Identifying and Assessing the Critical Challenges Face by Microfinance Institutions in Empowering Muslim Women in Dakshina Kannada: A Challenge Factors Approach
Dakshina Kannada, Empowerment, Microfinance Institutions Challenges, Muslim Women
Authors:
Sarwari, Masouda
Srivatsa, Dr. Subhashini
Journal:
IJIRES
Volume:
10
Number:
3
Pages:
114-126
Month:
May
ISSN:
2349-5219
BibTex:
Abstract:
There has been a long-standing interest in the consensus that microfinance programs are an effective initiative offering financial and non-financial services to the poorest segments of the world population and particularly women in developing countries. Propitiations, advocates, and scholars worldwide focused on various indices of women's empowerment through microfinance. However, a very confined amount of research is considering microfinance challenges in Muslim women’s communities. The present article aims to evaluate the critical Challenges microfinance institutions face in empowering Muslim women in the Dakshina Kannada district of Karnataka. For this purpose, the study surveyed South Canara District Central Cooperative (SCDCC) bank staff (branch managers). To identify the most significant challenges MFI face, Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) is applied, utilizing SPSS v. 25. EFA diagnosed two components administrative and lending issues of MFI in empowering these women. Moreover, Relative Importance Index (RII) was run variable-wise to rank the extracted components. The administrative issues of microfinance institutions ranked first, with an RII of (.347-.430), which showed the medium and medium-low RI range and unhealthy competition was the first-ranked item by RII. The microfinance institutions' lending issues ranked second, showing a medium-low RI.