It is the degree of consistency between two measures of the same thing (Mehrens,
1987).

Similarly, ―it is the ability of an instrument to produce similar results at different times
with the same group of respondents‖ (Shaughnessy, J. J., & Zechmeister, E. B. (1997).).
The measure of how stable, dependable, trustworthy and consistent a test is in measuring
the same thing each time is reliable (Worthen, B. R., Borg, W. R., & White, K. R. , 1993)
(Worthen, Borg, & White, 1993). It is the extent to which a test gives the same result on
repeated trials in the same environment or situation or circumstance.

Table no 3.1.5 Reliability test on Instruments

Variables No of Items Cronbach’s Indicator

Items Dropped Alpha

Role of Microfinance to 36 0 0.906 Reliable

enhance decision making
power of women
entrepreneur

Microfinance Institutions 30 0 0.730 Reliable

and Women
Empowerment

Space and Opportunity 34 0 0.776 Reliable

to reduce poverty of
women of Microfinance
group members

Microfinance and 35 0 0.800 Reliable

 88

changing the life style of

women entrepreneurs

Effectiveness of 36 0 0.792 Reliable

Microfinance on women
empowerment

There are certain criteria to test the reliability of the instruments, which are supposed to
categories them from poor to good. The reliability by Cronbach's alpha is ―less than 0.60
is deemed poor while those in the range of 0.70 is acceptable and those above 0.80 is
considered as good‖ (Sekaran, U. , 1992)On the basis of these criteria, all the instruments
or variables are found good. The Cronbach's alpha of the variable Microfinance and
women empowerment and space and opportunity for poverty is also acceptable.

Analysis and Interpretation of Data

The Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) is a software package used in
statistical analysis of data. It was developed by SPSS Inc. and acquired by IBM in 2009.
The Statistics Package for Social Science (SPSS) Version 24.0 for Windows software is
used to analyze the data using descriptive statistics in the present study. The descriptive
measures are concerned with the ―description and/or summarization of the data obtained
for a group of individual units of
analysis (Lafourcade A., 2005). Average, frequencies, standard deviations, correlations,
multiple regressions, one way ANOVA, t-test etc. are used to make applicable to the
universe.
Average
The present study has used an average to measure the mean or mean or aggregate view of
the respondents /employees of the different Microfinance companies.
Frequencies
 89

The frequency distributions of the demographic characteristics provide a profile of the of

Nepal in the present study.
Standard deviation
The standard deviation measures the spread of the data about the mean value and it is
useful in comparing sets of data which may have the same mean but a different range
(Crampton, S & Mishra, J., 1999). A low value of standard deviation indicates that the
data are very close to the average value and high value of standard deviation indicates
that the data are spread out or far from the average value.

Chi Square P-Values.

A chi square test is going to give you a p-value. The p-value is going to tell you if your
test results are significant or not. In order to perform a chi square test and get the p-value,
you need two pieces of information:
1. Degrees of freedom. That‘s just the number of categories minus 1.
2. The alpha level (α). This is chosen by you, or the researcher. The usual alpha level is
0.05 (5%), but you could also have other levels like 0.01.

Methods used for chi-square in Present Research

Null hypothesis: - There is no association between the Purpose of Loan Use and
Quantitative Variables.

Alternative hypothesis: Alternative hypothesis: There is an association between the

variables i.e. Purpose of Loan Use and Quantitative Variables.

Significance level: α = .05

Correlation: The present study has used correlations to analyze and examine the
relationship of the independent variables on the dependent variable. It measures the
degree to which different variables are related to one another. ―The correlation coefficient
is represented by a value between -1 and 1‖ (Joseph, K., & Kalwani, M. U., 1992). The
closer, the coefficient is to either of the limits, the stronger the relationship between the
two variable (Howell, 2007) A correlation of 0.10 is described as a small effect size, a
 90

correlation of 0.30 is described as a medium effect size and a correlation of 0.50 is

described as a large effect size (Cohen, 1998). In the present study, correlations are
calculated to indentify the relationships between dependent variable and independent
variables.

Multiple regressions: The present study also has used multiple regressions, which
measure the relationship between a dependent variable and independent variables. It
shows how much of the change in a dependent variable can be accounted for by several
independent variables (Skykes, 2009). According to Keith, with multiple regressions we
can use ―multiple independent variables to explain variation in a dependent variable‖
(Keith, 2006). According to Joseph, ―the usefulness of regression model was evaluated
by the coefficient of determination, denoted by R-Square‖ (Joseph, 2011). The coefficient
of determination represents the proportion of an R2 of .01 represents a small effect size,
an R2 of .09 represents a medium effect size and an R2 of .25 represents a large effect
size (Cohen, 1988). In the present study, the multiple regressions are calculated to
indentify the predictably of employee empowerment.

One Way ANOVA: The one way ANOVA measures the variation between groups of
questions (Salkind, 2004). F-test, degree of freedom, p value were calculated to see the
relationship between women empowerment and demographic characteristics of women
entrepreneur.

The t-test: The t-test evaluates whether the mean values of two groups are statistically
different from each other or not. It is appropriate to compare the mean values of two
groups. The t-value will be negative if the first mean value is lower than the second and
positive if it is greater. In the present study, P value and degree of freedom were
calculated to see the relationship between women empowerment and demographic
characteristics of women entrepreneur.

Ethical Issues of the Research

Ethical issues are great concerns in research. The research study should respect the non-
negotiable value of honesty and fairness. ―The research process creates tension between
 91

the aims of research to make generalizations for the good of others and the rights of
participants to maintain privacy‖ .Ethics pertains to doing well and avoiding harm in
research. Harm can be prevented through the application of appropriate ethical principles.
Research strategies which are used to collect data and selection criteria also have ethical
implications.

Autonomy
Autonomy is the main principle of ethic in research. Respondents should have the
autonomy in the dissemination of their views. Researcher has no ethical right to give
pressure to the respondents. Researcher should respect the autonomy of respondents. It
means that ―participants exercise their rights as autonomous persons to voluntarily accept
or refuse to participate in the study‖

Beneficence: The benefits and potential risks are difficult to identify in advance, but it is
important to recognize them and make room for benefits of the research to be shared with
the participants and for the potential of risks be minimized for all. The other principle of
ethic of this study is beneficence. It is the principle of doing well others. The researcher
should give the importance to the respondents or participants. ―They should not be
exploit, they have right to know the purpose data collection, participants should be told
how results is going to be published. ―Quotations or other data from the participants, even
though anonymous could reveal their identity‖.

Justice: The next principle of justice is ethics. Ethics refers to fairness and equality and
the crucial and distinctive features of this principle are ―avoiding exploitation and abuse
of participants or respondents. This study has considered the ethical issues of the research
respondents or organizations. It has given importance to non-negotiable value of honesty
and fairness. Respect for persons, view of respondents etc. are maintained properly.
Confidentiality of the respondents and organizations are given more importance.
Principles of ethics such as autonomy, beneficence and justice are applied as the
guidelines for ethical research.
 92

Concluding Remarks
This chapter especially discusses the methodology part of the study like research
philosophy, research design, research strategy, population and sampling, data collection,
tools of analysis and interpretation of data. It also discusses reliability and ethical issues
of the study. It has provided a frame work or way to find out the results of a research
problem.
 93

Chapter IV

RESULTS , FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION

Data presentation and analysis forms an integral part of all academic studies, commercial,
industrial and marketing activities as well as professional practices. It is necessary to
make use of collected data which is considered to be raw data which must be processed to
put for any application. Data analysis helps in the interpretation of data and takes a
decision or answer the research question. This can be done by using data processing tools
and software‘s. Data analysis starts with the collection of data followed by data
processing by various data processing methods and sorting it. Processed data helps in
obtaining information from it as the raw data is non-comprehensive in nature. Presenting
the data includes the pictorial representation of the data by using graphs, charts, maps and
other methods.

Demographic Characteristics
The population comprised women‘s of different Microfinance loan users of Microfinance
Industry of different Address, Name of the group , marital status of women entrepreneur,
no of family members adult , number of children‘s family members adult , house details
own or rental , formation of the group , joining the group , loan obtained , group of
internal loan etc are the demographic variables during the study .This study compromised
390 employees / sample in the industry . Frequency distribution construction for all the
demographic characteristics as follows:

Address

An address is a collection of information, presented in a mostly fixed format, used to give

the location of the respondents addresses. Address is the important factor of demographic
variables in the Microfinance industry. The Table 4.1.1 shows the results of frequency
distribution of the address of the respondents in the Microfinance Industry for using
loans.. The results of the distribution of address are shown in 4.1.1
 94

Table 4.1.1 Address

Address Frequency %
Biratnagar 28 7.2
Birgunj 51 13.1
Kirtipur 68 17.4
Magar Gaun 120 30.8
Nakhudol 98 25.1
Shanti marg, Thapagaun 23 5.9
Total 390 100

Demographic profile of village in this section, data on the address is captured. The
respondents were required to indicate their address. Percentages have been used to
analyze the data. Findings are presented on figure shows that of the surveyed respondents
7.2% of the respondents are from Biratnagar, 13.1% of the respondents are from Birgunj,
17.4% of the respondents are from Kirtipur, 30.8% of the respondents are from Magar
Gaun, 25.1% of the respondents are from Nakhudol and 5.9% of the respondents are from
Shanti Marg, Thapagaun. The maximum % of the respondents is from Magar Gaun as
according to the present analysis.
 95

Address of the Respondents

13% 15% Biratnagar

Birgunj
13%
Kirtipur
19%
Magar Gaun
Nakhudol
21%
Shanti marg,Thapagaun
19%

Figure 3 Address

Pie diagram shows the addresses of the respondents from different places. The
respondents 7% of the respondents are from Biratnagar, 13% of the respondents are from
Birgunj, 17% of the respondents are from Kirtipur, 31% of the respondents are from
Magar Gaun, 25% of the respondents are from Nakhudol and 6% of the respondents are
from Shanti Marg, Thapagaun.

Group Name
Microfinance is a financial service aimed at low-income individuals or at those who do
not have direct access to typical banking services. With the history of quite a few
decades, MFIs in Nepal have been following a few prominent Microfinance models.
These comprise of Microfinacemodel, Small Farmer Microfinace Limited (SFCL) model,
Grameen Bank model, and Community based organizations (COs) or Self-Help Groups
(SHGs) model. The present 390 data have been collected from different microcredit
groups like Bagmati Mahila Vikash Kendra, Bungmati Mahila Vikash Kendra ,
Daksinkali MahilaVikash Kendra , Grameen Vikash Bank Kendra 5 , Grameen Vikash
Bank Kendra 52 , Shree Kalika Mahila Samuha
 96

Table 4.1.2 Group Name

Group Name Frequency %
Bagmati MahilaVikash Kendra 130 33.33
Bungmati MahilaVikash Kendra 50 12.82
Daksinkali MahilaVikash Kendra 29 7.43
Gadhimai MahilaVikash Kendra 88 22.56
Grameen Vikash Bank Kendra 5 52 13.33
Grameen Vikash Bank Kendra 52 39 10
Shree Kalika Mahila Samuha 2 0.51
Total 390 100

Demographic profile of village in this section, data on the Group is captured. The
respondents were required to indicate the group name. Percentages have been used to
analyze the data. The present data represents that of the surveyed respondents 33.3% of
the respondents are from Bagmati MahilaVikash Kendra, 12.82% of the respondents are
from Bungmati MahilaVikash Kendra, and 7.43% of the respondents are from Daksinkali
MahilaVikash Kendra, 22.56% of the respondents are Gadhimai MahilaVikash Kendra
13.33% of the respondents are from Grameen Vikash Bank Kendra 5, 10% of the
respondents are from Grameen Vikash Bank Kendra 52, 0.51% of the respondents are
from Shree Kalika Mahila Samuha.

District
District is also the most important factor during data collection. I have visited different
districts and places for data collection related to women empowerment. The places which
I have visited during the data collection are shown in Table 4.1.3.
 97

Table 4.1.3 District

District Frequency Percent

Kathmandu 110 28.2
Lalitpur 156 40
Morang 75 19.23
Parsa 49 12.56
Total 390 100

Demographic profile of village in this section, data on the address is captured. The
respondents were required to indicate their District. Percentages have been used to
analyze the data. Findings are presented on figure shows that of out of the surveyed
respondents 28.2% of the respondents are from Kathmandu, 40 % of the respondents are
from Lalitpur, 19.23% of the respondents are from Morang, 12.56% of the respondents
are from Parsa. The maximum % of the respondents found is from Lalitpur as according
to the data. The maximum respondents are from Lalitpur district which is 40%.

District

13%
Kathmandu
28%
Lalitpur
19%
Morang

Parsa

40%

Figure 4 District
 98

Pie diagram shows the addresses of the respondents from different places. Findings are
presented on pie diagram to shows that of out of the surveyed respondents 28 % of the
respondents are from Kathmandu, 40 % of the respondents are from Lalitpur, 19% of the
respondents are from Morang, 12% of the respondents are from Parsa.

Educational Qualifications
Education derived from the word educare which implies that there is increase in
reasoning ability of the person. Education is the kindling of a flame not the filling of a
vessel rightly said by Socrates. Education serves as an eye opener and makes the
individuals aware of the happenings in and around the world. Education status of women
during study is present as below:
 99

Table 4.1.4 Educational Qualifications

Level of education Frequency Percent

Literate 192 49.23
Illiterate 80 20.51
PCL 46 11.79
SLC 72 18.46
Total 390 100.0

Microfinance has played role to make women literate as above table shows that illiterate
women are with 20.51%, PCL Level are 11.79%, SLC Level 18.46%. According the
study that Microfinance helps to illiterate and literate women to create self-employment
and earn their livelihood through financing in income generating activities.

Educational Qualification

18%
Literate

49% Illiterate
12%
PCL
SLC

21%

Figure 5 Educational Qualification

 100

Pie diagram shows the addresses of the respondents from different places. Findings are
presented on pie diagram to shows Microfinance has played role to make women literate
as above table shows that illiterate women are with 20.51%, PCL Level are 11.79%, SLC
Level 18.46%.

Marital Status
To ascertain the marital status of the entire respondent group the data obtained was
analyzed. In this group, the coverage of people was married and single. They can easily
interact with this group as they were able to concentrate their income level and they seek
the solutions for their problems. Microfinance provides loan for married only but again
they have rules for providing loan to single women above 35 years

Table 4.1.5 Marital status of the respondents

Marital Status Frequency Percent

Married 384 98.46
Single 6 1.53
Divorced 0 0
Total 390 100.0

Demographic profile of marital status is analyzed in this section; data on the marital
status was captured. The respondents were required to indicate their marital status as
married and single. Percentages have been used to analyze the data. Findings are
presented on figure 4.6, shows that of the surveyed respondents 98.46% are married
while 1.53% of the respondents are Single, None of the respondents are Divorced. This is
an indication that the married are the ones actively involved in Microfinance and
 101

improving in financial condition. Microfinance provides loan for married only but again
they have rules for providing loan to single women above 35 years.

Marital Status

400
350
300
250
200 Marital Status
150
100
50
0
Married Single Divorced

Figure 6 Marital Status

Bar Diagram shows the marital status of the respondents from different places. Findings
are presented in the above Bar Diagram shows that of the surveyed respondents 98.46%
are married while 1.53% of the respondents are Single, None of the respondents are
Divorced. This is an indication that the married are the ones actively involved in
Microfinance and improving in financial condition. Microfinance provides loan for
married only but again they have rules for providing loan to single women above 35
years.

