Local Moneylenders Research Articles

A Study For: Socio-cultural Environment and the Microinsurance

The poor are much more exposed to the dangers from their surroundings. They live in unhealthy environment where even proper sanitation is not available. Natural calamities like floods, drought, earth quake etc. hit them the hardest. An unfortunate event like Illness or death in the family can change the living standard of the poor for the worse. Cost of medical care being prohibitive, s/he consumes lots of (already diminished) resources from the family. Since they do not have adequate savings, such an episode drives them to either sell their assets or borrow money from local money lenders at high interest rates. According to World Health Organization report (2006), out of total health expenditure in India, 73% happens through out-of pocket spending. This is a very precarious situation as it exposes the poor household to sudden spurt in unplanned and unexpected medical expenses. So, how do we ensure that the poor, or the ‘excluded’ face this ever-threatening risk to their lives and livelihood? Insurance as a concept was introduced in 19th century to do exactly that - protect the poor! But over a period of time, it became a financial tool for the rich. Affordability being one of the prime reasons but exposure and access being other important reason for low penetration in this segment.

Smoothing consumption in times of illness: Household recourse mechanisms.

We study the welfare impacts of illness shocks on rural agricultural households in the semi-arid tropical and humid eastern regions of India. These regions are characterized by rainfed agriculture, missing markets for credit and insurance, and limited access to publicly funded healthcare infrastructure. We find that illness shocks increase households' medical expenditures and reduce wage income. However, aggregate non-medical, food, and non-food consumption expenditures are insensitive to illness shocks. Disaggregating illness by the age and the gender of the household members, we observe that illness in male children leads to the largest increase in medical expenditure, and illness in prime-aged adults leads to the largest decline in per-capita wage earnings. We also find illness shocks leading to changes in household dietary diversity, higher travel expenditures, and a compensating reduction in spending on education and entertainment. Analysis of risk-coping strategies reveals that households rely on transfers from kinship networks and loans from informal sources like local moneylenders to smooth consumption. While large landowners rely on gifts from kinship networks, landless and smallholders increase borrowings from informal sources.

A decentralised KYC based approach for microfinance using blockchain technology

• The proposed lending model eliminates the middle parties like banks in the loan process. It decreases the time taken to a great extent. • The proposed decentralised KYC model eliminates a lot of human interaction in the process of KYC verification. It restricts the submission of one's documents in multiple organizations, which has a high risk of data bleaching if those organizations compromise the security systems. • As every transaction will be stored in a blockchain and are resistant to modification, neither of the parties can default on any transaction. Financial inclusion is seen as a dynamic tool for achieving multifaceted microeconomic stability, (and) sustainable economic growth, job creation, poverty reduction, and income equality for both developed and developing nations. The needy segments of the population must be provided with financial services to accomplish this inclusion. Still, the traditional financial market is unavailable due to its lack of collateral and shallow income. Thus, they go to local moneylenders, also known as "loan sharks," who charge exorbitant interest rates. Introduction to microfinance came as a new and refreshing light to these needy segments of the population as it provides small valued loans (micro-credit) to support their micro-scale businesses and engage in productive activities. As emerging technology started to be incorporated into every aspect of society, thus microfinance also needed to be incorporated into the technology. An application is required to protect data integrity and smoothly influence the microfinance sector. As the databases are vulnerable to data manipulation, this can affect the transaction history of the loan. Blockchain technology can be used to solve this problem, as data in the Blockchain is stored immutably. So, we designed a microfinance application that uses blockchain technology with decentralised KYC architecture to reduce multiple KYC verification and easy access to micro-credit.

