Issue #10 July 2009
CENTRE FOR MICRO FINANCE
A CMF surveyor interviewing a client in the VWS study, West Bengal
Women Involved in Expenditure Decisions Food Education Clothing Durable Goods Health Gold Home Improvements Investment of Surplus
% 79.32 71.36 78.71 70.96 77.75 80.46 74.57 74.96
Women Involved in Bussiness % Decisions Takes decisions to conduct business 88.87 12.85 Consults someone? 76.07 Takes decisions on profits 12.32 Consults someone?
Table 1: Involvement of women in Expenditure and Business decisions; Source: Baseline Survey, Impact evaluation of Spandana’s micro-credit program
Expenses on Education and Health Annual fees Personal Teaching expenses Text book Doctor's fees Other practitioner's fees Medicines Tests Health-related travel Vaccines
Share Women Total Share Men Expenditure/ Total Share of Expenditure/ Share Share Men Women Aged Share of Men Women Total Total 0 to 17 Aged 0 to 17 Expenditure Expenditure 0.50 0.50 0.98 0.97 0.49 0.51 1.00 0.96 0.51 0.49 1.01 0.95 0.59 0.41 0.87 0.75 0.70 0.30 1.13 0.48 0.57 0.43 0.86 0.74 0.59 0.41 0.77 0.70 0.64 0.36 0.93 0.62 0.49 0.51 1.08 0.93
Table 2: Expenses on Health and Education by Gender; Source: Experiments on repayment schedules in VWS, West Bengal; VWS Baseline survey
Have Women Involved in Involved major say Expenditure Decisions % % Food 81.67 63.77 Education 48.43 37.90 Clothing 72.70 59.02 Health 60.03 45.73 Home Improvements 37.56 20.17 Land Purchase 30.06 47.55
Table 3: Participation of Women in Household Expenditure Decisions; Source: Experiments on repayment schedules in VWS, West Bengal; VWS Baseline survey
A group of women belonging to the Gond tribe in Madhya Pradesh talk about their fears of going to banks for loans.