Utilization of Microcredit by the Female Community: A Case Study of Azad Jammu and Kashmir (Pakistan)

This case study examines the impact of microcredit on women's empowerment. It was designed to analyze the 'Utilization of Micro-Credit' provided by the National Rural Support Program (NRSP) in Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK). Following are details of the study:

• District Rawalkot was selected as the study area through simple random sampling technique;
• A sample of 60 women was taken randomly from the community organizations (COs) supervised by NRSP;
• These women were the beneficiaries of the NRSP credit program;
• The data was collected by a pre-tested interview schedule;
• It was analyzed using SPSS for drawing conclusions and interpreting results.

The study found that:

• More than half the respondents had received credit only once;
• A majority (46.7%) were satisfied "to some extent" with the amount of the loan;
• About 48.3% of respondents were satisfied to "a great extent" from the general behavior of the NSRP staff;
• 45% were satisfied "to a great extent" with the procedure adopted for the disbursal of credit;
• 58.3% were "satisfied to some extent" with the procedure adopted for the repayment of credit;
• Most of the respondents purchased livestock and poultry;
• Majority of the respondents used the loan for economic activity;
• The loan was also used for household, personal, savings and social purposes.