Abstract:
Women mostly suffer from poverty in many developing countries. Sri Lanka, being one of
the developing countries, and has been affected by the internal conflict over 30 years. Now,
the post war development is carried out in the northern and eastern province of the country
however, the war widows, disabled persons and female children are suffering from accessing
education, health nutrition and employability. The micro finance facilities are provided for
these people through NGOs, financial institutions and other government agencies to empower
those people. This study reveals the role of the micro finance in empowering women in
Jaffna District. The prime objective of this study is to look into the role of microfinance in
empowering poor women. To find out the results, quantitative as well as qualitative methods
were also employed in this study. A questionnaire which was self developed for a total of 77
respondents whom, however, only 66 completed the questionnaire. Further, three focus
group discussions were conducted involving 18 women and in-depth interviews were carried
out with another 12 in the selected DS Divisions of Jaffna, Nallur, Sandilipay and Kopay.
The finding of this study was the improvement of the women’s self-confidence to work on
their own and get better their lives. But, there is a little participation in the decision making
in the household level or societal level. Further, the political empowerment is reflected by
the ownership of assets and holding of political positions. Furthermore, the study also
identified the challenges and difficulties that women face with Micro Finance Institutions
(MFIs).
