Khushboo Sherwani and Syed Ashfaq Ali
India is one of the oldest civilization of the world. It has been represented as the progressive cotre of people. We introduced the world to female form of worship, in form of shakti, in form of rivers, in form of deities. India is a country that mantra’s have been chanted, women has been worshipped as a deity Today, the development of any country is based on development of women and their active participation in the main stream of development process. The UN commission observed ‘women who contribute half of the world’s population by virtue of an accident of birth, perform two- thirds of the world’s work, receive one-tenth of its income and owns less than one-hundredth of its property’. The empowerment of women and improvement of their status and economic role needs to be integrated into economic development programs, as the development of any country is inseparably linked with the status and development of women. Micro finance, an important strategy which emerged in the nineties for poverty alleviation and empowerment, has been extremely relevant for women. The Microfinance Movement has created a vision of increasing numbers of women borrowers who have successfully established a model of economic self reliance leading to social change. Microfinance empowers women not only economically but also socially and within the family. Simply earning a small amount of money, through access to capital to start a small business, can increase women’s confidence and empower them through greater economic independence and security.
This paper tries to link between Micro Finance and Women Entrepreneurship especially in rural areas. The aim of this paper is to examine recent trends of Micro Finance towards Women empowerment and discuss the future emerging issues.