Exploring climate change impacts on rural livelihoods and adaptation strategies: Reflections from marginalized communities in India

Climate change and variability affect virtually everyone and every region of the world but the effects are nowhere more prominent than among rural marginalized communities that rely heavily on agriculture and fishing for a living and they face numerous livelihood challenges including risk posed by variability of climate. Using phenomenological research methods, interviews with key-informants, focus group discussions (FGD), household survey with standardised questionnaires and case study approach, the present study analyzes the perceptions of climate change and its impacts on livelihoods and well-being of rural marginalized communities in rural Dakshin Dinajpur district of the state of West Bengal, India and coping mechanisms adopted by these communities were also examined using participatory social research techniques. The research is primarily based on primary data which have been collected at household level using multistage purposive sampling methods and total sample size is 154. Descriptive and inferential statistical methods were employed for data analysis. The results were discussed in the context of the sustainable livelihoods approach and findings depicts that there is a decreasing trend in the availability of water for domestic purposes, crop failure and low agricultural production, reduction in human health, poor livestock health and a range of other problems due to climate change which subsequently impacted on their livelihood. Indigenous and local knowledge were widely used in dealing with the effects of climate change, while modern technologies were underutilized among marginalized communities. Farmers and fisherman's used multiple adaptation strategies to combat climate change effects such as modifications in farm management, migration, selling labour to neighbourhoods, measures related to financial resources and risk reduction, borrowing funds from local money lender as well as family and neighbours, credit programmes and assistance from NGOs and reducing household food consumption. Large-scale education, training programmes, development interventions and policies targeted at enhancing resource endowment are needed. The findings from this study can help policymakers and other stack holders about ongoing adaptation measures as well as the needs of households, bring out the gap between farm households and policymakers and also to develop suitable policies and effective adaptation strategies to enhance the livelihoods within this context of local marginalized communities context.

ANALYSIS OF SOURCES OF MICRO CREDIT TO WOMEN GROUNDNUT (ARACHIS HYPOGEAE L.) PROCESSORS AND COLLATERAL REQUIREMENTS IN CENTRAL ZONE OF BAUCHI STATE, NIGERIA

The study examined analysis of sources of micro credit to women groundnut (Arachis hypogeae L.) processors and collateral requirements in central zone of Bauchi State, Nigeria. Two local government areas were randomly selected from the central agricultural zone with sample size of 122 groundnut women processors and data were collected with the aid of well-structured questionnaire. Data was analyzed using descriptive statistics and inferential statistics. The results revealed that all (100%) of the groundnut processors were female, 71.3% were married while 9.8%, 8.2% and 10.7 were single, divorced and widowed, respectively. The results also indicated that 35.2% of the respondents had attended secondary school and 27.0% had primary education, 17.2% had tertiary education, 11.5% had never been to school and 9.0% had adult education. Majority (79.5%) had good market access in terms of sales. 19.7% had a fair market access and 0.8% had difficult market access. The results further disclosed that 97.5% of the respondents used local method for groundnut. Majority (53.3%) of the respondents sourced credit through the informal sectors. The findings further showed that majority (86.9%) of the groundnut women processors in Central Bauchi State mainly used relatives as their source of micro credit. Cooperatives source of micro credit, village shopkeepers, local money lenders and faith organizations as well as non-governmental organizations and agricultural traders accounted for 77.0%, 70.5%, 58.2%, 58.2%, 54.1% and 54.1%, respectively. Majority (92.6%) of the groundnut omen processors indicated that household asset was the major collateral they use while obtaining loans from the informal credit sources in the study area. The findings also revealed that salary, land/title deed, cooperative registration and others accounted for 15.6%, 47.5%, 77.9%, and 9.9%, respectively, as other collateral requirements for accessing credit by the respondents in the study area. The study concuded that household asset (92%) was the major collateral the groundnut omen processors used in obtaining loans from the informal credit sources in the study area. Also, (86.9%) of the groundnut women processors major sources of credit was relatives in the study area. The study recommended that women groundnut processors should be provided with simple but efficient equipment at affordable cost, and that soft loans should be made available at low interest rate by the government and non-governmental organizations.

