in Women self-help group-bAsed

microfinAnce: non-experimentAl evidences from rurAl households in indiA Debadutta Kumar Panda a quasi-experimental design was made under which the target group was compared with a selected control group across a set of household variables like income, assets positions, savings, consumption, employment, literacy and migration. a multistage random sampling was used to select 150 cross-sectional samples from Orissa, Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh states of India. Descriptive statistics, test of significance by z-statistics and probit model under econometrics were used to measure the impact of participation in the self-help group-based microfinance. The distribution of household income and assets was measured by Gini coefficient and Lorenz curve. The ‘household ’ was taken as the unit of analysis. The study concluded with the positive impact on the increase in income, assets position, savings and literacy and in the reduction of migration of rural households. Weak evidence of significant impact of the group-based microfinance on the distribution of household income and assets was found. The participation of women in the self-help group was strongly determined by household income, employment, migration, saving and literacy positions