Age
Age is a determining and motivating factor to analyze the respondent‘s interest towards
joining in Microfinance groups, since age is the main contributing factor. The young and
middle age group people can actively participate in the socioeconomic activities of
 102

Microfinance. The results of distribution of age of loan users in Microfinance Company

are shown in Table 4.1.6

4.1.6 Frequency Distribution by Age

Age Frequency Percent

Below 30 60 15.38
31-40 75 19.23
41-50 75 19.23
51-60 80 20.51
61-70 50 12.82
Above 71 50 12.82
Total 390 100

Demographic profile of Age of the respondents in this section, data related to the Age of
the respondents was captured. The respondents were required to indicate their Age. The
Percentages of age have been used to analyze the data. Findings are presented on above ,
The present analysis 15.38% of the respondents age lies below 30 , 19.23% of the
respondents age lies in between 31-40 , 19.23% of the respondents age lies in between
41-50 , 20.51% of the respondents age lies in between 51-60 , 12.82% of the respondents
age are above 61.
 103

Age Group
90
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
Below 30 31-40 41-50 51-60 61-70 Above 71

Age Gropup

Figure 7 Age Group

Bar Diagram shows the Age group of the respondents of different women entrepreneur.
The present bar diagram shows. that 15.38% of the respondents age lies below 30 ,
19.23% of the respondents age lies in between 31-40 , 19.23% of the respondents age
lies in between 41-50 , 20.51% of the respondents age lies in between 51-60 , 12.82% of
the respondents lies above 60 and 71.

No of family members Adult

Family is a group defined by a sex relationship sufficiently precise and enduring to
provide for the procreation and upbringing of children. To give them good education,
healthy standard of living, planned family is important. To avoid discrimination also, it is
very important to have planned family. Family is a group of individuals, who share a
legal or genetic bond, but for many people, family means much more, and even the
simple idea of genetic bonds can be more complicated than it seems According the
present study the number of number of family members adult are shown as below in
Table 4.1.7.
 104

Table 4.1.7 No of family members Adult

No of family members Frequency Percent

Adult
1 50 12.82
2 50 12.82
3 64 16.41
4 66 16.92
5 75 19.23
6 66 16.92
7 19 4.87
Total 390 100

Demographic profile of number of family members in this section, data on group is

captured. Findings are presented on figure shows that 12.82% of the respondents family
member is 1, 12.82% of the respondents family member is 2, 16.41% of the number of
the family number is 3, 16.92% of the number of the family member is 4, 19.23% of the
number of the family number is 5, 16.23% of the number of the family member is 6 is
16.92%.4.87% of the no of family members is 7.

Number of Children Family Members

Family is that part of a household comprising at least two people and composed of a
couple either without children or with a child or children who belong to the same
household - an adult and his/her child (ren) who belong to the same household (single-
parent family). In order for someone to be counted as a child of a family, that person
must be single and have no spouse/life partner or children belonging to the same
household According the present study the number of children family members of loan
users are shown below in Table 4.1.8
 105

Table 4.1.8 Number of Children Family Members

Number of Children Family
Members Frequency Percent
1 59 15.12
2 59 15.12
3 80 20.51
4 64 16.41
5 52 13.33
6 44 11.28
7 32 8.20
Total 390 100

Demographic profile of village in this section, data on the address is captured. The
respondents were required to indicate their number of children family members.
Percentages have been used to analyze the data. Findings are presented on figure shows
that of the surveyed respondents 15.12% of the respondents with number of family
members adult is 1, 15.12% of the respondents with number of children 2, 20.51% of the
respondents with number of children 3, 16.41% of the respondents with number of
children 4,13. 33% of the respondents with number of children 5, 11.28% of the
respondents with number of children 6, 8.20% of the respondents with number of
children 7.

Land Owned
Land is the Land is real estate or property, minus buildings and equipment that is
designated by fixed spatial boundaries. Land ownership may offer the titleholder the right
to natural resources on the land. Land is an area of ground, especially one that is used for
a particular purpose such as farming or building. The results of distribution of land in the
microcredit company loan users are as shown in Table 4.1.9
 106

Table 4.1.9 If land owned

If Land Owned Frequency Percent
Yes 24 6.15
No 366 93.46
390 100

Demographic profile of the If land owned in this section data is captured. Findings are
presented on figure shows. 6.15% of the respondents owned land and 93.46% of the
respondents without land. The maximum percentage of the respondents is without land.

Year of Formation of Group

Microfinance is a financial service aimed at low-income individuals or at those who do
not have direct access to typical banking services. Microfinance encompasses a number
of financial services like micro-credit, micro-lending, micro-insurance, savings and
money transfer among others. MFIs in Nepal have been following a few prominent
Microfinance models. These

comprise of Microfinacerative model, Small Farmer Microfinacerative Limited (SFCL)

model, Grameen Bank model, and Community based organizations (COs) or Self-Help
Groups (SHGs) model. In addition, Village Bank (VB) is also considered a separate
program/model of Microfinance in Nepal. The formation of group of Microfinance
Company is presented as below 4.1.10
 107

Table 4.1.10 Year of Formation of Group

Year of formation of Frequency Percent

group
5 136 34.87
8 40 10.25
10 100 25.64
12 24 6.15
15 24 6.15
20 66 16.92
Total 390 100

Mainly, members of the Microfinance are women. Consequently, participation of women

in the country‘s economic development is increasing. They also play an important role in
elevating the economic status of their families. This has led boost to the process of
women‘s empowerment. In the recent years, empowerment has been recognized as the
central issue in determining status of women. Since women become more potent source
of development empowering them is prerequisite for over all development. By
empowering women not only make them to share in the development progress but also
bring out their lasting efficiency. According to the data the year of the formation of group
5 is 34.87%, group 8 is 10.25%, group 10 is 25.64% , group 12 is 6.15%, group 15 is 6.15
and group 20 is 16.92%.

Maximum and minimum loan obtain year of group formation

Nepal is underdeveloped and poor country and without loan no one can exist.
Microfinance Company are established with a vision for providing loan to the low label
people for enhancing the life The minimum and maximum loan provided by the
Microfinance industry for doing business are shown in Table 4.1.11
 108

Table 4.1.11 Maximum and minimum loan obtain year of group formation

Loan obtained Frequency Percent

0 18 4.61
10000 244 62.56
30000 12 3.07
50000 104 26.67
100000 12 3.07
Total 390 100

Microfinance, also called microcredit, is a type of banking service that is provided to

unemployed or low-income individuals or groups who otherwise would have no other
access to financial services. While institutions participating in the area of
Microfinance most often provide lending ( Here in the data loans can range from Rs
10000 to as large as Rs1,00,000 ), many banks offer additional services, such as checking
and savings accounts, and micro insurance products; and some even provide financial
and business education. Ultimately, the goal of Microfinance is to give impoverished
people an opportunity to become self-sufficient. The loan obtained by the women
entrepreneur are of Amount 10000 is 62.56%, 30000 is 3.07% , 50000 is 26.67% ,
100000 is 3.07%.

Total loan provided by Microfinance to women empowerment

Microfinance services lead to women‘s empowerment by positively influencing women‘s

decision-making power and enhancing their overall socio-economic status. The results of
the total loan provided by Microfinance for women empowerment are shown in the table
4.1.12.
 109

Table 4.1.12 Total loan provided by Microfinance to women empowerment

Total loan Frequency Percent

10000 18 4.61
20000 56 14.35
30000 64 16.41
50000 20 5.12
60000 100 25.64
100000 50 12.82
150000 22 5.64
160000 20 5.12
300000 40 10.25
Total 390 100

Microfinance loan is offering a tiny loan to people who are unemployed or have low
income. A microloan is also called microcredit loan is also called microcredit, but these
two are quite different. Institutions that offer microloans also offer various products
related to Microfinance loans. The microloan needs to be paid off within a short period of
time, For example, many financial companies offer micro-insurance, banks accounts,
providing financial education etc. When the poor or unemployed people are given the
microloan, the interest rate is not the number one concern for them. It‘s because first of
all, the interest rate is a simple interest rate. So no matter how high it becomes, it doesn‘t
concern them. The maximum loan obtained by provided by finance company for doing
micro business. 4.61% of the women get loan of Rs 10000, 14.35% of the women get
loan amount of Rs 20000, 16.41% of the women get loan amount of Rs 30000 , 5.12% of
the women get loan amount of Rs 50000, 25.64% of the women get loan amount of Rs
60000, 12.82% of the women get loan amount of Rs 100000, 5.64% of the women get
loan amount of Rs 150000, 5.12% of the women get loan amount of Rs 160000 , 10.25%
of the women get loan amount of Rs 300000.
 110

Frequency of joining the group

Economic transformation of the poor and deprived rural population lies on the shift in
rural economic activities from subsistence to commercial. The savings and investments of
the rural population are low due to low earnings. To mitigate the saving investment gap
in the rural economy, universal access to rural finance would be desirable. The results of
distribution of frequency of joining the group are shown in Table 4.1.13

Table 4.1.13 Frequency of group Join

Group join Frequency Percent

1 40 10.25
2 45 11.53
3 80 20.52
5 40 10.25
6 18 4.61
7 20 5.12
8 52 13.33
10 35 8.97
12 10 2.56
15 20 5.12
20 30 7.69
Total 390 100

Demographic profile of village in this section, data on the frequency of joining the group
is captured. The respondents were required to indicate the frequency of joining the group
Percentages have been used to analyze the data. Findings are presented on figure shows
that of the surveyed respondents 10.25% of the respondents have join the group as 1,
11.53% of the respondents have join the group as 2 and 20.52% of the respondents have
join the group 3, 10.25% of the respondents have join the group as 4, 4.61% of the
respondents have join the group as 6, 5.12 % of the respondents have join the group by 7,
 111

13.3% of the respondents have join the group as 8, 8.97%% of the respondents have join
the group by 10,2.56% of the respondents have join the group by 12, 5.12% of the
respondents have join the group as 15 and 7.69% of the respondents have join the group
as 20.

Group Internal Loan

Group internal loan is the most of the important demographic characteristics of
Microfinance loan users. The results of distribution of group internal loan provided by
Microfinance companies are shown in Table 4.1.14

Table 4.1.14 Group of internal loan

Group Internal Loan Frequency Percent

10000 70 17.94
20000 40 10.25
30000 56 14.35
50000 50 12.82
60000 56 14.35
100000 8 0.20

150000 60 15.38
300000 20 5.12
600000 30 7.69
Total 390 100

The internal source of capital is the one which is generated internally by the business.
Retained profits, Reduction or controlling of working capital, Sale of Assets Reduction or
controlling of working capital .The internal source of funds has the same characteristics
of owned capital. The group of internal loan provided by Microfinance Company is in
between Rs 10000 to Rs 600000. 7.69 of the people get group internal loan amount of Rs
60000.
 112

Actual utilization of Microfinance loan

Women perform the tasks that are done near the home for sharing their time between
their income generating activities and their reproductive roles. This gives to men an
opportunity to perform the tasks that require more mobility and interaction with the
public. For promoting equal opportunities in decisions regarding the utilization of loans,
there is a need to ensure that increased access to microcredit is accompanied with other
empowering initiatives that reduce women‘s attachment to household chores. The results
of distributions of actual utilization of Microfinance loan in the finance companies are
shown in Table 4.1.15.

Table 4. 1.15 Actual utilization of Microfinance loan

Actual utilization of Frequency Percent

Microfinance loan

Beauty parlour 12 3.07

Contractor 15 3.84
Cow business 23 5.89
Cow farming 20 5.12
Dairy farm 23 5.89
Farming 30 7.69
Garment factory 40 10.25
Grocery 45 11.53
Hotel 20 5.12
Hotel plus grocery 25 6.41
Pasmina Shawl factory 20 5.12
Photo studio 20 5.12
Tailoring Shop 23 5.89
Tea shop 19 4.87
 113

Toys making 20 5.12

Vegetable farming 10 2.56
Vegetable production 10 2.56
Vegetable shop 15 3.84

Total 390 100

Microfinance has been providing loan for undertaking income-generating activities like
trade/ business, poultry farming, manufacturing, agriculture farming, and livestock
farming. Some amount of the loan is used for purchasing assets, household consumption,
foreign employment, and repayment of loans. Most of the people take loans for for
productive activities (business). Amount demanded for the purpose of first loan was
grocery Beauty parlour 3.07%, Contractor 3.84%, Cow business 5.89%, Cow Farming is
5.12%, Dairy Farm is 5.89%, Farming 7.69%, Garment Factory is 10.25%, Grocery is
11.53%, Hotel us 5.12%, Hotel plus Grocery is 6.41%, pashmina Shawl factory is 5.12%,
Photo Studio is 5.12%, Tailoring Shop 5.89%, Tea Shop is 4.87%, Toys making is
5.12%, Vegetable Farming is 2.56%, Vegetable production is 2.56%, Vegetable Shop is
3.84%. This proves that these micro credits were not only used productively, but they
themselves induce taking further credits. This means the loaners entrepreneurial capacity
and the intention to grow has been positive.

Descriptive Analysis
A disproportionate stratified random sampling technique was used to draw a sample of
390 respondents/female clients of Biratnagar, Parsa, Lalitpur and Kathmandu from
Nepal. Data were collected through questionnaire containing five point Likert scale
where 1= Strongly Agree, 2= Agree, 3 = Neutral neither agree not disagree, 4 = Disagree
and 5 = Strongly Disagree. Some exemplary cases have also been added in order to
observe and understand the phenomenal success of women entrepreneur. Descriptive and
frequency are used in this method for finding the 5 kinds of scale based on data analysis.
 114

4.2.1 Role of Microfinance to enhance decision making power of women

entrepreneur.

