Micro Credit and Rural Women Entrepreneurship in Bihar: Opportunities and Constraints

This paper assesses the role of microcredit in promoting rural women entrepreneurship in Bihar. Based on the primary data collected from 280 beneficiaries belonging to manufacturing/service/trading sector, the study evaluates changes in income, savings and asset holdings using paired t-test, ANOVA and regression. The findings revealed that there is significant increase in annual income (Rs. 48000 to Rs. 76000, ~p<0.01), savings and assets with manufacturing enterprises recording highest growth of 61.5%. It was also found that education qualification and family size are significant predictors of entrepreneurial income. There was marked improvement in decision-making scores thus indicating enhanced women empowerment. However, the study also identified several constraints such as illiteracy, lack of marketing facilities, patriarchal control over loan proceeds (in 38% cases) and high-pressure of repayment. The paper finally makes several recommendations to address these issues within the framework of JEEViKA.