Abstract This research, focusing primarily on Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 5, investigates how microfinance institutions (MFIs) help in women's empowerment in India. By fighting financial exclusion and gender inequality, MFIs help to promote economic, educational, and job mobility through savings accounts, modest loans, and financial literacy. The study employs a mixed-methods approach that combines qualitative interviews of North, South, East, and West India with quantitative analysis of longitudinal data (2018–2023). After being given a loan, however, we see a dramatic increase in women's employment (more than a two hundred percent increase in self-employment), increasing levels of education (two times higher level of education), and increased well-being of their families. Because of strong ecosystems and enabling laws, South India's standards of effectiveness of microfinance vary by region. However, we have issues such as excessive costs of loans, very high debt, and sociocultural disempowerment. Thus this study calls for the development of region-specific strategies and initiatives of financial literacy and the development of scalable models for enlarging the microfinance reach and effect. The literature on intranational variations and long-term impacts is incomplete; however, this research fills those gaps, helping practitioners and policymakers to realize the full potential of microfinance for enhancing gender equality through the transformation