Empowering women is a vital tool for alleviating poverty Empowered women contribute
to the health and productivity of whole families and communities and to improved
prospects for the next generation. There have been several institutions advocating for
women empowerment, but

women are still poor and vulnerable as compared to men. The main reasons for the same

Strongly Agree Neutral Disagree Strongly Disagree

Agree Not Agree
nor
Disagree
Microfinance 220 0 50 0 0
helped me to (56.41%) (0%) (12.82%) (0%) (0%)
take decision of
household affairs
Microfinance 150 112 0 50 0
helped me to (38.46%) (28.71%) (0%) (12.82%) (0%)
take decision
towards my
children's
education
Microfinance 144 104 46 0 0
helped me to (36.92%) (26.67%) (11.79%) (0%) (0%)
take decision to
use the loan
independently
I became able to 150 140 0 90 0
take decision to (38.46) (35.89%) (0%) (23.07%) (0%)
purchase assets
like TV, Fridge,
Mobile,
Furniture, etc
 115

are economic dependence on male members, rapid increase in population,

unemployment, illiteracy and lack of access to credit. Rural women play a significant role
in the domestic and socio-economic life of the society and therefore, national
development is not possible without developing this segment of the society. For the
development of poor women it is essential to improve their economic and social status.
When their economic, cultural and social status improves, it is known as women
empowerment. 56.41% of the respondents strongly agree that Microfinance helped me to
take decision of household affairs. 38.46% of the respondents strongly agree that
Microfinance helped me to take decision to use the loan independently. 36.42% of the
respondents strongly agree that I became able to take decision to purchase assets like TV,
Fridge, Mobile, Furniture etc. 38.46 % of the respondents strongly agree that I am
confident to take decision to purchase land/house
 116

Table 4.2.2 Microfinance Institutions and Women Empowerment

Role Strongly Agree Neutral Disagree Strongly

Agree Not Agree Disagree
nor
Disagree
Microfinance is 138 104 50 0 0
very useful as it (35.38%) (26.67%) (12.82%) (0%) (0%)
helped me to
become an
entrepreneur
I became 101 65 35 0 0
confident to (25.89%) (16.67%) (8.97%) (0%) (0%)
fight with
domestic
violence by the
family
members
The treatment 140 152 45 0 0
of my (35.89%) (38.97%) (11.53%) (0%) (0%)
spouse/family
members
towards me has
changed
positively
Microfinance 136 154 70 0 0
Institution (34.87%) (39.48%) (17.94%) (0%) (0%)
educated me to
know my rights
 117

and duties
I got 190 150 34 30 25
empowered to (48.71%) (38.46%) (8.71%) (7.69%) (6.41%)
use of available
resources to
solve family
and social
problems
I became able 132 112 26 0 4
to know that (33.84%) (28.71%) (6.67%) (0%) (4%)
women have
reservations in
parliament and
in government
jobs.
Microfinance 128 98 44 30 40
educated me to (32.82%) (25.12%) (11.28%) (7.69%) (10.25%)
know about
group meeting
procedures and
record keeping

By the help of 126 246 24 2 2

Microfinance (32.30%) (63.07%) (6.15%) (0.5%) (0.5%)
Institution I get
involved and
take interest in
village conflict
management.
 118

Microfinance 126 146 75 0 34

Institutions (32.30%) (37.43%) (19.23%) (0%) (8.71%)
provide
employment
opportunity to
become a
trainer
Microfinance 128 146 48 0 2
institutions (32.82%) (37.43%) (12.30%) (0%) (2%)
encourage to
be a team
leader

The present study focuses on the role of Microfinance in empowering women and also
acknowledges its‘ significance in alleviating poverty. The researcher used qualitative
approach and case study method for in depth analysis of the phenomenon in context of
Nepal, an interest on Microfinance organization. It was recognized that Microfinance
brings about changes in women‘s lives: household condition, family wellbeing and social
status. It is improved by availing the services of Microfinance institution and interest free
loans further add to their well-being. Present study focused on four background variables
to examine their influence on decision making ability of women in aspects of their
domestic and social life. Age, education, marital status and family type are important
contributing factors that influence women‘s empowerment. It was also observed that
women are more inclined to be selfless and spend most of their income on their families.
35.38% of the respondents strongly agree that Microfinance is very useful as it helped me
to become an entrepreneur. 25.89% of the respondents strongly agree that I became
confident to fight with domestic violence by the family members, 38.97% of the
respondents strongly agreed that the treatment of my spouse/family members towards me
has changed positively. 39.48% of the respondents strongly agree that Microfinance
 119

Institution educated me to know my rights and duties. 48.71% of the respondents agree
that I got empowered to use of available resources to solve family and social problems.
33.84% of the respondents agree that I became able to know that women have
reservations in parliament and in government jobs. 32.82% of the respondents strongly
agree that Microfinance educated me to know about group meeting procedures and record
keeping, 63.07% of the respondents agree that with the help of Microfinance Institution I
get involved and take interest in village conflict management. 37.43% of the respondents
agree that Microfinance Institutions provide employment opportunity to become a trainer,
Microfinance institutions encourage to be a team leader.
 120

Table 4.2.3 Space and opportunity to reduce poverty of women of Microfinance

group members

Strongly Agree Neutral Disagree Strongly

agree disagree
Microfinance 194 124 35 40 0
institutions (49.74%) (31.79%) (8.97%) (10.25%) (0%)
provide tiny loans
and accept
deposits which
help the woman to
start small
business with the
capital of loan and
equity from their
deposits
Micro business 148 58 50 45 25
generates income (37.94%) (14.87) (12.82%) (11.53%) (6.41%)
to fulfill the
economic
activities of the
women
entrepreneurs

Microfinance 128 158 90 18 0

provides financial (32.82%) (40.52%) (12%) (4.61%) (0%)
advice to the
women
entrepreneurs to
invest in
productive sector
Microfinance 134 144 20 0 2
project develop (34.35%) (36.73%) (5.12%) (0%) (2%)
confidence to
 121

operate bank
account
independent

Microfinance 132 152 22 60 0

provides skill to (33.84%) (38.97%) (5.64%) (15.38%) (0%)
help the
entrepreneurs to
run their own
work/business

Microfinance 140 146 80 0 10

Institutions help (35.89%) (37.43%) (20.51%) (0%) (2.56%)
to find the proper
market and
provide them
space to run their
own business
effectively
Despite the current enthusiasm in the donor community for Microfinance programs,
rigorous research on the outreach, impact and cost-effectiveness of such programs is rare.
Design of aid programs would ideally incorporate evidence on all three points, but the
research that does exist generally focuses on only one of these criteria: outreach, impact
or cost-effectiveness. In part, this reflects the difficulty of establishing an appropriate
statistical methodology and implementing those standards in practice, and in part no
doubt reflects the variations found in practice in the way in which Microfinance operates.
The evidence surveyed here suggests that the conclusion from the early literature, that
Microfinance may have had positive impacts on poverty but is unlikely to be a simple
panacea for reaching the core poor, remains broadly valid. Reaching the core poor is
difficult, and some of the reasons that made them difficult to reach with conventional
financial instruments mean that they may also be high risk and therefore unattractive
Microfinance clients. 49.74% of the respondents are strongly agree that Microfinance
 122

institutions provide tiny loans and accept deposits which help the woman to start small
business with the capital of loan and equity from their deposits. 37.94% of the
respondents strongly agree that micro business generates income to fulfill the economic
activities of the women entrepreneurs. 40.52% of the respondents agree that
Microfinance provides financial advice to the women entrepreneurs to invest in
productive sector. 36.73% of the respondents agree that Microfinance project develop
confidence to operate bank account independently. 38.97% of the respondents agree that
Microfinance provides skill to help the entrepreneurs to run their own work/business
.37.43% of the respondents agree that Microfinance Institutions help to find the proper
market and provide them space to run their own business effectively.
 123

Table 4.2.4 Microfinance and changing the life style of women entrepreneurs

Strongly Agree Neutral Disagree Strongly

Agree Disagree
Microfinance 144 198 20 0 34
teaches me how (36.92%) (50.76%) (5.12%) (0%) (8.71%)
to live a
healthy life
style
Microfinance 142 120 58 0 0
loan helped to (36.41%) (30.76%) (14.87%) (0%) (0%)
uplift my
lifestyle by
earning
through small
business for
healthier food,
clean water
and good
clothes
140 103 38 35 12
Microfinance (35.89%) (26.41%) (9.74%) (8.97%) (3.07%)
Institution
educated me
the way of
living with a
good manner
I became able 132 150 116 50 0
to change my (33.84%) (38.46%) (30.76%) (12.82%) (0%)
 124

position the
society
Through the
awareness 128 100 67 20 0
programs I am (32.82%) (25.64%) (17.17%) (5.12%) (0%)
able to change
the set of
circumstances
live properly.

Empowering of women has become very important these days. It plays a crucial role in
pushing them and making them cable of carrying out different types of small and micro
enterprises which help in improving the standard of living of their poor households. The
essence of the empowerment appears in giving them an opportunity to be self-reliant and
self-confident, it further enables them to become an active member of the family who can
participate in decision making and other related issues. Women empowerment is simply
the process by which women are made capable, financed, educated and equipped with
assets and funds to start a new small business or to support an existing one. Women
empowerment through Microfinance is an effective tool that empowers them to
participate in poverty reduction of their family and give them a chance to create new job
opportunities. It also helps in securing their food and educating children in the family. On
the other side, women reported some negative opinions about this empowerment. 50.76%
of the respondents agree that Microfinance teaches me how to live a healthy life style.
36.41% of the respondents strongly agree that Microfinance loan helped to uplift my
lifestyle by earning through small business for healthier food, clean water and good
clothes. 35.89% of the respondents strongly agree that I became able to change my
position the society, 38.46% of the respondents agree that I became able to change my
position the society 32.5% of the respondents strongly agree that through the awareness
programs I am able to change the set of circumstances live properly.
 125

Chi-square

Chi – Square Test between dependent and independent variables

This topic analyzes and evaluates the association between two variables dependent and
independent variables with chi-square analysis. Especially following research hypothesis
were tested in the topics. The present study describes the association between women
entrepreneur and role of Microfinance to enhance decision making power of women
entrepreneur, women entrepreneur contributing women to get the space and opportunity
to reduce poverty , women entrepreneur help to obtain their understanding of all
relationships between women's access to the resources to change the life style, women
entrepreneur between effectiveness of Microfinance on women empowerment and
women entrepreneur to empower women which helps to reduce towards children
education and family living style.

Association between women entrepreneur and role of Microfinance to

enhance decision making power of women entrepreneur.
H1:There is association between women entrepreneur and Microfinance to enhance
decision making power of women entrepreneur.

H2:There is no association women entrepreneur and Microfinance to enhance

decision making power of women.

Table no 4.3.1 Association between women entrepreneur and Microfinance to enhance

decision making power of women

Chi-Square Test Value DF Asymp.

Sig.(2-sided)
Pearson Chi-Square 208.00 106 0.001
Likelihood Ratio 126.504 106 0.000
N of Valid Cases 390
 126

The associations between women entrepreneur and role of Microfinance to enhance

decision making power of women entrepreneur were computed by using chi-square tests.
The results show that there is an association between women entrepreneur and role of
Microfinance to enhance decision making power of women entrepreneur, and the
calculated value is (χ2 = 208.00, n =390, P=0.01).Since, p value =0.01 and significance
value is less than 0.05, we can conclude that there is association between women
entrepreneur and role of Microfinance to enhance decision making power of women
entrepreneur.

Association between women entrepreneur and women entrepreneur

and available resources to get the space and opportunity to reduce
poverty
H1:There is association between women entrepreneur and available resources to get the
space and opportunity to reduce poverty

H2:There is no association women entrepreneur and available resources to get the space
and opportunity to reduce poverty

Table no 4.3.2Association between women entrepreneur and available resources to

get the space and opportunity to reduce poverty.

Chi-Square Test Value DF Asymp.

Sig.(2-sided)
Pearson Chi-Square 307.00 106 0.003
Likelihood Ratio 122.32 106 0.000
N of Valid Cases 390

Association between women entrepreneur to get the space and opportunity to reduce
poverty were computed by using chi-square tests. The results show that there is an
 127

association between women entrepreneur to get the space and opportunity to reduce
poverty and the calculated value is (χ2= 307.00, n =390, P=0.003).Since, p value = 0.003
and significance value is less than 0.05, we can conclude that there is association between
women entrepreneur and to get the space and opportunity to reduce poverty.
 128

Association between women entrepreneur to obtain their

understanding of all relationships between women’s access to the
resources to change the life style.
H1:There is association women entrepreneur obtain their understanding of all
relationships between women‘s access to the resources to change the life style

H2:There is no association women entrepreneur obtain their understanding of all

relationships between women‘s access to the resources to change the life
style

Table no 4.3.3 Association women entrepreneur to obtain their understanding

of all relationships between women’s access to the resources to change the life
style.

Chi-Square Test Value DF Asymp.

Sig.(2-sided)
Pearson Chi-Square 205.00 48 0.001
Likelihood Ratio 142.32 48 0.000
N of Valid Cases 390

Associations between contributing women entrepreneur to obtain their understanding

of all relationships between women‘s access to the resources and to change the life
style by using chi-square tests. The results show that there is an association between
contributing women entrepreneur to obtain their understanding of all relationships
between women‘s access to the resources to change the life style and the calculated
value is (χ2= 205.00, n =390, P=0.01).Since, p value = 0.01 and significance value is
less than 0.05, we can conclude that there is association between women entrepreneur
to obtain their understanding of all relationships in perspective of women‘s access to
the resources to change the life style.
 129

Association between women entrepreneur and effectiveness of

Microfinance towards women empowerment
H1:- There is association between women entrepreneur and effectiveness
of Microfinance towards women empowerment

H2:- There is no association between women entrepreneur and effectiveness of

Microfinance towards women empowerment

Table no 4.3.4 Association between women entrepreneur and effectiveness of

Microfinance towards women empowerment

Chi-Square Test Value DF Asymp.

Sig.(2-sided)
Pearson Chi-Square 190.00 48 0.001
Likelihood Ratio 100.32 48 0.000
N of Valid Cases 390

Associations between weather there is association between women entrepreneur and

effectiveness of Microfinance towards women empowerment were computed by using
chi-square tests. The results show that there is an association between women
entrepreneur and effectiveness of Microfinance towards women empowerment and the
calculated value is (χ2= 190.00, n =390, P=0.001).Since, p value = 0.001 and significance
value is less than 0.05, we can conclude that there is association between women
entrepreneur and effectiveness of Microfinance towards women empowerment.
 130

Association between women entrepreneur and to help children’s

education and family living style.
H1:There is an association women entrepreneur and to help children‘s education and
family living style.

H2:There is no association women entrepreneur and to help children‘s education and

family living style.

Table no 4.3.5Women entrepreneur and to help children’s education and family

living style.

Chi-Square Test Value DF Asymp.

Sig.(2-sided)
Pearson Chi-Square 190.00 48 0.001
Likelihood Ratio 100.32 48 0.000
N of Valid Cases 390

The associations between weather there is association between women entrepreneur and
Microfinance for helping children‘s education and family living style were computed by
using chi-squaretests. The results show that there is an association between weather
women entrepreneur and Microfinance for helping children‘s education and family living
style. and is calculated value is (χ2= 190.00, n =390, P=0.001).Since, p value = 0.001 and
significance value is less than 0.05, we can conclude that there is association between
women entrepreneur and Microfinance for helping children‘s education and family living
style.
 131

Association between women entrepreneur to empower women which

helps to improve towards children education and family living style.
H1: There is association between women entrepreneur to empower women which
helps to improve towards children education and family living style.

H2: There is no association women entrepreneur to empower women

whichhelps to improve towards children education and family living style.

Table no 4.3.5Association between women entrepreneur to empower women

which helps to improve children education and family living style

Chi-Square Test Value DF Asymp.

