The History of Micro-Credit as a Means for Development of Poor Nations

Typically, they have fixed workshop and capital investments but the character is still small and most of the production is meant for local markets. It is important to note that the number of employees is not the only measure of the size of micro credit enterprises. Other factors such as output, sales and asset levels may be equally appropriate indicators of the size of the firm’s operation. Currently, most of the loans to micro-entrepreneurs are provided primarily through the government, foreign aid assisted non-governmental agencies or informal money lenders. Financial institutions must recover their cost of servicing loans by interest charges and they must be confident borrower’s intent ability to repay. Financial institutions are also hampered by lack of formal collateral. This means the standard criteria used by the financial institutions are inappropriate for micro enterprise lending. To over-come this problem the government established a channel to direct their own programs with the objective of achieving social welfare and micro enterprise development. The Samurdhi Development Credit Scheme developed by the Ministry of Nation Building in Sri Lanka. This scheme was intended to serve the rural community through village level task forces called “Samurdhi Task Forces” which operated as a social intermediary. The task force used its members called “Samurdhi Development Officer” to select recipients of the

The primary objective of this literature review is to understand the concept of Rural Markets in India, and to find out the opportunities and challenges faced by these rural markets according to the researches already conducted. The Rural Markets, as a part of the economy have been untapped and have a huge potential. The urban markets in India are saturated and even though the contribution of agricultural sector has gone down in the GDP, India still lives in her villages.

In both developing and emerging economies, microfinance has vastly and increasingly been seen as one of the most important means for enhancing the lives of the poor and therefore a major tool for economic and social development mostly in rural areas. Lately, contrary to this widespread belief, critics have raised eyebrows against this growing popularity of microfinance as a major tool for enhancing economic development. Contrary to belief, they are of the opinion that microfinance is a ‘make-belief’ that is hindering economic and social development rather than enhancing it.

269). There is no easy way for those with little money to begin earning interest on savings or obtain loans with reasonable interest rates: the banking community is failing the poorest people (Banerjee & Duflo, 2012, p. 269). Also, Banerjee and Duflo (2012) assert that medical and agricultural insurance are not favored by the poor in spite of the fact that they could benefit greatly from such products (269). Their proposed solutions come in the form of microcredit (to provide access to more reasonable loans), electronic money transfer systems (to reduce the fixed costs of saving), and rewarding people for making good financial decisions (either via markets or the government if needed) (Banerjee & Duflo, 2012, p. 270). The incentives could even be something unrelated, such as bed nets, which then help the recipients in more than one way (Banerjee & Duflo, 2012, p. 270). This would need to be coupled with government regulation so that unscrupulous individuals wouldn’t have a way to easily game the system (Banerjee & Duflo, 2012, p. 270).

The book, Microfinance and its Discontent: Women in Debt in Bangladesh written by Lamia Karim, gives us account on what causes a culture to be known as “economy of shame” status, such as in the case of Bangladesh. She writes on a subject that is a top list priority in the economical world these days, the corrupt ways NGO’s lenders do business not only in Bangladesh but across the world, however, she centralizes her views on Bangladesh and only a handful of NGO’s. Even though this was primarily a look at Bangladesh, it has resulted in capturing the attention of people across the globe not only with the NGO’s mention in the book but resulting in a closer look at all NGO’s and how they serve the people. Karim shares with the readers how the 1980’s nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) led in the way of microfinance institutions and claimed that they were providing women with an empowerment tool by issuing them loans. We find that over 80% of borrows are women and most are economically challenged already. With that being stated Karim also takes a look at how and why that is, she discusses the long term effects it is having on women and how it is furthering the exploitation of women in Bangladesh. She looked at how this type of exploitation has not only weakened further women’s economy in Bangladesh but has also strengthen the power NGO’s have over the people (mainly women) at the same time. It takes a look at this type of expansion and brands NGO’s use as a “shadow state

Poverty has stricken many developing nations. However, there are many ways to limit things like this from occurring, micro-loans being one of those things. It is apparent that women in developing countries are empowered by micro-loans. Micro-loans are a small amount of money given to small businesses. Micro-loans help make women more independent and help them not rely on their husbands for money. It helps these women in poverty get their kids and themselves an education with the money they receive. Additionally, micro-loans make it possible for women starting a business, in order to make more money. There are many benefits for women receiving micro-loans.

