The commercialization of microfinance has been blamed for a lot of troubling trends, from prompting the clampdown in Andhra Pradesh to muddying the industry’s benign image as a development tool to help the poor. But one impact that has been largely overlooked is its impact on women.
One of the hallowed truths about microlending has been that it works best when loans are made to women, as the keepers of household finances, and particularly to groups of them, so they feel a joint responsibility to repay. The payoff, as it were, was the empowerment of poor women, who could use the cash flow to help climb out of poverty. This was at the heart of the drive among socially-oriented non-profits to spread small-loan programs across much of the developing world.
To read the full, original article click on this link: Does Microfinance for Profit Hurt Women? - India Real Time - WSJ
Author:
Paul Beckett