Sig.(2-sided)
Pearson Chi-Square 490.00 106 0.003
Likelihood Ratio 108.504 106 0.000
N of Valid Cases 390

Associations between women entrepreneur to empower women which helps toimprove

children education and family living stylewere computed by using chi-square tests. The
results show that there is an association betweenwomen entrepreneur to empower women
which helps to improve towards children education and family living style and the
calculated value is (χ2= 490.00, n =390, P=0.003).Since, p value = 0.04 and significance
value is less than 0.05, we can conclude that there is association between women
entrepreneur to empower women which helps to improve towards children‘s education
and family living style.
 132

MEAN STANDARD DEVIATION AND STANDARD ERROR OF WOMEN

ENTREPRENEUR
The following table displays the mean, standard deviation and standard error mean for
four variables, Role of Microfinance to enhance decision making power of women
entrepreneurs, Microfinance Institutions and women empowerment, Space and
opportunity to reduce poverty of women Microfinance group members and Microfinance
and changing the life style of women entrepreneurs . All the variables show the
satisfaction level to be more than average level of satisfaction (2.5).
Average level of satisfaction = 2.5

Variables N Mean Standard Standard error

Deviation of the mean
Role of 390 2.98 1.009 0.097
Microfinance to
enhance decision
making power of
women
entrepreneurs.
Microfinance 390 3.46 0.726 0.070
Institutions and
women
empowerment
Space and 390 2.00 0.891 0.085
opportunity to
reduce poverty of
women
Microfinance group
members
Microfinance and 390 3.01 0.938 0.090
changing the life
style of women
entrepreneurs
 133

Table 4.4.1 Descriptive Analysis

To examine the statement, Microfinance company is useful for enhancing the decision
making power of women entrepreneurs, we developed hypotheses and agreed upon the
level of significance for rejecting/accepting the hypothesis. Survey respondents indicated
their perceptions using the scale, with 5 = Strongly Disagree, 4= Strongly Agree, 3 =
Neutral, 2= Agree, 1 = strongly Agree. We took the null hypothesis to be, women
entrepreneurs are more satisfied than the average level of satisfaction (2.5), in terms of
women‘s empowerment regards changing life style, decision making and space and
opportunity. The analysis demonstrates that it is strongly significant. So our results are in
favor. This means that the satisfaction level of the respondents, about the
Microfinancecompany‘s regarding different factors like changing lifestyle of women,
poverty reduction women empowerment, and enhancing women‘s development is more
than average satisfaction level. From this study, we can conclude that the level of women
entrepreneur is more powerful after they get loans from the Microfinance.

Relationship between Women Empowerment and Demographic

Variables
Women empowerment is a depended variable of this study. Its' nature may vary in
respect of different attributes associated with demographic characteristics of the women.
In the present study, the demographic characteristics such as Age, Gender, Marital Status,
Education, purpose of loan, maximum loan provided are taken to show the relationships
with women empowerment. In practice, women‘s are still dominated by the society.
However, the study only deals with above eight demographic variables/characteristics
that may influence the nature of the women empowerment. All the variables were
measured on a 5-point Likert scale. This scale used to interpret the variables ranged from
1.0-1.49 as Strongly Disagree followed by 1.50-2.49 for Disagree 2.50-3.49 for Neutral
3.50-4.49 for Agree and finally 4.5-5.00 for Strongly agree. In order to examine and
evaluate the relationship between Women empowerment and demographic
characteristics t-test, p-value, degrees freedom and one way ANOVA were used.
 134

Table 4.5.1Shows the results of descriptive statistics of women empowerment by

Age and results of ANOVA.

4.5.1 Women empowerment and Age

Age Mean N SD
Below 30 3.3206 60 0.7667
31-40 3.6750 75 0.5667
41-50 3.2457 75 0.5667
51-60 3.2134 80 0.6578
61-70 3.5254 50 0.6690
Above 71 3.1221 50 0.6780
F Statistics 4.2895 df1 8
P value 0.002 df2 390

Table 4.5.1 Shows a significant difference in mean value for women empowerment
across six age-groups (F= 4.2895 df1=6, df2=390, p-value=0.001) at 5 percent level of
significance. It means the women empowerment with age has some degree of relation
with Microfinance. The minimum mean value (3.1221) and maximum mean value
(3.6750) that all belong to the range 3.50-4.49 which indicates that all the women age
group use Microfinance loans helps for reducing poverty, decision making power and
change the lifestyle of women entrepreneur.
 135

4.5.2 Women empowerment and Marital Status

Table 4.5.2 shows the results of descriptive statistics of women empowerment by marital
status and the results of t-test.

Marital Status Frequency Mean sd

Married 384 3.5900 0.8122
Single 6 2.1222 0.3455
Divorced 0 0 0
T Statistics = 3.6756 df = 302 P Value =0.001

Table 4.5.2 shows a significant difference in mean value for women empowerment
between single, married and divorced women‘s (t= -3.6756, df= 304, p-value = 0.001) at
5 per cent level of significance. It means the marital status of women entrepreneur has
some degree of relation with women empowerment. This indicates that the married
women entrepreneur wants to use Microfinance loan for doing business for improving
household task, children‘s education, poverty reduction rather than single women and
divorced women. The mean value for married divorce and single women 3.5900 belongs
to the range 3.50-4.49, which depicts that the both married and unmarried women wants
to be empower.
 136

Table 4.5.3 shows the results of descriptive statistics of women empowerment by

Group Name Frequency Mean SD

Bagmati Mahila Vikash Kendra 130 3.9100 0.2557
Bungmati Mahila Vikash Kendra 50 3.5200 0.3567
Daksinkali Mahila Vikash Kendra 29 3.5334 0.3345
Gadhimai Mahila Vikash Kendra 88 4.3245 0.3324
Grameen Vikash Bank Kendra 5 52 4.3100 0.3123
Grameen Vikash Bank Kendra 52 39 4.2100 0.3311
Shree Kalika Mahila Samuha 2 3.5100 0.3210
F Statistics 4.2895 df1 7
P value 0.004 df2 345

Age and results of ANOVA.

Table 4.5.3 shows a significant difference in mean value for women empowerment with
group across seven group (F= 4.2895 df1=7, df2=390, p-value=0.004) at 5 percent level
of significance. It means the women empowerment with group name has some degree of
relation with Microfinance. The minimum mean value (3.1221) and maximum mean
value (3.5100) that all belong to the range 3.50-4.49 which indicates that all the women
age group users are associated towards through self-skill development programmes to
utilize the under-utilised/ un-utilised women which results for their income generation .
 137

Women empowerment and Education Status

The results of descriptive statistics of Women empowerment by education and the results
of ANOVA are shown in Table 4.4.4

Level of Frequency Mean S.d

education
Literate 192 3.5334 0.3211
Illiterate 80 3.4543 0.4322
PCL 46 3.6566 0.3867
SLC 72 4.1000 0.3321
F Statistics 4.2895 df1 8
P value 0.004 df2 389

Table 4.4.4 shows no significant difference in mean value for women empowerment
across Four education levels (F= 0.323, df1= 8, df2= 390, p-value = 0.004) at 5 per cent
level of significance. It means the education has relation with women empowerment. The
minimum mean value (3.6474) and maximum mean value (4.0333) that all belong to the
range 3.50-4.49. It depicts that the education level of women entrepreneur is in good
condition for doing business. Thus, education relation with women empowerment. Table
4.5.4 shows that the majority of women were literate in the banking industry of Nepal.
Whatever the Education is the main factor in the development of any country and the
people of the country. How education is empowering women and how education help in
empowering women in various countries where education is just a magical word for
women.

Analysis of Women Empowerment and factors helping women

entrepreneur
The study has focused five variables: Decision making power, Poverty Reduction,
Effectiveness of women empower, Change in lifestyle, space and opportunity to access
the resources, Poverty Reduction. A5-point Likert scale was used to interpret the
 138

variables ranged from 1.0-1.49 as Strongly Disagree followed by 1.50-2.49 for Disagree,
2.50-3.49 for Neutral/Not Sure, 3.50-4.49 for Agree and finally 4.50-5.00 for Strongly
Agree. The results of women entrepreneur and women empowerment ‟ response on
dependent and independent variables are shown in

Table no 4.5.1

Variables Mean SD
Decision making power 3.5120 0.71
Poverty Reduction 3.5999 0.75
Change in lifestyle 4.1111 0.73
Effectiveness of women empower 3.6789 0.75
Space and Opportunity 3.5900 0.69

Decision making power

Decision making power was measured by helped me to take decision of household affairs
, to take decision towards my children's education, to take decision to use the loan
independently, decision to purchase assets like TV, Fridge, Mobile, Furniture, etc. The
mean value for Decision making power of women entrepreneur was 3150 with standard
deviation of 0.71. This mean value is very close to the range 3.50-4.49. It means the term
Women empowerment means the potential of women in order to take better decisions
with respective to their life and jobs, providing rights that are equal in all aspects like:
personal, social, economic, political, legal etc. Women are increasingly getting
empowered to decide their way of life and establish their fullest potential. For the
betterment of our country's future women empowerment is a must as women are better
manager of overall society.Women empowerment is giving legitimate power or authority
to perform the tasks. If women were empowered they would be able to participate in the
planning and decision making task and contribute to the development programmes and
activities individually.
 139

Poverty Reduction
This present study is aimed at identifying the role of women entrepreneurs' participation
in poverty reduction. Poverty reduction, or poverty alleviation, is a set of measures,
both economic and humanitarian, that are intended to permanently lift people out
of poverty. Poverty reduction of women entrepreneur was measured, to provide loan and
accepts small deposits for business, to start microbusiness by women entrepreneur, to
operate bank account independently, to gain skills related to business, to find the proper
market to run business independently. The mean value for Poverty reduction of women
entrepreneur was 3.5999 with standard deviation of 0.71. This mean value is very close to
the range 3.50-4.49. It means the term Women entrepreneur means that through the
Microfinance they can get loan to business independently. In fact, there is
incontrovertible evidence from a number of studies conducted during the 1980s that
mothers typically spend their income on food and health care for children, which is in
sharp contrast to men, who spend a higher proportion of their income for personal needs.
―Microfinance services, specifically credit for self-employment and savings capabilities‖
and shall focus on the world‘s poorest people. Women‘s access should be prioritized, as
they are ―very adept at saving, highly creative entrepreneurs, and consistent in ensuring
that earnings go directly to meeting family needs.‖ Microfinance is an important tool for
sustainable social and economic progress, and a key strategy in ending poverty

Change in lifestyle
This present study is aimed at identifying the role of women entrepreneurs' participation
in change in lifestyle. Change in lifestyle of women was measured by teaches healthy
life style, uplift the lifestyle by earning through small business for healthier food , clean
water and good clothes, educated the way to live with good manner , change the position
in the society , able to change the circumstances to live properly. The mean value for
Poverty reduction of women entrepreneur was 4.1111 with standard deviation of 0.73.
This mean value is very close to the range 3.50-4.49. It means that change in lifestyle of
women entrepreneur through Microfinance makes women to gain Skills, knowledge and
autonomy to engage markets, property rights, access to, conditions of and roles in market
 140

and labor opportunities, livelihood networks, caring heath related activities, change in the
clothes style , healthy food and all for living in the society properly.

Effectiveness of women empowerment

This present study is aimed at identifying the role of women entrepreneurs' participation
in effectiveness of women empowers are Increase savings and income, Teach job skills
and seed businesses, Build self-esteem and confidence, Create a safe space, Support
independence and mobility. The mean value for effectiveness of women entrepreneur was
4.1111 with standard deviation of 0.73. This mean value is very close to the range 3.50-
4.49. It means that Women are lagging behind men mainly because of the relative
absence of economic opportunities and minimal participation in decision making process.
Educational backwardness is another major reason why women are lagging behind men.
The participation of women in professional and technical work force is low. Therefore,
the organizations concerned with the development of women considered empowerment
of women as a solution to these problems. The effectiveness of women entrepreneur is to
remove the above problem.

Space and Opportunity

This present study is aimed at identifying the role of women entrepreneurs' participation
in space and opportunity. Space and opportunity of women was measured by teaches.
The mean value for Poverty reduction of women entrepreneur was 3.5999 with standard
deviation of 0.69. This mean value is very close to the range 3.50-4.49. It means that
Space and Opportunity of women entrepreneur through Microfinance makes women to
take high space. Women are lagging behind men mainly because of the relative absence
of economic opportunities and minimal participation in decision making process.
Educational backwardness is another major reason why women are lagging behind men.
The participation of women in professional and technical work force is low. Therefore,
the organizations concerned with the development of women considered empowerment
of women as a solution to these problems. The specialists in economic development have
considered entrepreneurship development as a possible approach to empower women.
 141

Correlations between Dependent and Independent Variables

This topic analyzes and evaluates relationships between dependent and independent
variables with help of correlation. Especially, following research hypothesizes were
tested in this topic:

H1: There is a positive relationship between Women empowerment and decision

making power, H2: There is a positive relationship women entrepreneur and
effectiveness of Microfinance, H3: There is a positive relationship between women
entrepreneur and space and opportunity, H4: There is a positive relationship between
women entrepreneur and poverty reduction, H5: There is a positive relationship between
women entrepreneur and changing the life style of women

Table 4.7.1
Correlation between dependent and independent variables
Decision Effectiveness Access the Povert changin
making of resources y g the life
power Microfinance reducti style of
on women

Decision Pearson 0.329

making Correlation 0.001
power Sig. (2-tailed)
N 390
Effectiveness Pearson 0.111 1
of Correlation .002
Microfinance Sig. (2-tailed) 390 30
N
Space and Pearson 0.436 1
 142

opportunity Correlation .002

Sig. (2-tailed) 390 30
N
Poverty Pearson 0.492 -.528** .109 1
reduction Correlation .000 .003 .565
Sig. (2-tailed) 390 30 30 30
N
Pearson .521** .060 .482** .337 1
changing the Correlation .003 .752 .007 .069
life style of Sig. (2-tailed) 390 390 390 390 390
women N

**. Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed).

Number of Respondents (N) = 390.

Table 4.7.1 shows that correlation between women entrepreneur and each of five women
empowerment factors such as, decision making power of women, Institute to empower
women, space and opportunity to access the resources, poverty reduction, and changing
the life style. These correlations were computed and analyzed by using Pearson Product
Moment method.

This table also consists of t-tests for each pair of variables based at 1 per cent level of
significance with 390 sample size. The p-values are also displayed along with their
respective t-tests. The t-test, tests the null hypothesis that there is no correlation between
women entrepreneur and each of five empowerment factors such as, decision making
power of women, Institute to empower women, space and opportunity to access the
resources, poverty reduction, and changing the life style
 143

As per Table 4.7.1 independent variables have been found positively and significantly
correlated with dependent variable. It indicates that the more favorable independent
variables or decision making power, the women entrepreneurs are happy to use
Microfinance loan. The strength of correlation is the highest between women
entrepreneur and Microfinance. It is followed by Microfinance Company to improve
decision making power of women, to get space and opportunity for women empower,
poverty reduction and changing the life style of women. The highest strength of
correlation is between women entrepreneurs and poverty reduction and the lowest
strength of correlation is between women empowerment and access the resources .From
the above theoretical framework discussion, the following alternative/research
hypotheses were developed for this study: There is positive relationship between women
entrepreneur and decision making power, there is positive relationship between women
entrepreneur and space and opportunity to access the resources, there is positive
relationship between job assignment and opportunities and employee women
empowerment, there is positive relationship between women entrepreneur and poverty
reduction, there is positive relationship between women entrepreneur and change the
lifestyle of women.

Hypothesis 1 : There is a positive relationship between Women empowerment and

decision making power

The relationship between Women empowerment and decision making power were
computed by using the Pearson Product Moment method. The results show that there is a
positive relationship between Women empowerment and decision making power (r=.329,
n=397, p<.01). The relationship between two variables is significant at 1 per cent level of
significance. The strength of correlation between them is slightly lower than moderate
value. However, hypothesis 1 is accepted.
 144

Hypothesis 2: There is a positive relationship between Women empowerment and

effective Microfinance Institutions to empower the women

The relationships of Women empowerment and effective Microfinance Institutions to

empower the women were investigated against women empower. The results show that
there is a positive relationship between Women empowerment and effective
Microfinance Institutions to empower the women (r=.111, n=397, p<.01). The
relationship between two variables is significant at 1 per cent level of significance. The
strength of correlation between them is lower than moderate value. However, hypothesis
2 is accepted.

