Assessing Empowerment Through Generation of Social Capital

Abstract

As women are an important part of the community, building their capabilities to manage communities should be enhanced. The basic objective of this paper is to estimate Women Empowerment Index and determine the effectiveness of joint liability microfinance programmes through Primary Agricultural Credit Societies in empowering rural women socially and economically in two blocks of Hooghly district of West Bengal. In this study, Principal Component Analysis (PCA) is used to estimate Women Empowerment Index. It is proved that social capital becomes an important component of Women Empowerment Index. In order to determine the effectiveness of joint liability microfinance programmes through Primary Agricultural Credit Societies in empowering rural women socially and economically we use the difference-in-difference estimator. Results reveal that there has been enhancement of empowerment of rural women in the two blocks both economically and socially belonging to Self-Help Groups formed under Primary Agricultural Credit Society during the concerned time periods if we compare them with the nonparticipants.