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Type : Other Article

Small Step for Big Change - A Micro Finance Intervention

Babita Sharma

Abstract

Micro finance as a poverty alleviation tool emerged all over the country in late 1980s. Like other parts of the country in Assam also NGOs have taken this as a poverty alleviation tool. This research article depicts the NGOs mf impact in creating employment of women at various levels viz. at individual or in association with others in increasing the household income. Study was conducted in Sonitpur and Lakhimpur districts of Assam covering 945 nos. of beneficiaries. NGOs microfinance programme has helped to raised employment status of women in study area, unrelated to the matter of individual employment or in association with other family members. The change of raising employment is more pronounced about 97% among women. 21 per cent (range from 5-34%) overall change in household income is notable impact of NGOs micro finance in study area. Educational qualification of respondents, Income from primary sources, family size, husband occupation, frequency of loan received are found to be the positive significant variables, explaining the variation of household income. locality of respondent households, status of loan utilization, utilization % of loan , employment status of respondents before NGO loan, marital status, husband age are negatively significant variables in explaining the variation of household income. The magnitude of R² is 0.620 in the study shows that the regression equation explains about 62 per cent of the variation

Keyword: Micro finance; Poverty alleviation tool; Employment of women; Association; Household income;

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