Hypothesis 3: There is a positive relationship between women entrepreneur and

space and opportunity to access the resources

The relationship between women entrepreneur and space and opportunity to access the
resources were computed by using the Pearson Product Moment method. The results
show that there is a positive relationship between women entrepreneur and space and
opportunity at 1 per cent level of significance (r=.436, n=397, p<.01). The relationship is
significant with moderate correlation. Hence, hypothesis 4 is accepted as there is a
significant correlation.

Hypothesis 4 : There is a positive relationship between women empowerment and

poverty reduction

The relationship between women entrepreneur and poverty reduction were computed
by using the Pearson Product Moment method. Table 4.7.1 shows that there is a positive
correlation between women empowerment and poverty reduction at 1 per cent level of
significance (r=.482, n=397, p<.01). The strength of correlation between poverty
reductions is moderate. Hence, hypothesis 4 is accepted.
 145

Hypothesis 5 : There is a positive relationship between women empowerment and

change the lifestyle of women entrepreneur.

The relationship between women entrepreneur and poverty reduction were computed
by using the Pearson Product Moment method .Table 4.7.1 shows that there is a positive
correlation between women empowerment and change the lifestyle of women
entrepreneur at 1 per cent level of significance (r=.492, n=397, p<.01). The strength of
correlation between women entrepreneur and and changing the life style is moderate.
Hence, hypothesis 5 is accepted.

Multiple Regressions
This topic analyzes and evaluates the regressions between dependent variable (women
empowerment) and independent variables (Decision making, Effectiveness, Space and
Opportunity, Poverty reduction, changing the life style of women).
Table 4.8.2 Shows the results of multiple regressions.

Predictors Predicted women Significance P-Value

empowerment standardized
Coefficient Beta

Decision making .078 .154

Effectiveness -95 .068

Space and .078 .200

opportunity

Poverty reduction .046 .396

 146

Changing the life 0.444 .020

style of women

F Value 36.222

P for F 0.000

R 0.659

R Square 0.433

Table 4.5.2 shows that the predictor training and development has the highest beta value
(β=0.424), it is followed by poverty reduction (β=0. 146), changing life style (β=0.113),
work changing the life style (β=0.076), poverty reduction (β=0.068), β=0.046) and
effectiveness n(β=-0.101). It means women entrepreneur is influenced by all independent
variables except space and opportunity.

The values (F =42.362, p-value for F= 0.001) show that the model is significant as the p-
value is less than 1 per cent level of significance. It means there isa significant joint effect
of all the five predictors upon the women entrepreneur. It is supported by R value
(R=0.658, F=42.362). It declares that 65.80 per cent variation in the total variation of
women empowerment is accounted for by these five predictors and the rest 34.20 per cent
variation is explained by some other factors not included in this study. It is also supported
by R Square value (R2=0.433, F=42.362). It declares that 43.30 per cent variation in the
total variation of women empowerment is accounted for by these five factors and the rest
56.70 per cent variation is explained by some other factors not included in this study. In
other words, the five independent variables explain 43.30 per cent variance in women
empowerment.
 147

Adjusted R Square is a better measure of a goodness of fit of the model as it is obtained

by adjusting a sample size and a number of predictors. In other words, it is useful when
comparing the R Square values between models with different number of
predictors/independent variables. The value of Adjusted R Square is obtained
0.422,stating that 42.20 per cent changes in the dependent variable, which is women
empowerment (Dependent) can be explained by the five independent variables (
Predictors) which are decision making power, effectiveness of Microfinance , space and
opportunity , poverty reduction, and changing the life style of women. The other 57.80
per cent are explained by other factors not included in this study.

Out of five independent variables, recruitment and selection is found unable to predict
women enterpreneur as it has the negative beta value (-0.101). This finding is113
consistent with previous research that identified that selections and recruitment has
negative beta value-0.058 (Ramasamy, 2011). In the present study, among remaining five
predictors/variables poverty reduction is found strongest as it has the highest beta value
i.e. 0.424. Out of five variables p-value less than 5% significant level.
 148

Part B
Qualitative Analysis
Determining Microfinance services which facilitate entrepreneurial success among
women entrepreneurs who use such services remains a major issue in the Microfinance
sector. To address this gap, this study was designed to tap into Microfinance services
constructs as well as entrepreneurial success of women entrepreneurs within the
conceptual model. The relevant questionnaire was piloted among 30 women through
Microfinance services in Nepal. Based on theories, the measures which comprise micro
variables development and dependent variable of the entrepreneurial success among
women through Microfinance were derived from the women entrepreneur. The study
have covered pave way for a comprehensive study which can develop a diamond
specification model for the financial sector in Nepal for women‘s development.

Microfinance is not simply banking for the poor; it is a development approach with a
social mission and a private sector-based financial bottom line that uses tested and
continually adjusted sets of principles, practices and technologies. The key to successful
Microfinance lies in the ability of the provider to cost-effectively reach a critical mass of
clients with systems of delivery, market responsiveness, risk management and control
that can generate a profit to the institution. Typically, this profit is ploughed back to
ensure the long-term survival of the institution, i.e. the continuous provision of services
demanded by its clients
.
The list of thematic areas covered by the researcher in qualitative analysis are: concept
of Microfinance company / increase the power of decision making/ fight against
domestic violence / Microfinance and loan for women entrepreneur/ opportunities for
women entrepreneur in Nepalese context / helps women to start their own business/
solving the family‘s problem / literacy system for women / uplift the lifestyle of women /
protest against justice /skill to start business / awareness programs / overcome from
poverty reduction and powerful instrument for poverty reduction.
 149

Method of collecting data

The data was collected by distributing questions among 30 participants by visiting
different places of Kathmandu in remote area like sundarijal, lakuribhanjyang, sakhu, and
kapan. The age group lies in between 25 to 50 years while collecting data.
Demographic analysis
Age
Age Group Frequency %
Above 25 5 16.67
26-30 4 1.33
31-35 6 0.2
36-40 8 2.67
40-45 3 0.15
Above 45 4 1.33

Demographic profile of Age of the respondents in this section, data related to the Age of
the respondents was captured. The respondents were required to indicate their Age. The
Percentages of age have been used to analyze the data. Findings are presented on above ,
The present analysis 16.67% of the respondents age are above 25 , 1.33 % of the
respondents age lies in between 26-30, 0.20% of the respondents age lies in between 31-
35 , 2.67% of the respondents age lies in between 36-40 , 0.15% of the respondents lies in
between 40-45, 1.33% of the respondents age are above 45.
 150

Age-Group
Above 25
13% 17% 26-30
10% 31-35
13%
36-40
27%
20% 40-45
Above 45

Figure 8 Demographic

Pie Chart shows the Age group of the respondents of different women entrepreneur. The
present pie chart shows. that 16.67% of the respondents age are above 25 , 1.33 % of the
respondents age lies in between 26-30, 0.20% of the respondents age lies in between 31-
35 , 2.67% of the respondents age lies in between 36-40 , 0.15% of the respondents lies in
between 40-45, 1.33% of the respondents age are above 45.
 151

Code of qualitative research questions

code Qualtative Research Questions
001 Concept of Microfinance company
002 Increase the power of decision making
003 Fight against domestic violence
004 Microfinance and loan for women entrepreneur
005 Opportunities for women entrepreneur in Nepalese Context
006 Helps women to start their own business
007 Solving the family‘s problem
008 Literacy system for women
009 Uplift the lifestyle of women
010 Protest against justice
011 Skill to start business
012 Awareness programs
013 Participate in local activities
014 Overcome from poverty reduction
015 Instrument for poverty reduction

Data Analysis
Microfinance might benefit entire sectors of women in the country, or it might benefit
only particular women within those sectors: while it is apparent that numerous
Microfinance models exist across Nepal with the purpose of reducing gender inequality,
the true impact of these programs is inconclusive. If the ultimate policy goal is to
decrease gender inequality across the entire country, Microfinance alone cannot be the
answer; instead, Microfinance should be considered in combination with other programs
also targeted at reducing inequality.

Achieving financial sustainability is crucial for Microfinance institutions, as it not only

assures their existence but also guarantees financial services to the poor on an everlasting
 152

basis. A Microfinance institution requires covering its costs of funds and other forms of
subsidies when received at market prices to achieve financial sustainability. It is also
important for an institution to adopt recognized accounting practices of income
recognition, portfolio analysis, losses and expenses. For a long time, Microfinance has
existed in the realm of the informal sector and achieving financial sustainability has been
an uphill task. But as Microfinance edges towards the formal sector, financial
sustainability can no longer be disregarded

The Microfinance is the cluster of banking services, relatively of lower monetary

amounts, designed specifically to meet the banking requirements of an unemployed or
low-income people. In other words, Microfinance is the arrangement of financial services
including loans, savings, insurance, money transfers and remittances offered to the lower
income groups or poor entrepreneurs, who otherwise cannot avail the standard banking
services. The motive behind Microfinance is to give people in poverty a privilege to
become self-sufficient by offering them crucial banking services at considerable smaller
monetary amounts. This study draws from bargaining theory to examine whether
Microfinance, a range of financial instruments such as micro-loans to support micro-
enterprises, affects women's participation in household decision-making by whether
women play a role in household decisions about large purchases, small purchases, going
out to meet friends and family, and health care among a nationally representative sample
of 6,150 women between the ages of 15 and 49 years in Bangladesh. Bargaining theory
suggests that decision-making in households is conflictual but conflict can be mitigated
through bargaining. Central to bargaining power of women is control over resources,
assuming that household decision-making involves making economic decisions.

Domestic violence can take many forms, including emotional, sexual and physical abuse
and threats of abuse. Men are sometimes abused by partners, but domestic violence is
most often directed toward women. Domestic violence can happen in heterosexual or
same-sex relationships, overcoming the resistance from husband and other members of
the family to join the SHG .Increased participation in decision-making within the
 153

household to issues that were usually considered outside the domain of woman Improved
status and increase in respect within the household , Feeling fearless, open and confident .
All group members learn to sign their names and some have joined adult literacy
programmes Adopting family planning measure.. More mobile, can move out of the
house and the village more frequently, talking to the male persons in their village, which
they were not confident to do before because of cultural reasons.

Microfinance is an effective method of poverty alleviation. MFIs have developed many

unique and innovative practices to account for the difficulties of providing credit to the
poor. The use of village banks has enabled Microfinance programs to reach areas with
restricted mobility and lack of infrastructure. Trust and group lending practices encourage
the poor to collaborate in mutual trust and friendship and to offer support for community
loans and small businesses. Focus on female entrepreneurs allows marginalized women
to gain access to the economic opportunities that they need to empower themselves.
Qualified leadership assures that Microfinance is going tocontinue its success and
innovation in the critical years to come. Research has shown that MFIs can and is going
to reach the poorest of the poor by implementing integrated programs that address the
diversified needs of destitute families. Increasing numbers of Microfinance institutions
are achieving financial sustainability and widening their outreach while still focusing on
the neediest in society. Microfinance 55 allows women to gain autonomy and control
over their lives and to enter the public sphere with skill and confidence. The benefits of
Microfinance are not only felt by those who directly participate, but by their families and
entire communities as well.

Some of these benefits are increase in household income, consumption smoothing,

capacity to sustain gains over time, better nutrition and health, higher education and
school attendance, female empowerment, and the ability to completely break free from
the bonds of extreme poverty. Microfinance has achieved its success and popularity
through its recognition of the poor as agents of change. MFIs do not dole out aid
packages; they present the poor with the opportunities to advance themselves. A true
 154

poverty alleviation program fights poverty by addressing the social, political, and
economic constraints that keep the poor in an oppressed condition and by implementing
tactics specified to overcome those constraints. In most parts of the world, the poor are
not given a voice in any sphere whether political, social or economic.

They are deterred from holding political office, segregated to pariah status in society, and
restricted from access to economic opportunity. Any poverty purging strategy that aims
for marked reform needs to recognize that the poor know how to help themselves far
better than aid agencies and social organizations. Microfinance gives the power to the
people. Clients are given opportunities for economic advancement that is going to
eventually lead to empowerment in social and political spheres. Living conditions are
markedly improved along with self-esteem and sense of control. Impoverished people
with credit are not dependent on aid, the responsibility rests with each individual family
to work hard and to enjoy the overwhelming pride that comes with well-deserved
success. Microfinance is not a miracle solution. It is not for everyone and is not solely
responsible for poverty alleviation. Microfinance must also be coupled with other social
programs that are flexible to meet the diverse needs of destitute families. An MFI should
also be sure to incorporate the customs and practices of the people into its programs. But
through a holistic approach to fighting poverty and a recognition of the importance of the
poor as agents of change, the battle against extreme poverty can be fought and won.
Globalization is going to not be allowed to expand the gap between the rich and the poor.
Affluent countries cannot continue to dump aid on needy nations; developing countries
must not be permitted to ignore the needs of their impoverished population.

The poor need a variety of financial services, not just loans. Just like everyone else, poor
people need a wide range of financial services that are convenient, flexible, and
reasonably priced. Depending on their circumstances, poor people need not only credit,
but also savings, cash transfers, and insurance. Microfinance is a powerful instrument
against poverty. Access to sustainable financial services enables the poor to increase
incomes, build assets, and reduce their vulnerability to external shocks. Microfinance
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allows poor households to move from everyday survival to planning for the future,
investing in better nutrition, improved living conditions, and children's health and
education. Microfinance means building financial systems that serve the poor. Poor
people constitute the vast majority of the population in most developing countries. Yet,
an overwhelming number of the poor continue to lack access to basic financial services.
In many countries, Microfinance continues to be seen as a marginal sector and primarily
a development concern for donors, governments, and socially-responsible investors. In
order to achieve its full potential of reaching a large number of the poor, Microfinance
should become an integral part of the financial sector. Financial sustainability is
necessary to reach significant numbers of poor people. Most poor people are not able to
access financial services because of the lack of strong retail financial intermediaries.
Building financially sustainable institutions is not an end in itself. It is the only way to
reach significant scale and Microfinance: A Powerful Tool for Social Transformation
impact far beyond what donor agencies can fund. Sustainability is the ability of a
Microfinance provider to cover all of its costs. It allows the continued operation of the
Microfinance provider and the ongoing provision of financial services to the poor.
Achieving financial sustainability means reducing transaction costs, offering better
products and services that meet client needs, and finding new ways to reach the poor
unable to access the financial services proved by other financial institutions.
Microfinance is about building permanent local financial institutions. Building financial
system for the poor means building sound domestic financial intermediaries that can
provide financial services to poor on a permanent basis. Such institutions should be able
to mobilize and recycle domestic savings, extend credit, and provide a range of services.
Dependence on funding from donors and governments-including government financed
development banks-is going to gradually diminish as local financial institutions and
private capital markets mature. Micro credit is not appropriate for everyone or every
situation. The destitute and hungry that have no income or means of repayment need
other forms of support before they can make use of loans. In many cases, small grants,
infrastructure improvements, employment and training programs, and other non-financial
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services may be more appropriate tools for poverty alleviation. Wherever possible, such
non-financial services should be coupled with building savings. Interest rate ceilings can
damage poor people's access to financial services. It costs much more to make many
small loans than a few large loans. Unless micro-lenders can charge interest rates that are
well above average bank loan rates, they cannot cover their costs, and their growth and
sustainability is going to be limited by the scarce and uncertain supply of subsidized
funding. When governments regulate interest rates, they usually set them at levels too
low to permit sustainable micro credit. At the same time, micro-lenders should not pass
on operational inefficiencies to clients in the form of prices (interest rates and other fees)
that are far higher than they need to be. he government's role is as an enabler, not as a
direct provider of financial services National governments play an important role in
setting a supportive policy environment that stimulates the development of financial
services while protecting poor people's savings. The key things that a government can do
for Microfinance are to maintain macroeconomic stability, avoid interest-rate caps, and
refrain from distorting the market with unsustainable subsidized, high-delinquency loan
programs. Governments can also support financial services for the poor by improving the
business environment for entrepreneurs, clamping down on corruption, and improving
access to markets and infrastructure. In special situations, government funding for sound
and independent Microfinance institutions may be warranted when other funds are
lacking. Donor subsidies should complement, not compete with private sector capital.
Donors should use appropriate grant, loan, and equity instruments on a temporary basis to
build the institutional capacity of financial providers, develop supporting infrastructure
(like rating agencies, credit bureaus, adult capacity, etc.), and support experimental
services and products. In some cases, longer-term donor subsidies may be required to
reach sparsely populated and otherwise difficult-to-reach population. To be effective,
donor funding must seek to integrate financial services for the poor into local financial
markets; apply specialist expertise to the design and implementation of projects; require
that financial institutions and other partners meet minimum performance standards as a
condition for continued support; and plan for exit from the outset. The Journal of
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Nepalese Business Studies. The lack of institutional and human capacity is the key
constraint. Microfinance is a specialized field that combines banking with social goals,
and capacity needs to be built at all levels, from financial institutions through the
regulatory and supervisory bodies and information systems, to government development
entities and donor agencies. Most investments in the sector, both public and private,
should focus on this capacity building. There should be financial and outreach
transparency (Mayoux:1998). Accurate, standardized, and comparable information on the
financial and social performance of financial institutions providing services to the poor is
imperative.

