An Empirical Study on Role of Micro Finance in Boosting Women Entrepreneurship in Gandhinagar District

Traditionally women were cornered in the four walls of house, serving the family and upbringing the children. Her innate talent was often unnoticed, as her abilities were never given a reasonable chance of display, in the organized set up of economic activities. She was always overburdened with domestic chores and unending family responsibilities. A woman turning into entrepreneur was considered as a taboo in the Indian society. In other words women were deprived of economic independence and social empowerment. Women are hard workers who have played a dynamic role in ‘green revolution' by assisting counterparts in agriculture. The credit of ‘white revolution' is crowned on women, who domesticated milking animals and offered subsistence to society. The two revolutions displayed engagement of crop farmers and milk farmers in traditional activities, for earning livelihood. Cooperative movement appreciated the labourious efforts of women. Self employment oriented entrepreneurial actions were boosted through the movement of microfinance. Literary experiences have disclosed that Self Help Group (SHGs) model has proved to be a success, to boost women entrepreneurship. This paper tries to explore the reasons of women turning entrepreneurs and the role of microfinance in assisting women to start micro enterprises. The paper also looks at the reasons of usage of borrowed funds from SHGs for other than business activity. The paper exclusively appraises the working mechanism of SHGs to support women entrepreneurs. The paper brings out the fact that young women are enthusiastic to be a part of SHG. Based on the level of education they carry out conventional and non-conventional business. Some women have borrowed money for servicing their consumption needs. In order to know the true usage of loan, SHGs are recommended to segregate the loan exclusively for business (productive) purpose and loans for unproductive purpose. Some of the members are found parsimonious who prefer savings mechanism through SHGs, here SHGs can differentiate this service from its core activity, of making women self employed