Microfinance, a concept introduced by Nobel laureate Mohammed Yunus in Bangladesh, has proved to be one of the most remarkable tools to eradicate poverty and bring about development in rural areas of a country. Its success has led to it being replicated in many developing countries all over the world. Developing economies have recognized the importance of bringing about economic development in rural areas in achieving strong economic and inclusive growth. In this essay, we seek to understand microfinance and its impact on rural development in India. As the term indicates, Microfinance is the provision of small loans (or to use a broader term – financial services) to low income individuals, groups and self-employed who are usually found to be lacking in access to traditional banking services (i.e. of commercial banks). Over the years, the term has not only evolved to include small credit but also bringing about economic development by offering traditional banking services such as savings, deposits, insurance, etc. Some of its features includes the small size of loans, the low income of borrowers, shorter duration of loans but high interest rates and the absence of collateral as an eligibility. The main aims of microfinance are to help poor people start some form of business, establish their livelihoods and in general improve their standards of living. Women have been identified as not only the most vulnerable section of the rural populace but also as the section which has
In Chapter 11, microfinance is discussed, it is empowering women, in areas struck by poverty. Microfinance is allowing women to borrow lesser amounts of money and by paying it back bi-weekly it is keeping them coming back and when they pay off their first loan they are allowed to borrow more, larger loans. Women are taking back the power. As we see in Saima’s story below, her husband no longer beats her and she calls the shots and now her husband works for her.
This means they have to pay huge amounts of interest to local money lenders, which makes it practically impossible to generate opportunities to create wealth. If lending organizations are able to consider local customs and networks, they could provide cost effective opportunities for the poor to generate sustainable incomes. In a shantytown near Mumbai, India, for example, local moneylenders charge 600% to 1,000% interest. A bank might charge 25% interest, make a very respectable profit and still offer shantytown residents a superior economic alternative. Grameen Bank started as a small community lending organization, and as of 2011 provides loans to more than 25 million people around the world, with a 95% repayment success rate.
How is poverty defined? It is difficult to answer this question because poverty in America is exaggerated compared to Third World countries. People in America tend to say they are in poverty, but in reality, they are not. If a person lives in true poverty, he/she is suffering, meaning no food, no roofs or just homeless. Anyone can think he/
Benjamin Franklin once said, “Without continual growth and progress, such words as improvement, achievement, and success have no meaning.” Almost ten million people in America move counties every year. Based on migration rates, there are more people leaving Mississippi each year than there are moving here. In order to stop this population decrease, we need to work out the major issues of Mississippi. These issues include health, education, and poverty.
Women in developing countries are empowered by micro-loans because it provides an opportunity for them to pull their families out of poverty, make their own income and become less dependent on their husband, and provide a better future and education for their children, especially their
Did you know that there is enough food in the world to feed all 7 billion people, but there are 795 million people in the world who are malnourished. Malnourished is a term to broadly describe when someone is undernourished or overnourished. Being overnourished is when you have exceeded the daily nutrients limit and are overweight. In many cases being undernourished is more unhealthy than being overnourished. The Continent with the highest amount of people suffering with malnutrition, relating to undernourishment, is Africa.
Microcredit programs are advertised as a way to help poverty and also to empower women. People that are for these programs would argue that enabling women’s access to capital will not only benefit women but will enhance their economic activity. In turn, this would actually be benefitting the whole economy. Although many people think this is an empowerment movement, recent feminist theory has started to criticize this idea of microcredit.
“For the poor always ye have with you; but me ye have not always (Bible Hub).” These are the words of Jesus found in John 12:8 (KJV). Chapter 6, of the textbook “Understanding Social Problems,” by Linda M. Mooney, David Knox, and Caroline Schacht, masterfully leads its readers into what matters as it relates to economic inequality, wealth, and poverty. This paper will briefly summarize this chapter.
An often glossed over and prettily wrapped part of history can be found when examining the colonial era. This was a time of imperial racing to see who could develop the most civilizations and obtain the most land worldwide. What is ignored though is the truth of what colonialism did to the nations and the reality of its impacts on the world as a whole. Colonialism is responsible for the unequal biases toward race, gender, social class, among and within nations. Further, colonialism set into motion exploitation of nations of the global south for the benefit of nations of the global north, and even upon decolonization, with the optimistic idea of independence, imperial powers set up a system to where the decolonized nations were still dependent on them and continued the abuse of the global south nations and their resources for the economic gain, and that system sticks with us to this day.
American entrepreneur and writer Adam Braun (2015) argues that “global poverty is a complex web of interlinked problems and there is no one ‘silver bullet’ that will solve global inequality.” Though the roots and consequences of this issue have long been the subject of academic research, its growing character has found no remedy from a large basket of interventions offered by the majority of economists, who do agree that a complex of measures should be proposed. (written by Nadya and Nastya) One of the approaches for both developed and developing countries is the progressive taxation system. For instance, economist Tony Addison (2014) suggests “a top rate of 65 percent rate on the top 1 percent of incomes”.
Poverty is defined as the state of being unable to fulfill basic needs of human beings. Poverty is the lack of resources leading to physical deprivation. Poor people are unable to fulfill basic survival needs such as food, clothing, shelter. These are the needs of lowest order and assume top priority. Poor people are unknown of their lack of voice, power, and rights, which leads them to exploitation.
Gender Equality Gender equality – a brief introduction Human rights are for all human beings, men as well as women. This means that women are entitled to the same human rights as men. However, all over the world women have historically often been discriminated against in many ways, due to the fact that they are born as female and not male. Even though there have been some improvements, unfortunately, this kind of discrimination still exist in our societies.
Rural development is as important as urban development. Alleviating the hardships of the rural people is fundamental to rural development. Efforts at developing the rural areas are aimed at creating industries and employment opportunities. Any initiative towards this end would be welcomed with open arms in Nepal. This would also reduce the population density in the cities.
Education enables students to achieve a higher academic performance. However, many students in the United States are unable to achieve possible education opportunities due to poverty today. Students are expected to acquire a quality education, but the costs of schooling prevent many children to gain such qualities. Research has shown that 46.2 million people in the U.S. have been living in poverty in 2011. Poverty impacts a child’s capability to learn and process information depending on their background and source of income.
The housemaids leave their homes and migrate to the GCC in search of a better life for themselves and their families. This comes with a myriad of social and economic impacts for themselves and their families, and these impacts can be positive or negative. Social impacts can be positive, when there is an increasing involvement of women in decision making. Throughout the housemaids’ period of migration, their chances of decision making increases as they have no one to depend on other than themselves, especially in financial matters and household activities. Improvement in the skills of the migrant is also a positive, as the housemaid is able to become skilled in various ways that she may not have been exposed to in Sri Lanka.