Comparing quantitative and qualitative analysis.

This study sought to analyze the impact of Microfinance services in empowering the
women and women‘s status. The outcomes of chi-square test revealed that four factors
i.e. socio-economic status up gradation, autonomy for life choices, women position in the
family/society and positive approach towards child development can significantly
influence the lives of rural women. Traditionally, rural women's role was to provide
support to their husband and family which show the suppression of women in rural
household. The results of this study states that Microfinance has improved their economic
condition and enhanced their ability to contribute in their family's decision making. As
women started to earn and contribute to their family expenses, their husband's behavior
towards them has changed considerably. The study also indicates that the livings standard
of their family has improved.

The aim of this research is to explore the contribution of Microfinance on women

empowerment and the circumstances under which Microfinance can help the poor
women out of their poverty situation. Microfinance provides employment to the poor
women who have no other means of income. Women are highly represented in self-
employment and operating small income generating activities. Therefore, Microfinance
has the potential to have a powerful impact on women's empowerment.
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Women need and profit from credit and other financial services. Strengthening women's
financial base and economic contribution to their families and communities plays a role
on empowering them. To a large level, access to capital or credit may be the only input
needed to start women on the road to economic empowerment.

Women need and profit from credit and other financial services. Strengthening women's
financial base and economic contribution to their families and communities plays a role
on empowering them. To a large level, access to capital or credit may be the only input
needed to start women on the road to economic empowerment.

However, women have indicated that often they also value the non-economic benefits of
Microfinance services. Some of the most valued benefits include expanded business and
social networks, improved self-esteem, increased household decision making power, and
increased respect and prestige from both male and female relatives and community
members. Significant relationships were found between all empowerment measures and
women‘s status (Through Microfinance). After controlling for variables that also
influence women‘s empowerment and their space and opportunities for women‘s
development. This reveals that an independent association exists between women‘s
empowerment and Microfinance help towards empowering women. Although we cannot
say whether this association is causal, showing an independent effect is a step towards
proving causality. The relationships were positive among two of the empowerment
measures, attitudes towards violence and experiences of violence, but the strength of the
associations were relatively small. The variability in the direction of the associations and
the strength of the association among different variables associated makes drawing clear
conclusions from the quantitative results. The study does, however, provide statistical
evidence that increases in women‘s empowerment is independently related to
improvements in Microfinance Company for empowering women. This helps to support
the hypothesis that improving women‘s empowerment is an important point of
intervention for improving status of women in the society.
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As a part of the qualitative data collection process, respondents were asked to reflect on
important activities in their life, household decision-making, personal decision-making,
and their perception of women‘s empowerment. The majority of women deemed their
household responsibilities and child care as important. Respondents expressed that
because this work is time consuming, they are usually unable to earn income and
participate in community activities. Nearly all of the women who discussed the
importance of income-generating activities directly linked increases in income to access
to education and family welfare. Many respondents associated their current economic
difficulties and lack of empowerment to their lack of formal education. Some women
discussed their education as a missed opportunity in their past, while others expressed a
current hope to return to school when they are financially capable. Access to education
for children was a theme that was often connected to other aspects of their lives and their
concepts of empowerment, especially in regards to income generation. Many of the
women linked their ability to earn income to the potential to fund their children‘s
education. Respondents were asked several questions on household decision-making. The
majority of respondents emphasized that all household decisions are made jointly.
Respondents were most adamant about joint decision-making when the decision
concerned large financial investments such as, sending children through secondary school
and higher education, buying materials to repair the house, and contributing towards
different occupations. Several contradictions emerged when respondents talked about
household decision-making. Many respondents insisted that all decisions are made jointly
but then go onto describe an inferior role.

Through Microfinance Ltd has proved to be a powerful instrument toward women

empowerment, enabling them to build assets, increase incomes, and reduce the
vulnerability to economic stress. All women who receive a loan, gain access to additional
resources and have succeeded in controlling their loans and using them to generate
independent incomes.
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The Microfinance also in addition group-based lending program has recently introduced
individual lending for long term borrowers with excellent repayment records. This will
enable Microfinance borrowers to easily graduate to formal banking system in future.
However, the study findings indicate that Microfinance was likely to have greater
positive impacts in rural than other financial institutions and this suggests differences in
opportunities, women poverty levels and Microfinance products appropriateness.

This study sought to analyze the impact of Microfinance services in empowering the rural
women. The outcomes of chi-square test revealed that four factors i.e. socio-economic
status up gradation, autonomy for life choices, women position in the family/society and
positive approach towards child development can significantly influence the lives of rural
women. Traditionally, rural women's role was to provide support to their husband and
family which show the suppression of women in rural household. The results of this
study states that Microfinance has improved their economic condition and enhanced their
ability to contribute in their family's decision making. As rural women started to earn and
contribute to their family expenses, their husband's behavior towards them has changed
considerably. The study also indicates that the livings standard of their family has
improved.

All in all, most interviewees seem satisfied with the Microfinance services as offered.
Most clients, in general, have a better life than before. By implementing a limited number
of changes to the microcredit programs of Microfinance Company. As is working on a
country wide scale, an extra increase in women's empowerment could benefit women in
many different countries. Microfinance can be a very useful instrument in contributing to
women's empowerment, and offers women a free choice with regard to the way they want
to use their talents. If some extra efforts are made, the contribution could be even larger.
Microfinance has not been able to reach the poorest at the bottom of the poverty line and
therefore the claims that it will reduce poverty for the majority poor remains a mere
myth.
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Chapter V

SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION

The goal of this research is to study the impact of Microfinance on reduction of poverty
through improvement of living standards and increasing empowerment of poor and
marginalized quarter of the society. Microfinance, the supply of micro and small size
loans and basic financial services to the well-regarded poor, especially Microfinance is
widely acknowledged as an effective tool in the fighting women‘s poverty. In the view of
growth or Microfinance program as one of the major poverty focused development
activities in the country, it is imperative to evaluate the effectiveness of the program in
reducing poverty. The present study aimed to evaluate the impact of such program on
poverty reduction through women empowerment. In present context of Nepal, women do
occupy more than half of the total population women just used to be locked inside the
house in ancient period. Women were not given opportunity to involve in economic
activities. Women used to remain busy in their household works to preserve of vicious
circle of poverty. There was very miserable condition of women in the past. With the
continuous flow of time, this every trend has been changed to the great extent. Women
have become able to stand on their own foot and have become provide economic
contribution towards their family and nation. Microfinance is one of the vital factors
which have been assisting women to boost-up and uplift up. The present study has been
based upon Kathmandu Valley of different Microfinanc ecompany The findings of the
study can be summarized in to following mentioned points. After being involved in
Microfinance program, women participants themselves have realized that their
confidence level has been increased to great extent from both cooperatives. Women
clients are happy that they have become able to earn by themselves and becomes
independent. Women, after involved in Microfinance program have become able to
improve to their living standard. Their living style has been changed towards positive
direction. They have become able to create good image in their family and in the society.
After being participated in Microfinance program, their income has been increase in
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comparison to before being involved in Microfinanceprogram. Together with the

increment in the level of income, they have also become able to increase their saving rate
than before. Due to this, their living standard has also being uplifted and their poverty
status has been reduced to great extent in both cooperatives. The women clients of both
Microfinance programs have realized that their ability and capacity to deal with others, to
tackle with problems and to go against suppression and dominations have been increased.
They used to hesitate and fear to do such things. They can get exposed to society and
community without any hesitation and fear at present. Most of the women do have access
towards earned money to utilize in needed sectors. Women can make decision about
where and how to utilize the money amount. It has been found that after joining
Microfinanceprograms women have developed self-respect towards themselves. Women
are confident to do work and to tackle with existing household and social problems.
Women have become strong. Also, it has been found that after joining MFP women
improve their economic status. Where, their child could go in private school, they could
change their good house figure and they could change their traditional fuel for cooking
purpose etc. Although women used to get limited inside the house, Women have become
able to come out of the house and learn new things after being involved in Microfinance
Company. Women have become able to know and learn about the world by coming out
from the house.

MFI that was found to be important is the creation of employment opportunity. From the
study, it can be interpreted that MFIs affect the creation of employment. It was found
from our observation that most of the family members of borrowers contributed to run the
business directly or indirectly, unrelated to the matter that which member was sanctioned
the loan.

A poor person to stand on his own that cannot only bring about a revolution in their lives
but also in the society. The dream of a healthy and educated society with no
discrimination and biased can be achieved through this simple thought, the dream which
seems to be coming true and becoming practical. The simple vision of one man,
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Muhammad Yunus has taken the shape of the revolution and has shown the ray of hope
in the path of life to every human, irrespective of his background or status or position.
The hope of a life that no one will sleep hungry, no one will die due to lack of
medication, and our children can read and write on their own and everyone will be the
pillar of the society.

Conclusion
Conclusion of the research were drawn dividing this study into six sections namely,
demographic characteristics, response of women entrepreneurs, relationship between
demographic characteristics and women empowerment, correlation between women
empowerment and empowerment factors.

The present study entitled ―Women empowerment in banking industry of Nepal‖was

divided in five chapters namely (i) Introduction, (ii) Literature Review, (iii)Research
Methodology, (iv) Results, Findings and Discussion and (v) Summary and Conclusion.

Demographic
To know the demographic characteristics of the employees, the frequency and percentage
of the demographic characteristics such as age, gender, marital status, and education were
calculated. Findings are presented on figure shows that of out of the surveyed
respondents Kathmandu, Lalitpur, Morang, and from Parsa. The maximum % of the
respondents found is from Lalitpur as according to the data. The maximum respondents
are from Lalitpur district which is 52%.Microfinancehas played role to make women
literate above table shows that, 49.23% of the women are literate PCL Level are 20.51%,
SLC Level 11.79% 20.51% are illiterate. The findings shows that of the surveyed
respondents 98.46% are married and while 1.53% of the respondents are Single. This is
an indication that the married are the ones actively involved in Microfinance and
improving in financial condition. Microfinance provides loan for married only but again
they have rules for providing loan to single women above 35 years. The Percentages of
age have been used to analyze the data. Findings are presented on above , the present
analysis respondents age lies in between below 30 , between 31-40 , between 41-50 ,
 164

between 51-60 , and above 60Demographic profile of the respondents land owned in this
section data is captured. Findings are presented on figure shows. 6.15% of the
respondents owned land and 93.46 of the respondents without land. The maximum
percentage of the respondents is without land. Empowering women not only make them
to share in the development progress but also bring out their lasting efficiency. According
to the data the year of the formation of group 12 is 9.23%, formation of group 8 is
10.25%, formation of group 10 is 25.64%, formation of group 12 is 6.15%, formation of
group 15 is 6.15%, and formation of group 20 is 16.92%.The minimum loan obtained is
10000 and maximum loan is 100000.The maximum loan obtained by provided by finance
company for doing micro business. Rs 10000 upto Rs 300000. Microloan is a loan
provided by the finance company for growing the need of women. The group of internal
loan provided by Microfinance Company is in between Rs 10000 to Rs 600000. Most of
the people take loans for productive activities (business). Amount demanded for the
purpose of first loan was grocery Beauty parlour 3.07%, Contractor 3.84%, Cow
business 5.89%, Cow Farming is 5.12%, Dairy Farm is 5.89%, Farming 7.69%, Garment
Factory is 10.25%, Grocery is 11.53%, Hotel us 5.12%, Hotel plus Grocery is 6.41%,
pashmina Shawl factory is 5.12%, Photo Studio is 5.12%, Tailoring Shop 5.89%, Tea
Shop is 4.87%, Toys making is 5.12%, Vegetable Farming is 2.56%, Vegetable
production is 2.56%, Vegetable Shop is 3.84%. This proves that these micro credits were
not only used productively, but they themselves induce taking further credits. Maximum
percentage of business is Grocery.

