Assessment of Economic Empowerment Through Micro-finance for Sustainable Business: A Study on Woman Vegetable Vendors in Chennai

Microfinance is playing a pivotal role in creating or making unemployed women into entrepreneurs. Microfinance is a kind of bank financial service which is introduced for people having problems or inaccessibility of formal credit facilities. The first initiation was taken by the “Self Employed Women Association” in Gujarat for the introduction of the micro-credit model, which has been established as SEWA bank. This particular SEWA bank was started to provide financial services to poor women to start their own businesses. Based on various past research works, it has been identified that there is a lack of analysis on economic empowerment before and after receiving microfinance. So the present study decided to quantify and compare the economic and social empowerment of women. The present research study adopted the empirical approach to carry out the scientific method to conduct the research work. It follows the judgmental sampling technique (Purposive sampling) to select the sample from the total population. A total of 150 samples have been selected for the study purpose. The data related to demographic and economic variables have been taken for survey and analysis. The collected data was analyzed with necessary and suitable statistical methods and models to extract the results. SPSS software is used for analysis purposes to quantify the socio-economic impact of microfinance among the sample respondent in the study area. The mean income of the women vegetable vendor in the study area was recorded at 4632 rupees and it has been improved to Rs. 6081.667 after the financial inclusion. The investment level also increased from 9526 rupees to 6500–10,914. The average sales per day also improved from 353.480 to 456.3 rupees. Decision-making skills had recorded a phenomenal increase due to economic empowerment. On the whole, the economic empowerment of the women vegetable vendor in the study area has empowered them socially and financially through the microfinance model.