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Micro-Credit:An Alternative to Development or Development Alternative?


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1 Centre for Research and Development, Sree Saraswathi Thyagaraja College, Pollachi, India
     

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Micro-credit provides a new institutional arrangement to make development pro-poor and people-centered. This builds up trust, bond and peer competition in the utilisation of locally-mobilised savings. The study indicates that savings-mobilised micro-credit products and services promote both social and economic development. The credit provided through soft loans or microfinance taken from Schdule Commercial Banks (SCBs) and other parastatal institutions would aggravate the problem of rural indebtedness of the poor. The innovative micro-credit products and services can definitively enable the development of social capital and build synergy in the society and in turn lead to social inclusion of women and poor. The social capital formation among the marginalised and vulnerable sections through networks and federation of micro-credit groups increasingly empowers them to undertake appropriate social risk management measures.

Keywords

Micro-Credit, Parastatal Institutions, Rural Indebtedness.
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  • Micro-Credit:An Alternative to Development or Development Alternative?

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Authors

N. Rajasekaran
Centre for Research and Development, Sree Saraswathi Thyagaraja College, Pollachi, India

Abstract


Micro-credit provides a new institutional arrangement to make development pro-poor and people-centered. This builds up trust, bond and peer competition in the utilisation of locally-mobilised savings. The study indicates that savings-mobilised micro-credit products and services promote both social and economic development. The credit provided through soft loans or microfinance taken from Schdule Commercial Banks (SCBs) and other parastatal institutions would aggravate the problem of rural indebtedness of the poor. The innovative micro-credit products and services can definitively enable the development of social capital and build synergy in the society and in turn lead to social inclusion of women and poor. The social capital formation among the marginalised and vulnerable sections through networks and federation of micro-credit groups increasingly empowers them to undertake appropriate social risk management measures.

Keywords


Micro-Credit, Parastatal Institutions, Rural Indebtedness.

References