Response of Employees
The results show that there is an association between women entrepreneur and role of
Microfinance to enhance decision making power of women entrepreneur, and the
calculated value is (χ2 = 208.00, n =390, P=0.01).Since, p value =0.01 and significance
value is less than 0.05, we can conclude that there is association between women
entrepreneur and role of Microfinance to enhance decision making power of women
entrepreneur. The associations between weather there is association between women
entrepreneur to get the space and opportunity to reduce poverty were computed by using
 165

chi-square tests. The results show that there is an association between women
entrepreneur to get the space and opportunity to reduce poverty the calculated value is
(χ2= 307.00, n =390, P=0.003).Since, p value = 0.003 and significance value is less than
0.05, we can conclude that there is association between women entrepreneur and to get
the space and opportunity to reduce poverty. The associations between weather there is
association between women entrepreneur and effectiveness of Microfinance towards
women empowerment were computed by using chi-square tests. The results show that
there is an association between women entrepreneur and effectiveness of Microfinance
towards women empowerment and the calculated value is (χ2= 190.00, n =390,
P=0.001).Since, p value = 0.001 and significance value is less than 0.05, we can conclude
that there is association between women entrepreneur and effectiveness of Microfinance
towards women empowerment. The associations between weather there is association
between women entrepreneur and Microfinance for helping children‘s education and
family living style were computed by using chi-square tests. The results show that there
is an association between weather women entrepreneur and Microfinance for helping
children‘s education and family living style. and is calculated value is (χ2= 190.00, n
=390, P=0.001).Since, p value = 0.001 and significance value is less than 0.05, we can
conclude that there is association between women entrepreneur and Microfinance for
helping children‘s education and family living style. The associations between women
entrepreneur to empower women which helps to improve children education and family
living style were computed by using chi-square tests. The results show that there is an
association between women entrepreneur to empower women which helps to improve
towards children education and family living style and the calculated value is (χ2=
490.00, n =390, P=0.003).Since, p value = 0.04 and significance value is less than 0.05,
we can conclude that there is association between women entrepreneur to empower
women which helps to improve towards children‘s education and family living style.
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Women Empowerment and Demographic Variables

Table 4.5.1 shows a significant difference in mean value for women empowerment across
six age-groups (F= 4.2895 df1=6, df2=390, p-value=0.001) at 5 percent level of
significance. It means the women empowerment with age has some degree of relation
with Microfinance. The minimum mean value (3.1221) and maximum mean value
(3.6750) that all belong to the range 3.50-4.49 which indicates that all the women age
group use Microfinance loans helps for reducing poverty, decision making power and
change the lifestyle of women entrepreneur. The between single, married and divorced
women‘s (t= -3.6756, df= 304, p-value = 0.001) at 5 per cent level of significance. It
means the marital status of women entrepreneur has some degree of relation with women
empowerment. This indicates that the married women entrepreneur wants to use
Microfinance loan for doing business for improving household task, children‘s education,
poverty reduction rather than single women and divorced women. The mean value for
married divorce and single women 3.5900 belongs to the range 3.50-4.49, which depicts
that the both married and unmarried women wants to be empower. There significant
difference in mean value for women empowerment with group across seven group (F=
4.2895 df1=7, df2=390, p-value=0.004) at 5 percent level of significance. It means the
women empowerment with group name has some degree of relation with Microfinance.
The minimum mean value (3.1221) and maximum mean value (3.5100) that all belong to
the range 3.50-4.49 which indicates that all the women age group users are associated
towards through self-skill development programmes to utilize the under-utilized/ un-
utilized women which results for their income generation

Table 4.4.4 shows no significant difference in mean value for women empowerment
across Four education levels (F= 0.323, df1= 8, df2= 390, p-value = 0.004) at 5 per cent
level of significance. It means the education has relation with women empowerment. The
minimum mean value (3.6474) and maximum mean value (4.0333) that all belong to the
range 3.50-4.49. It depicts that the education level of women entrepreneur is in good
condition for doing business. Thus, education relation with women empowerment.
Whatever the Education is the main factor in the development of any country and the
 167

people of the country. How education is empowering women and how education help in
empowering women in various countries where education is just a magical word for
women.

Relationship between demographic variables and women

empowerment
Decision making power was measured by helped me to take decision of household affairs
, to take decision towards my children's education, to take decision to use the loan
independently, decision to purchase assets like TV, Fridge, Mobile, Furniture, etc. The
mean value for Decision making power of women entrepreneur was 3150 with standard
deviation of 0.71. This mean value is very close to the range 3.50-4.49. It means the term
Women empowerment means the potential of women in order to take better decisions
with respective to their life and jobs, providing rights that are equal in all aspects like:
personal, social, economic, political, legal etc. Women are increasingly getting
empowered to decide their way of life and establish their fullest potential. For the
betterment of our country's future women empowerment is a must as women are better
manager of overall society. Women empowerment is giving legitimate power or authority
to perform the tasks. If women were empowered they would be able to participate in the
planning and decision making task and contribute to the development programmers and
activities individually. The mean value for Poverty reduction of women entrepreneur was
3.5999 with standard deviation of 0.71. This mean value is very close to the range 3.50-
4.49. It means the term Women entrepreneur means that through the Microfinance they
can get loan to business independently. The mean value for Poverty reduction of women
entrepreneur was 4.1111 with standard deviation of 0.73. This mean value is very close to
the range 3.50-4.49. The mean value for effectiveness of women entrepreneur was 4.1111
with standard deviation of 0.73. This mean value is very close to the range 3.50-4.49..
The mean value for Poverty reduction of women entrepreneur was 3.5999 with standard
deviation of 0.69. This mean value is very close to the range 3.50-4.49.
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Correlations between women empowerment and empowerment factors

The relationship between Women empowerment and decision making power were
computed by using the Pearson Product Moment method. The results show that there is a
positive relationship between Women empowerment and decision making power (r=.329,
n=397, p<.01). The relationship between two variables is significant at 1 per cent level of
significance. The strength of correlation between them is slightly lower than moderate
value. However, hypothesis 1 is accepted. The relationships of Women empowerment
and effective Microfinance Institutions to empower the women were investigated against
women empower. The results show that there is a positive relationship between Women
empowerment and effective Microfinance Institutions to empower the women (r=.111,
n=397, p<.01). The relationship between two variables is significant at 1 per cent level of
significance. The strength of correlation between them is lower than moderate value.
However, hypothesis 2 is accepted. The relationship between women entrepreneur and
space and opportunity to access the resources were computed by using the Pearson
Product Moment method. The results show that there is a positive relationship between
women entrepreneur and space and opportunity at 1 per cent level of significance
(r=.436, n=397, p<.01). The relationship is significant with moderate correlation. Hence,
hypothesis 4 is accepted as there is a significant correlation.The relationship between
women entrepreneur and poverty reduction were computed by using the Pearson Product
Moment method. Table 4.7.1 shows that there is a positive correlation between women
empowerment and poverty reduction at 1 per cent level of significance (r=.482, n=397,
p<.01). The strength of correlation between poverty reductions is moderate. Hence,
hypothesis 4 is accepted. The relationship between women entrepreneur and poverty
reduction were computed by using the Pearson Product Moment method .Table 4.7.1
shows that there is a positive correlation between women empowerment and change the
lifestyle of women entrepreneur at 1 per cent level of significance (r=.492, n=397,
p<.01). The strength of correlation between women entrepreneur and and changing the
life style is moderate. Hence, hypothesis 5 is accepted.
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Multiple regressions between women empowerment and empowerment

factors
Table 4.5.2 shows that the predictor training and development has the highest beta value
(β=0.424), it is followed by poverty reduction (β=0. 146), changing life style (β=0.113),
work changing the life style (β=0.076), poverty reduction (β=0.068), β=0.046) and
effectiveness n(β=-0.101). It means women entrepreneur is influenced by all independent
variables except space and opportunity.

The values (F =42.362, p-value for F= 0.001) show that the model is significant as the p-
value is less than 1 per cent level of significance. It means there is a significant joint
effect of all the five predictors upon the women entrepreneur. It is supported by R value
(R=0.658, F=42.362). It declares that 65.80 per cent variation in the total variation of
women empowerment is accounted for by these five predictors and the rest 34.20 per cent
variation is explained by some other factors not included in this study. It is also supported
by R Square value (R2=0.433, F=42.362). It declares that 43.30 per cent variation in the
total variation of women empowerment is accounted for by these five factors and the rest
56.70 per cent variation is explained by some other factors not included in this study. In
other words, the five independent variables explain 43.30 per cent variance in women
empowerment.

Adjusted R Square is a better measure of a goodness of fit of the model as it is obtained

by adjusting a sample size and a number of predictors. In other words, it is useful when
comparing the R Square values between models with different number of
predictors/independent variables. The value of Adjusted R Square is obtained
0.422,stating that 42.20 per cent changes in the dependent variable, which is women
empowerment can be explained by the five independent variables( Predictors) which are
decision making power, effectiveness of Microfinance , space and opportunity , poverty
reduction, and changing the life style of women. The other 57.80 per cent are explained
by other factors not included in this study.
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Out of five independent variables, recruitment and selection is found unable to predict
women entrepreneur as it has the negative beta value (-0.101). This finding is113
consistent with previous research that identified that selections and recruitment has
negative beta value-0.058 (Ramasamy, 2011). In the present study, among remaining five
predictors/variables poverty reduction is found strongest as it has the highest beta value
i.e. 0.424. Out of five variables p-value less than 5% significant level but variables

Recommendation

1. Avoidance of over-indebtedness is one of the most important principles. Providers

need to take reasonable steps to ensure that credit is extended only if borrowers
have demonstrated adequate ability to repay and loans never put borrowers at a
significant risk of over-indebtedness.

2. In Nepal, Microfinance institutions have concentrated their programmes in urban

areas, and there is no effective credit information bureau, resulting in over-
indebtedness, which instead of improving the situation of the clients has been
harming them.

3. Transparent pricing is another important principle. Pricing and terms and

conditions of financial products (including interest charges, insurance premiums
etc) must be transparent and disclosed in a form understandable to clients. In
Nepal, Microfinance institutions hardly deliver clear information on current
pricing and terms and conditions of financial products to clients. This leads to
exploitation of clients.

4. Appropriate collections practices are essential in Microfinance. Debt collection

practices of providers should never be abusive or coercive. However, in Nepal
Microfinance providers force the clients to pay installments on a defined date at
any cost. They rarely take the client‘s problems into consideration and hardly
extend the payment deadline. This has further worsened the clients‘ situation.
 171

5. Ethical staff behavior is a prerequisite for the implementation of Microfinance

programmes. Staffers of financial service providers must maintain ethical
standards while interacting with clients, and such providers need to ensure that
adequate safeguards are in place to detect and correct corruption or mistreatment
of clients. The survey reveals that in most of the cases, staffers working in
Microfinance have maintained ethics and almost zero corruption, and are treating
their clients well.

6. Mechanisms for grievance addressed are also essential. Providers need to have in
place timely and responsive mechanisms for registering complaints and providing
solutions. In Nepal, Microfinance institutions encourage members to say their
grievances verbally during the fortnight or monthly group meeting, but there is no
separate mechanism to officially collect grievances and address them.

7. Privacy of client data is of utmost importance. Individual client data must be dealt
with respect, and such data cannot be used for any other purposes without the
consent of the clients. In Nepal, Microfinance institutions‘ staffers disclose
savings and loan status of every client after the transaction in the group during
every fortnight or monthly group meeting.

8. The government should formulate a national policy of Microfinance setting the

vision objectives, strategies and policies and specifying implementation
modalities to direct the Microfinance program to accomplish the stipulated
objectives. To expand the additional outreach of Microfinance services, it is
recommended that poor, who are still outside the services, should be identified by
extensive household survey.

9. It has been found that skillful and useful trainings should be given by
Microfinance institutions so that the participants of both co-operatives do not find
any difficulty and confusion about where and how to utilize the money to improve
 172

their living standard and present economic status. Through the help of skillful
trainings, women can make themselves busy in money generating activities.

10. Together with trainings, women clients should be provided with employment
opportunity by Microfinance institutions. If proper way to earn money is shown
by such institutions, they can get economically empowered.

11. In the field study, some women were found to be illiterate. In present days also,
some women were such that they could not read and write. It was found that they
feel difficulty

12. in working due to illiteracy. It is really difficult to work in society without being
literate in present context. So, it has been realized that there should be conduction
of literacy class for such women by Microfinance related institution. Such classes
should be conducted at favorable time for those women.

13. Nepal‘s formal Microfinance institution could play a key role in developing
financial services to low- income households. Yet, the performance of this sector
is disappointing especially in the remote hills and mountains. It is necessary to
device appropriate operational Microfinance modalities to enhance hill and
mountain poor people‘s participation in the credit market.

14. Government should also provide attention towards the management of

Microfinance institutions and should make those institutions client-oriented
together with profit-oriented.

15. Microfinance Institutions should adopt the policy to grant loan to the participants
at favorable or lower rate of interest. Also, for the welfare of clients there should
be the system of giving loan without security deposit.
 173

16. Gender discriminations should not exist in Microfinance institutions. Female

clients should be prioritized in Microfinance institutions in order to motivate and
inspire them to involve in economic activities

17. There should be the system of reward (either financial or non-financial) from
Microfinance related institution to the progressive female clients in order to
motivate them to do better works.

18. Different NGOs, INGOs and other related organizations should expand the
Microfinance programs in wide areas, especially in remote and backward areas
where women are very much suppressed and backward.

19. From the study it is found that even the limited access of the households on the
credit market is skewed against the target groups and communities. So it is
recommended that the government should extend the financial institutions with
appropriate policies and products to promote the government‘s agenda of
inclusive growth and equity.

20. To wrap up, Microfinance program has been playing crucial role in upliftment of
economy and empowerment of women. Many women have become able to stand
on their own and have started to engage in economic activities actively through
the assist of Microfinance programs. Microfinance institutions should conduct its
work and program more effectively in order to attract more female members
towards it and to empower them.

21. There is an urgent need to spread awareness among people of the country about
the importance of empowerment of women and their role in supporting the
household.
 174

22. There is a necessity to work on the development of special products and services
for women which change the negative attitude towards them in the society

23. Women must be taught as how to balance between the business activities and the
house duties so that no problems can occur

24. Microfinance institutions should work on reducing the interest rate, easing the
loan procedure, and remove the clause that insists on getting the husband‘s
permission for granting loan to woman so that women can be motivated to apply
for loans.

Further research suggestion

This study had given insights into the effect and relationship of women empowerment
with empowerment factors and demographic characteristics of empowerment and
empowerment factors. Thus, the following suggestions would be worthy for future
researchers:

Firstly, this study has covered only Microfinance of Nepal. It does not cover other banks,
financial institutions and other sectors of the economy.

Secondly, the present study has taken only five variables or five factors of women
empowerment such as decision making power of women entrepreneurship. Therefore,
further studies can be carried out including other factors such as job security, policy of
the organization, internal politics, communication system, telecommuting and so on.
Effectiveness of women, space and opportunity, poverty reduction and changing the life
style of women entrepreneurship.

Finally, the present study has employed quantitative and qualitative research method.
Therefore, further studies can be also be conducted on qualitative research method or on
mixed research methods.
 175

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Appendix I

QUESTIONNAIRE TO MICROFINANCE MEMBERS

I am conducting this survey to study the Microfinance and Women Empowerment: Their
Space and Opportunity for Poverty Reduction in Nepal. All information collected is
going to be keptconfidential and is going to be used only for academic purpose. There is
no right or wrong answer and your answer is the right answer so kindly give your views
freely.

Thanks for your kind co-operation and time spared to complete the questionnaire.

PART A: Personal Details

1) Name:
2) Address:

2)a Name of the group :

b Village :

c District

3) Age : Years

4) Educational qualifications

5) Marital status Married

6) No of family members Adult

Children

Total

7) If Land owned
 183

8) House details

Rental

Own

d) PART B: General

09. Year of formation of the Group

10 When did you join in the group?

11. Loan obtained after joining

Group internal loan

Bank loan

Total loan

12. Purpose for which Microfinance was obtained.

13. Purpose of actual utilisation of Microfinance loan.

Second Part: - Quantitative Questions.

 184

Using the scale given below please indicate to what extent you agree or disagree with the
following statements:I

Role of Microfinance to enhance Decision making power of women entrepreneurs.

Strongly agree 1

Agree 2

Neutral Not Agree Not Disagree 3

Disagree 4

Strongly Disagree 5

1 Microfinance helped me to take decision of household affairs

2 Microfinance helped me to take decision towards my children's education

3 Microfinance helped me to take decision to use the loan independently

4 Became able to take decision to purchase assets like TV, Fridge, Mobile, Furniture etc.

5Now I confident to take decision to purchase land/ house.

 185

V Microfinance and changing the life style of women entrepreneurs

Strongly Agree 1

Agree 2

Neutral Not Agree Not Disagree 3

Disagree 4

Strongly Disagree 5

1Microfinance teaches me how to live a healthy life style.

2 Microfinance loan helped to uplift my lifestyle by earning through small business

for healthier food, clean water and good cloths.

