From Marginalization to Agency in Tribal Gujarat? A Mixed-Method Assessment on Impact of Microfinance-led Interventions on Women

Tribal women in India encounter deep-rooted structural barriers to economic, social, and educational empowerment. Despite their significant contributions to household sustenance through unpaid labour and informal economic activities, these efforts remain largely unrecognised, perpetuating cycles of poverty and dependency. This study employs a mixed-methods approach, combining a structured survey with a literature review, to examine the impact of microfinance on capability development among tribal women in Dahod district, Gujarat, from 2023 to 2024. This study makes three contributions to existing literature. First, it is among the first to apply propensity score matching within a convergent parallel mixed-methods design to assess microfinance impacts specifically on Bhil and Rathwa tribal women – a population systematically excluded from mainstream microfinance scholarship that tends to subsume tribal experiences under general rural categories. Second, the study operationalises an intersectional feminist framework alongside Capability Approach to disentangle how indigeneity, gender, and geographic marginality compound capability deprivations. Third, the integration of qualitative case studies with quasi-experimental estimates provides analytical depth rarely achieved in single-method impact evaluations in tribal contexts. The findings reveal that microfinance interventions significantly increase income-generating activities, leading to improved economic agency and enhanced social empowerment. However, overall impact remains constrained by persistent structural barriers. These findings are grounded in the specific socio-cultural and geographic context; while they offer analytical insights transferable to similar tribal settings, they are not statistically generalisable to the broader tribal population across India. The study concludes that achieving sustained and scalable outcomes requires coordinated efforts between government and non-governmental organisations.