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With a significant number of adults owning a bank account, 78 percent according to the latest Findex Report released in 2022, a large percentage of the population still depends on informal channels of credit, which in most cases have led to situations of debt-trap with the interlinked nature of the credit, labour and goods markets. Women’s accessibility to formal credit channels remains even lower, and predominantly depend on informal sources of friends and family. And with the falling female labour force participation rates over the years, there has been an argument for higher financial inclusion of women to reverse the trend. Primary among those solutions that have been hailed to plug in the credit accessibility gaps is microfinance. There is a widespread assumption of equating financial inclusion of the poor with accessibility to credit through microfinance, which would eventually set the economy directly on a path of higher and sustainable economic growth. Despite the mixed results generated in various countries, even the World Bank has given its blessings on pushing forward the ‘shortcut’ of microfinance in achieving women’s empowerment. In India, the growth of microfinance institutions have only increased in the recent years, even in the aftermath of the pandemic. Given the scenario, what the paper intends to do is to first critically analyse the very nature of microcredit through Harvey’s framework and expose the deeper issues of exploitation and gendered process involved with it. It then proceeds to suggest alternatives to the present policy orientations, both in terms of treating microfinance as an institution as well as other approaches to financial inclusion.
Keywords:
Microfinance, Poverty Reduction, Women Empowerment, Neoliberalism
Cite Article:
"The Issue of Gendered Access to Credit in India: Is Microfinance the Answer?", International Journal for Research Trends and Innovation (www.ijrti.org), ISSN:2455-2631, Vol.7, Issue 12, page no.557 - 561, December-2022, Available :http://www.ijrti.org/papers/IJRTI2212083.pdf
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ISSN:
2456-3315 | IMPACT FACTOR: 8.14 Calculated By Google Scholar| ESTD YEAR: 2016
An International Scholarly Open Access Journal, Peer-Reviewed, Refereed Journal Impact Factor 8.14 Calculate by Google Scholar and Semantic Scholar | AI-Powered Research Tool, Multidisciplinary, Monthly, Multilanguage Journal Indexing in All Major Database & Metadata, Citation Generator