3 Microfinance Institution educated me the way of living with a good manner.

4 I became able to change my position in the society.

5 Through the awareness programs I am able to change the set of circumstances to

live properly.
 186

Appendix II

Qualitative Questionnaires for PhD Thesis "Microfinance and Women Empowerment:

Their Space and Opportunity to Reduce Poverty in Nepal" –

Meena Karna PhD Scholar

Name :
Address:
Age:

Q. No. 1. What do you know about Microfinance?

Q. No. 2. Do you think that participation in Microfinance group increase the power of
decision making? How?

Q.No.3. What is domestic violence and how a woman can be able to fight with this after
joining the Microfinancegroup ?
Q.No.4. How Microfinance loan empower the women?
Q.No.5. What are the opportunities for the women in our country ?
Q.No.6. How Microfinanceprovide employment to the women?
Q.No.7.How Microfinance Institutions help the women to start their own business ?
Q.No.8. Do you think Microfinance loan is enough to solve their family's economic
problems ?
Q.No.9. How Microfinance provides financial literacy to the women entrepreneurs?
Q.No.10.Do you think Microfinance loan helps to uplift the lifestyle of the women
entrepreneurs ?

Q.No.11.How Microfinance Institutions educate the women to protest against the in

justice?
Q.No.12. How do you think Microfinance develops skills to start to start small business
Q.No.13. What is awareness programs and how its help to participate women in local
activities?
 187

Q.No.14. How Microfinance Projects help the poor women to overcome from poverty
level ?

Q.No.15. Do you think Microfinance is a powerful instrument to reduce the poverty level
of the country ? If yes how ?
 188

Appendix III
Moments during Data Collection Process
189
190
 191

Appendix IV
Sample Size Calculation
n= N/{1+N (e2 )}
Total population (N) = 17000
Sampling error (e) = 5 percent
Sample size (n) =?
Substituting the values
= 17000/{1+ 17000(0.05)2}
= 390.80
= 390
The required sample size is 390
 192

Appendix V

List of Microfinance Companies in Nepal

Micro credit developments banks are ‗D‘ type Financial Institutions.As per the latest data
from Nepal Rastra Bank, there are a total of 90 Micro Credit Development Banks in
Nepal. So far, a total of 4644 branches of micro-credits development banks have been
established across the nation.

1. Grameen Bikas Laghubitta Bittiya Sanstha Limited

2. Nirdhan Utthan Laghubitta Bittiya Sanstha Limited
3. RMDC Laghubitta Bittiya Sanstha Limited
4. Deprosc Laghubitta Bittiya Sanstha Limited
5. Chhimek Laghubitta Bittiya Sanstha Limited
6. Swabalamban Laghubitta Bittiya Sanstha Limited
7. Sana Kisan Bikas Laghubitta Bittiya Sanstha Limited
8. Nerude Laghubitta Bittiya Sanstha Limited
9. Naya Nepal Laghubitta Bittiya Sanstha Limited
10. Summit Laghubitta Bittiya Sanstha Ltd.
11. Sworojagar Laghu Bitta Bika Bank Limited
12. First Microfinance Laghubitta Bittiya Sanstha Limited
13. Nagbeli Laghubitta Bittiya Sanstha Limited
14. Kalika Microcredit Development Bank Limited
15. Mirmire Microfinance Development Bank Limited
16. Janautthan SamudayikMicrofinance Dev. Bank Limited
17. Mithila Laghu Bitta Bikas Bank Limited
18. Womi Microfinance Bittiya Sanstha Ltd.
19. Laxmi Microfinance Bittiya Sanstha Ltd.
20. Civil laghubitta Bittiya Sanstha
 193

21. Mahila Sahayatra Microfinance Bittiya Sanstha Ltd.

22. Vijaya Laghubitta Bittiya Sanstha Ltd.
23. Kisan Microfinance Bittiya Sanstha Ltd.
24. NMB Microfinance Bittiya Sanstha Ltd
25. FORWARD Community Microfinance Bittiya Sanstha Ltd.
26. Global IME Laghubitta Bittiya Sanstha Limited
27. Mahuli Samudyik Laghubitta Bittiya Sanstha Ltd.
28. Suryodaya Laghubitta Bitiya Sanstha Ltd.
29. Mero Microfinance Bittiya Sanatha Ltd.
30. Samata Microfinance Bittiya Sanatha Ltd.
31. RSDC Laghubitta Bitiya Sanstha Ltd.
32. Samudayik Laghubitta Bitiya Sanstha Ltd.
33. National Microfinance Bittiya Sanstha Ltd.
34. Nepal Sewa Laghubitta Bitiya Sanstha Ltd.¤
35. Unnati Microfinance Bittiya Sanstha Ltd.
36. Swadeshi Lagubitta Bittiya Sanstha Ltd.
37. NADEP Laghubitta Bittiya Sanstha Limited
38. Support Microfinance Bittiya Sanstha imited
39. Arambha Microfinance Bittiya Sanstha Limited
40. Janasewi Laghubitta Bittiya Sanstha Limited
41. Chautari Laghubitta Bittiya Sanstha Limited
42. Ghodighoda Laghubitta Bittiya Sanstha Limited
43. Asha Laghubitta Bittiya Sanstha Ltd
44. Nepal Agro Microfinance Bittiya Sastha Ltd
45. Creative Laghubitta Bittiya Sanstha Ltd
46. Rama Roshan Microfinance Bittiya Sastha Ltd
47. Gurans Laghubitta Bittiya Sanstha Ltd
48. Ganapati Microfinance Bittiya Sastha Ltd
49. Infinity Microfinance Bittiya Sanstha Ltd
 194

50. Adhikhola Laghubitta Bittiya Sanstha Ltd.

51. SwabhimanMicrofinance Bittiya Sanstha Ltd.
52. Sparsha Laghubitta Bittiya Sanstha Ltd.
53. Sabaiko Laghubitta Bittiya Sanstha Ltd
54. Sadhana Laghubitta Bittiya Sanstha Ltd.
55. NIC Asia Laghubitta Bittiya Sanstha Ltd.
56. Sarathi Laghubitta Bittiya Sanstha Ltd.
57. Nagarik Laghubitta Bittiya Sanstha limited
58. Trilok Laghubitta Bittiya Sanstha Ltd.
59. Manakamana Laghubitta Bittiya Sanstha Ltd.
60. Sahakarya Laghubitta Bittiya Sanstha Ltd.
61. Sajeelo Laghu Bitta Bittiya Sanstha Ltd.
62. Satyawati Laghubitta Bittiya Sanstha Ltd.
63. Buddha Jyoti Laghubitta Bittiya Sanstha Ltd.
64. Samaj Laghubitta Bittiya Sanstha Ltd.
65. Divya Laghubitta Bittiya Sanstha Limited
66. Cweda Laghubitta Bittiya Sanstha Limited
67. Grameen Swayamsewak Laghubitta Bittiya Sanstha Limited
68. Mahila Laghubitta Bittiya Sanstha Limited
69. Adarsha Laghubitta Bittiya Sanstha Limited
70. Unique Nepal Lagubitta Bittiya Sanstha Ltd.
71. Manushi Laghubitta Bittiya Sanstha Limited
72. Smart Laghubitta Bittiya Sanstha Limited
73. Jalpa Laghubitta Bittiya Sanstha Limited
74. Mahila Samudayik Laghubitta Bittiya Sanstha Limited
75. Rastra Utthan Laghubitta Bittiya Sanstha Limited
76. Solve Laghubitta Bittiya Sanstha Limited
77. WEAN Laghubitta Bittiya Sanstha Limited
78. Upakar Laghubitta Bittiya Sanstha Limited
 195

79. Dhaulagiri Laghubitta Bittiya Sanstha Limited

80. CYC Nepal Laghubitta Bittiya Sanstha Limited
81. NESDO Samriddha Laghubitta Bittiya Sanstha Limited
82. Swastik Laghubitta Bittiya Sanstha Limited
83. Garibi Nyunikaran Laghubitta Bittiya Sanstha Limited
84. Shrijanshil Laghubitta Bittiya Sanstha Limited
85. NRN Laghubitta Bittiya Sanstha Limited
86. Jiban Bikash Laghubitta Bittiya Sanstha Limited
87. Gharelu Laghubitta Bittiya Sanstha Limited
88. Janakpur Laghubitta Bittiya Sanstha Limited
89. BPW Laghubitta Bittiya Sanstha Limited
90. Aatmanirbhar Laghubitta Bittiya Sanstha Limited
 196

Appendix VI
Chi - Square Analysis

Address

Address Frequency %
Biratnagar 28 7.2
Birgunj 51 13.1
Kirtipur 68 17.4
Magar Gaun 120 30.8
Nakhudol 98 25.1
Shantimarg, Thapagaun 23 5.9
Total 390 100

District

District Frequency Percent

Kathmandu 110 28.2
Lalitpur 156 40
Morang 75 19.23
Parsa 49 12.56
Total 390 100
 197

Educational Qualifications

Level of education Frequency Percent

Literate 192 49.23
None 80 20.51
PCL 46 11.79
SLC 72 18.46
Total 390 100.0

Marital status of the respondents

Marital Status Frequency Percent

Married 384 98.46
Single 6 1.53
Total 390 100.0

Age of the respondents

Age Frequency Percent

21-30 60 15.38
31-40 75 19.23
41-50 75 19.23
51-60 80 20.51
61-70 50 12.82
71-80 50 12.82
Total 390 100
 198

No of family members

No of family members Frequency Percent

adult
1 50 12.82
2 50 12.82
3 64 16.41
4 66 16.92
5 75 19.23
6 66 16.92
7 19 4.87
Total 390 100

Number of Children Family Members

Number of Children Family
Members Frequency Percent
1 59 15.12
2 59 15.12
3 80 20.51
4 64 16.41
5 52 13.33
6 44 11.28
7 32 8.20
Total 390 100
 199

Number of children family members

Number of children family Frequency Percent
members

0 160 41.02
1 108 27.69
2 60 15.38
3 62 15.89
Total 390 100
If land owned
If Land Owned Frequency Percent
Yes 24 6.15
No 366 93.46
100 390 100

Year of Formation of Group

Year of formation of Frequency Percent

group
5 136 34.87
8 40 10.25
10 100 25.64
12 24 6.15
15 24 6.15
20 66 16.92
Total 390 100
 200

Maximum and minimum loan obtain year of group formation

Loan obtained Frequency Percent

0 18 4.61
10000 244 62.56
30000 12 3.07
50000 104 26.67
100000 12 3.07
Total 390 100

Total loan provided by Microfinance to women empowerment

Total loan Frequency Percent

10000 18 4.61
20000 56 14.35
30000 64 16.41
50000 20 5.12
60000 100 25.64
100000 50 12.82
150000 22 5.64
160000 20 5.12
300000 40 10.25
Total 390 100
 201

Frequency of group Join

Group join Frequency Percent

1 40 10.25
2 45 11.53
3 80 20.52
5 40 10.25
6 18 4.61
7 20 5.12
8 52 13.33
10 35 8.97
12 10 2.56
15 20 5.12
20 30 7.69
Total 390 100

Group of internal loan

Group Internal Loan Frequency Percent

10000 70 17.94
20000 40 10.25
30000 56 14.35
50000 50 12.82
60000 56 14.35
100000 8 0.20
150000 60 15.38
300000 20 5.12
600000 30 7.69
Total 390 100
 202

Actual utilization of Microfinance loan

Actual utilization of Frequency Percent

Microfinance loan
Beauty parlour 12 3.07
Contractor 15 3.84
Cow business 23 5.89
Cow farming 20 5.12
Dairy farm 23 5.89
Farming 30 7.69
Garment factory 40 10.25
Grocery 45 11.53
Hotel 20 5.12
Hotel plus grocery 25 6.41
Pasmina Shawl factory 20 5.12
Photo studio 20 5.12
Tailoring Shop 23 5.89
Tea shop 19 4.87
Toys making 20 5.12
Vegetable farming 10 2.56
Vegetable production 10 2.56
Vegetable shop 15 3.84
Total 390 100
 203

Microfinance helped to take decisions of household affairs

Role Strongly Agree Neutral Not Agree Disagree Strongly Disagree

Agree nor Disagree

Microfinance helped 220 0 50 0 0

me to take decision (56.41%) (0%) (12.82%) (0%) (0%)
of household affairs

Microfinance helped 150 112 0 50 0

me to take decision (38.46%) (28.71%) (0%) (12.82%) (0%)
towards my
children's education
Microfinance helped 144 104 46 0 0
me to take decision (36.92%) (26.67%) (11.79%) (0%) (0%)
to use the loan
independently
I became able to 150 140 0 90 0
take decision to (38.46) (35.89%) (0%) (23.07%) (0%)
purchase assets like
TV, Fridge, Mobile,
Furniture, etc
 204

Microfinance Institutions and Women Empowerment

Role Strongly Agree Neutral Disagree Strongly

Agree Not Agree Disagree
nor
Disagree
Microfinance is very 138 104 50 0 0
useful as it helped me to (35.38%) (26.67%) (12.82%) (0%) (0%)
become an entrepreneur
I became confident to fight 101 65 35 0 0
with domestic violence by (25.89%) (16.67%) (8.97%) (0%) (0%)
the family members
The treatment of my 140 152 45 0 0
spouse/family members (35.89%) (38.97%) (11.53%) (0%) (0%)
towards me has changed
positively
Microfinance Institution 136 154 70 0 0
educated me to know my (34.87%) (39.48%) (17.94%) (0%) (0%)
rights and duties
I got empowered to use of 190 150 34 30 25
available resources to (48.71%) (38.46%) (8.71%) (7.69%) (6.41%)
solve family and social
problems
I became able to know that 132 112 26 0 4
women have reservations (33.84%) (28.71%) (6.67%) (0%) (4%)
in parliament and in
government jobs.

Microfinance educated me 128 98 44 30 40

to know about group (32.82%) (25.12%) (11.28%) (7.69%) (10.25%)
 205

meetingprocedures and
record keeping

By the help of 126 246 24 2 2

Microfinance Institution I (32.30%) (63.07%) (6.15%) (0.5%) (0.5%)
get involved and take
interest in village conflict
management.
Microfinance Institutions 126 146 75 0 34
provide employment (32.30%) (37.43%) (19.23%) (0%) (8.71%)
opportunity to become a
trainer
Microfinance institutions 128 146 48 0 2
encourage to be a team (32.82%) (37.43%) (12.30%) (0%) (2%)
leader
 206

Space and opportunity to reduce poverty of women of Microfinance group members

Role Strongly Agree Neutral Disagree Strongly

agree disagree
Microfinance 194 124 35 40 0
institutions provide (49.74%) (31.79%) (8.97%) (10.25%) (0%)
tiny loans and accept
deposits which help the
woman to start small
business with the
capital of loan and
equity from their
deposits
Micro business 148 58 50 45 25
generates income to (37.94%) (14.87) (12.82%) (11.53%) (6.41%)
fulfill the economic
activities of the women
entrepreneurs

Microfinance provides 128 158 90 18 0

financial advice to the (32.82%) (40.52%) (12%) (4.61%) (0%)
women entrepreneurs
to invest in productive
sector

Microfinance provides 132 152 22 60 0

skill to help the (33.84%) (38.97%) (5.64%) (15.38%) (0%)
entrepreneurs to run
their own
 207

work/business

Microfinance 140 146 80 0 10

Institutions help to find (35.89%) (37.43%) (20.51%) (0%) (2.56%)
the proper market and
provide them space to
run their own business
effective