Microfinance and Tourism in the Development of Women Entrepreneurship: A Study of Four Gram Panchayats of Kandhamal District of Orissa

Abstract

India resides in her villages and those living in the cities and towns have their roots in the village life, its art and crafts and its rituals. Visiting rural area is always a fulfilling experience, emotionally, and enables interaction with people who get relatively little exposure in the media. Rural areas are the reservoirs of traditional knowledge and Rural Tourism is an effective means to share our vast traditional pool of knowledge layered over ages. Rural tourism generates additional income for the locals holding back many from going to the cities. However, the stress of urban-centric development is itself giving birth to counter-urbanization and creating need for rural visits. Finance plays a major role in providing economic security to rural women. Efforts by the Government to bring in the rural community to the mainstream, specially the rural women, through various initiatives, baring few areas, have yield little results. But these timely initiatives have opened the Pandoras Box as to what plays the pivotal role in empowering women in rural areas. It's indeed a sad irony that in spite of all the efforts majority of women are unaware of the existing schemes and facilities available for them. In view of the above, the present article attempts to study if women entrepreneurial opportunities through the promotion of tourism vis-à-vis rural connectivity in district are possible? It also attempts to examine the level of awareness of local people about the existence of Micro Finance Institutions, their functioning and about the availability of different tourism assistance schemes by the banks and other institutions in the four Gram Panchayats of the district.