Does participation in Self-Help Groups Empower Muslim and non-Muslim Women Equally? Evidence from Dakshina Kannada District of Karnataka

It is widely concluded among various microfinance advocates and research scholars that Self-help group (SHG) microfinance programs are the most accepted development interventions to promote women's empowerment. However, numerous existing research directly or indirectly indicates that incessant financial exclusion, gender discrimination, and conservative religious norms adversely affect women's empowerment. In particular, it remains an open question of whether participation in Self Help Groups (SHGs) influences Muslim and non-Muslim women equally. The study surveyed 389 Muslim and non-Muslim participants of the SHGs bank linkage program in Karnataka, India. Exploratory factor analysis is used to extract the most critical variables that accounted for women empowerment. The identified factors are Household decision making, Socio-culture, and assets acquisition variables. Besides, the authors used nonparametric tests such as the Chi-square test for independence and the Mann-Whitney U test to compare the empowerment among the groups after joining SHGs. The study result reports that participation in SHGs has profoundly empowered Muslim and non-Muslim women. However, this improvement was not gained equally between both groups, which means non-Muslim women are empowered than Muslims for specific indicators.