A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z All
Nandhi, Mani A.
- Role of Micro-Credit in Risk Coping and Consumption Smoothening in Rural India
Authors
Source
The Microfinance Review, Vol 8, No 2 (2016), Pagination: 67-82Abstract
Given the vulnerability of poor households, there has been growing attention on the potential role and impact of microcredit in dealing with risks and reducing their vulnerability. This paper examines the role of group credit in managing risks by the poor in rural India by exploring how micro-credit enables members to manage risks and in coping with shortfalls in consumption/income during periods of shocks and stresses.
The study covered 50 households which had 35 participant households (project group) and 15 non-participant households (control group). Data used in this paper come from the material collected in three villages of Maharashtra, India. Results show that micro-credit induced the participant households to undertake investments in several forms - physical (housing); productive (livestock, poultry, irrigation infrastructure); human (health expenditures) and social assets.
However, the degree to which micro-credit could help the poorest households for absorbing the risks was limited due to certain group-specific and participant-specific factors. As a result, their dependence on other welfare-reducing measures (reduction in expenses on food) to cope with personal risks (periods of unemployment) was far from eliminated.
Keywords
Households, Micro-Credit, Vulnerability.
References
- Anderson C Leigh, Locker L and Nugent R (2002): “Micro-credit, Social Capital, and Common Pool Resources”, World Development, Vol.30, pp 95-105.
- Fisher T and M S Sriram (2003): ”Beyond Micro Credit: Putting Development Back into Micro-Finance”, Vistaar Publications, New Delhi
- Hulme D and Mosley P (1996): Finance Against Poverty, Vol. I, London, Routledge.
- Littlefield E, Morduch J and Hashemi S (2003): “Is Microfinance an Effective Strategy to Reach the Millennium Development Goals?”, CGAP Focus Note 24.
- Morduch J (1995): “Income Smoothing and Consumption Smoothing”, Journal of Economic Perspectives, Vol.9 (3), pp 103-114.
- - (1999): “Between the State and the Market: Can Informal Insurance Patch the Safety Net?”, The World Bank Research Observer, Vol.14 (2), pp 187-207.
- - (1999): “The MicroFinance Promise”, Journal of Economic Literature, Vol. 37, pp 15691614.
- Moser, Caroline C N (1998): ‘The Asset Vulnerability Framework: Reassessing Urban Poverty Reduction Strategies’, World Development, Vol.26, pp 1-19.
- Mosley, P (1996): India: Regional Rural Banks: in Finance Against Poverty, Volume II: Country Case Studies, edited by David Hulme and Paul Mosley, London, Routledge.
- Platteau J E (1997): “Mutual Insurance as an Elusive Concept in Traditional Rural Communities”, The Journal of Development Studies, Vol. 33, No.6, pp 764-796.
- Pitt, M and Khandker, S.R (2000): “Credit Programmes for Poor and Seasonality in Rural Bangladesh”, The Journal of Development Studies, Vol.39 (2), pp 1-24.
- Rutherford S (2000): “The Poor and Their Money”, Oxford University Press.
- Sebstad J and Cohen M (2000): “Microfinance, Risk Management and Poverty”, AIMS, Report of a Synthesis Study submitted to the Office of Micro enterprises Development, USAID, Washington D.C.
- Zaman H (1999): Assessing the Impact of Micro-credit on Poverty and Vulnerability in Bangladesh, Policy Research Working Paper No. 2145, The World Bank, Washington D C, July.
- Zeller M and Sharma M (1999): “Demand for and Access to Financial Services by the Rural Poor: A Multicountry Synthesis”, in Innovations in Microfinance for the Rural Poor: Exchange of Knowledge and Implications for Policy, Proceedings of the International Workshop, Accra, Ghana, Zeller, M and Sharma, M (eds.), International Food Policy Research Institute.
- Migrant Remittances and Financial Inclusion - A Study of Rickshaw Pullers in Delhi
Authors
1 Jesus and Mary College, University of Delhi, Chanakyapuri, New Delhi, IN
Source
The Microfinance Review, Vol 2, No 2 (2010), Pagination: 196-211Abstract
India is home to one third of the world's poor with second highest number of financially excluded households estimated at about 135 million. A majority of the urban poor are internal migrants employed in unstable occupations (rickshaw pulling, street vendors) in the unorganised sector. Migrants face hardships in remitting their earnings because they do not have a bank account both at the migrated place and their village, thus forcing them towards expensive informal sector. Financial inclusion drive calls for a conscious attempt to reach the vast numbers of excluded poor. As migrant workers are heterogeneous, little, if any direct information is available about the volume of remittances and the transfer mechanisms used by migrants. Given the migrant workers contribution to the urban economy, issues relating to migrant remittances assume significance for achieving financial inclusion.
The paper is drawn from a wider study about 176 rickshaw pullers in Delhi and explores the remittance behaviour based on primary data collected during August-October 2009. The results are instructive about the remittance behaviour of migrant pullers throwing useful insights about the potential market demand that exists for capturing this market by designing suitable products and thus moving towards financial inclusion of these migrant workers.