The Role of Microcredit on Women Empowerment in Sri Lanka: Evidence from Samurdhi Program Beneficiaries in Weligama Divisional Secretariat Division

Abstract

Empowerment of women is one of the important issues in developing countries, especially in Asia and Africa. Also, one of the most important concerns of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals is the empowerment of women. Women have less access to resources that can generate income, finances and land. National governments and their development partners have viewed microcredit as a strategic tool for the empowerment of vulnerable groups, notably women. The main aim of microcredit is to empower women. Accordingly, the objective of this study is to identify the role of microcredit on women's empowerment in the Weligama District Secretariat Division (DSD). To address the research objectives the researcher chooses pragmatism, a mixed approach (quantitative approach and qualitative approach) where the researcher studied the sample as 140 women in the Weligama DSD. A sample was selected under a simple random sampling technique. The data were analyzed using the Pearson Correlation Coefficient and Multiple Linear Regression model with the support of SPSS. The results of the study, reflect that self-employment, income generation and living standards have a clear positive relationship with women empowerment. The finding also pointed out that self-employment highly influences women's empowerment. Finally, this study provided recommendations for Samurdhi banks and other relevant parties to further formalize Samurdhi Bank’s micro-credit facilities for poor women.