Micro credit is the process of helping the “poorest of the poor” obtain loans. Since big time banks rarely help people who need help acquiring loans, micro credit is another source that makes it possible for the lower class to achieve that. They focus on they call the “real economy,” where they are on personal relationships with their clients. They want them to succeed and help their clients change their own life. Compared to the big banks, they are not looking to make huge amount of interest back off their loan (paper chasers).

Microfinancing produces many benefits for poverty stricken, or low- income households. One of the benefits is that it is very accessible. Banks today simply won’t extend loans to those with little to no assets, and generally don’t engage in small size loans typically associated with microfinancing. Through microfinancing small loans are produced and accessible. Microfinancing is based on the philosophy that even small amounts of credit can help end the cycle of poverty. Another benefit produced from the microfinancing initiative is that it presents opportunities, such as extending education and jobs. Families receiving microfinancing are less likely to pull their children out of school for economic reasons. As well, in relation to employment,

in the rural and semi-urban sector, which used to be the bastion of the State Bank

One important element of the caste system is the concept of “begar”, or the requirement of Dalits to provide service without payment. Traditionally, this entailed undertaking the most undesirable jobs as a contribution to the community, a category that includes agricultural work. As a cultural norm, “begar” has endured into modern times, and is often exploited by landowners as a means of sanctioning a system of debt bondage. The fact that Dalits are typically landless means that they are oftentimes entirely dependent upon their landlords economically. This is particularly true of the indigenous Tharu communities in western Nepal, where most of that country’s rice is grown. Within the exploitative debt labor system known as Kamaiya, Tharu families depend upon their landlords for even the most basic food and shelter. Their position at the bottom of the caste system and their complete economic dependence upon landowners make Dalits particularly prone to exploitation. Often they are forced to accept loans from their employers to survive and to meet social obligations associated with death and marriage. These loans are designed to be impossible to pay back, and because Dalits are traditionally denied education, they are left with little recourse but to accept the loans and become indebted to their landlords. Just as one’s position in the caste social hierarchy is inherited, so debts are passed from one generation to the next. Debt bondage in South Asia is implemented with varying

What is microlending? In simplest terms microlending is the lending of very small amounts of money at low interest, to low income people in urban and rural areas. It started forty years ago, when a person named Muhammad Yunus was visiting his family and his country Bangladesh which had recently become an independent country. Muhammad Yunus had left his home country then –East Bengal- when he was a child with his parents in search of a better future. He graduated from Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, with a PhD in economics. Muhammad Yunus is the founder of Grameen Bank, the first non-profit organization to offer microfinance services in Bangladesh and in the world (New York Times). This bank showed the world on how little

The generation of self-employment in non-farm activities requires investment in working capital. However, at low levels of income, the accumulation of such capital may be difficult. Under such circumstances, loans, by increasing family income, can help the poor to accumulate their own capital and invest in employment-generating activities (Hossain, 1988). Commercial banks and other formal institutions fail to cater for the credit needs of smallholders, however, mainly due to their lending terms and conditions. It is generally the rules and regulations of the formal financial institutions that have created the myth that the poor are not bankable, and since they can’t afford the required collateral, they are considered uncreditworthy (Adera, 1995). Hence despite efforts to overcome the widespread lack of financial services, especially among smallholders in developing countries, and the expansion of credit in the rural areas of these countries, the majority still have only limited access to bank services to support their private initiatives (Braverman and Guasch, 1986). In the recent past, there has been an increased tendency to fund credit programmes in the developing countries aimed at small-scale enterprises. In Kenya, despite emphasis on increasing the availability of credit to small and microenterprises (SMEs), access to credit by such enterprises remains one of the major constraints they face. A 1995 survey of small and

From the time of independence, India has been suffering from acute poverty, most of it is chronic in nature. If we look at the percentage of people below the poverty line, we do notice a sharp fall, but the absolute number remains increasing at a high rate.

In case of crisis, these people find it convenient to approach non-institutional sources for their credit necessities. Financial emergencies, for instance include unforeseen expenditure on business, consumption, marriage among others, which may not be financed by banks and other institutional organizations. Need specific loans / credit schemes can attract the people towards the banking domain.

India has been a welfare state ever since her Independence and the primary objective of all governmental endeavors has been the welfare of its millions. Planning has been one of the pillars of the Indian policy since independence and the country’s strength is derived from the achievement of planning. The policies and programmes have been designed with the aim of alleviation of rural poverty which has been one of the primary objectives of planned development in India. It was realized that a sustainable strategy of poverty alleviation has to be based on increasing the productive employment opportunities in the process of growth itself. Elimination of poverty, ignorance, diseases and inequality of