Abstract
Women‟s low status in society is usually due to their weak economic standing and their reliance on male members of the
family. Punjab Rural Support Program (PRSP) is one of the non-government organizations (NGOs) which is focusing on
improving the conditions of rural women by providing financial assistance. Therefore, the present paper focused on the role
of PRSP in improving the economic conditions of rural women through micro financing. The population for the study
consisted of rural women only who were members of the Community Organizations (COs) of PRSP. A multistage simple
random sampling technique was used for the study. Out of the eight towns of district Faisalabad, four towns which cover
rural areas (Samundri, Iqbal town, Jaranwala, and Chak Jhumra) were selected. Four field units of PRSP were working in
these four towns, i.e. Salarwala in Chak Jhumra, Satiana in Jaranwala, Khidarwala in Samundri and Dijkot in Iqbal Town.
These field units have 214, 203, 170 and 238 female COs, respectively. A sample of 10% COs was selected from each field
unit randomly and five members from each CO were selected at random. A validated and pre-tested interview schedule was
used for data collection. The data were analyzed with the help of SPSS. The respondents considered most of the dimensions
of micro-credit quite good but they were hardly satisfied with the amount of credit by PRSP. Impact of micro-credit on the
overall standard of living, livestock and family income of the members of COs was much stronger. The study concluded that
there may be an increase in the amount of credit and PRSP may take initiative to provide job opportunities in rural areas in
order to strengthen the economic conditions of rural women.
