Role of Punjab Rural Support Program in improving economic conditions of Rural Women through micro financing

Women's low status in society is usually due to their weak economic standing and their reliance on male members of the family. Punjab Rural Support Program (PRSP) is one of the non-government organizations (NGOs) which are focusing on improving the conditions of rural women by providing financial assistance. Therefore, the present paper focused on the role of PRSP in improving the economic conditions of rural women through micro financing. The population for the study consisted of rural women only who were members of the Community Organizations (COs) of PRSP. A multistage simple random sampling technique was used for the study. Out of the eight towns of district Faisalabad, four towns which cover rural areas (Samundri, Iqbal Town, Jaranwala, and Chak Jhumra) were selected. Four field units of PRSP were working in these four towns, i.e. Salarwala in Chak Jhumra, Satiana in Jaranwala, Khidarwala in Samundri and Dijkot in Iqbal Town. These field units have 214, 203, 170 and 238 female COs, respectively. A sample of 10% COs was selected from each field unit randomly and five members from each CO were selected at random. A validated and pre-tested interview schedule was used for data collection. The data were analyzed with the help of SPSS. The respondents considered most of the dimensions of micro-credit quite good but they were hardly satisfied with the amount of credit by PRSP. Impact of micro-credit on the overall standard of living, livestock and family income of the members of COs was much stronger. The study concluded that there may be an increase in the amount of credit and PRSP may take initiative to provide job opportunities in rural areas in order to strengthen the economic conditions of rural women.