Intro; Foreword; Preface; Contents; About the Editors; Women Empowerment; 1 Women Empowerment in India; 1 Introduction; 2 Past Studies; 3 Data; 4 Methods; 4.1 Construction of Empowerment Index; 4.1.1 Profile of Sample Observations; 5 Findings; 6 Discussion; 7 Conclusion; References; 2 Measuring Women Empowerment in the Household Sector: A Generalized Index and an Application to Indian Households; 1 Introduction; 2 Women Empowerment Index at the Household Level; 3 The Generalized Empowerment Index; 4 An Empirical Application; 5 Conclusion; References

3 Traditional Institutions and Female Beneficiaries of Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee in West Bengal1 Introduction; 2 Economics of Discrimination, Indian Social Fabric, and Women; 3 MGNREGA; 3.1 MGNREGA in West Bengal; 3.2 Existing Work on MGNREGA; 4 Data and Methodology; 4.1 Field Selection; 5 Access to MGNREGA for Rural Women; 5.1 MGNREGA and Poverty Status of the Household; 5.2 MGNREGA and Affiliation to Caste and Religion; 5.3 Accessing the Program: Probit Estimate; 6 Examining Non-monotonicity of Social Restrictedness; 6.1 Impact Analysis; 7 Result and Implications

8 ConclusionsReferences; 4 Empowerment of Women Through Public Programs in Rural West Bengal: A Study on National Rural Livelihood Mission in a Block of Purulia; 1 Introduction; 1.1 Progress of SGSY (NRLM); 1.2 The Impact of Microcredit Programs on the Lives of Women: What Does the Existing Literature Say?; 1.3 SGSY and Women Empowerment: Findings from the Survey; 2 Conclusion; References; 5 Non-farm Employment Among Rural Women: Trend and Determinants; 1 Introduction; 2 Literature Review; 3 Data Source; 4 Macroeconomic Overview; 5 Empirical Analysis; 5.1 Econometric Modeling; 6 Methodology

7 Results8 Conclusion; References; Microfinance in India; 6 Efficiency and Mission Drift-Debate Revisited in Indian Context; 1 Introduction; 2 Related Studies; 3 Context of the Study; 4 Methodology; 5 Description of Indian MFIs; 5.1 Cost Structure; 6 Econometric Analysis; 6.1 Estimation of Stochastic Frontier Cost Function; 7 Conclusions; Appendix; References; 7 Microfinance and Human Development: A Cross-Generation Study; 1 Introduction; 2 Data and Methodology; 3 Results and Discussion; 4 Conclusion; References

8 Microfinance for Women-Owned Small Business in India: Challenges and Opportunities1 Introduction; 2 Microfinance: An Alternative Source of Finance and Global Experience; 3 Global Experience with Microfinance; 4 Microfinance in India-Attempts and Major Events; 4.1 Women-Owned Small Businesses in India; 5 Major Problems of Women-Owned Small Businesses in India; 6 Financing Women-Owned Businesses in India; 6.1 Major Financing Program for Women MSMEs; 7 Conclusions; References; Websites; Microfinance and Women Entrepreneurship