Assessing farmers’ perception based composite drought vulnerability in Godavari Middle Sub-basin, India

Climate change has increased the frequency and intensity of drought in various parts of the world. Godavari Middle Sub-basin of India has been experiencing significant change in rainfall, maximum and minimum temperature. Farmers of Sub-basin depend on mercy of rainfall for their cultivation. Occurrence of drought lead to farmers suicide due to crop failure and losses of agricultural production. Therefore, composite drought vulnerability assessment is essential in the Sub-basin. This paper makes an initial attempt to quantify composite vulnerability to drought using socio-economic and environmental indicators at household level. Stratified random sampling was utilized to collect primary data. A total number of 450 households were surveyed. The composite vulnerability index calculation was based on 5 domains namely economic, social, environmental, ecological, adaption and mitigation strategies. Results revealed that highest drought vulnerability was found in marginal farmers among all the types of farmers due to high climate change vulnerability and low adaptation strategies. Low level of education, low annual income and high dependency on local money lenders were the main causes of high drought vulnerability for marginal farmers. High adaptation strategies helped large farmer to mitigate the impact of drought. The adaptations and mitigation strategies encompassed change in crops, diversification of crops, keeping land unsown after the possibility of drought, change in traditional irrigation practices to sprinkler and drip irrigation, change in crop calendar and sowing of drought-tolerant crops. Community-based preparedness planning could be effective to mitigate the impact of climate change induced drought vulnerability in Godavari Middle Sub-basin.

Awareness towards Interest-Free Microfinance: An Empirical Study with Special Reference to Jammu and Kashmir (UT)

The leading cause of the failure of formal banking institutions in India while lending to the rural poor is the absence of proof of recognized employment or collateral that can be offered by the poor while applying for loans. The high risk and transaction costs of small loan savings deposits create difficulty for the banks as well. This leaves the poor with no alternative but to borrow money from local moneylenders at high-interest rates. On the other hand Islamic banking is a system of banking which primarily focuses on shariah laws that is totally against the collection or payment of interest called “RIBA”.it has a wide scope in India as the country has third largest Muslim population in world and at the same time the country has been put on 66th rank out of 109 countries of the world as per world poverty records 2021 that widens its scope beyond any religious domain. Therefore This study focuses on the prospectus of interest free microfinance in India with empirical reference to UT of Jammu and Kashmir.

Market Survey of Fresh and Marine Water Fishes and Socioeconomic Conditions of Fish Retailers in Three Markets of Chattagram City

The study was carried out to survey the fresh and marine water fishes sold out in three markets of Chattagram city and socioeconomic condition of the fish retailers. Overall 29 fresh water and 24 marine water fish species were found to be sold in the three markets. Prices of fishes were higher in Kazirdewri Bazar followed by Riazuddin Bazar and Bohaddarhat Bazar. Data of fish retailers were collected through questionnaires in terms of age, income source, living standards, family size, financial facilities, literacy and education. Sole income came from fish business for 97% of the fish retailers, whilst 3% of the retailers did other business as well. Among 45 retailers interviewed, 40% were below 45 years, 53% were between 45-55 years and remaining 7% were above 55 years age. For coping with the business, 15% of the retailers were self-sufficient, 53% took loan from bank, whilst 32% took loan from local money lenders. Of the fish retailers, 34% was illiterate and 66% was literate, where 36% received up to primary level, 16% secondary level, 10% S.S.C and 4% H.S.C levels of education. In comparison with their education status their children were more educated (93%). Although their income was low, they tried to make their children educated, which is a good sign for our education sector. Transport cost, unhygienic market place, lack of sanitary facilities, poor ice-supply, exploitation by the middlemen, lack of proper management, lack of capital and the political disturbances were the common constraints of fish marketing. Necessary measures were recommended to overcome these problems. Bangladesh J. Zool. 49 (2): 277-288, 2021

Agricultural value chain financing: a case study in Ciamis District, West Java Province

Smallholding farmers frequently deal with shortage of working capital to cover farm costs. Given the applied terms and conditions, a lot of farmers unable to access the current People’s Business Credit (KUR), while a holistic value chain financial support is required to achieve sustainable food production. Limited capacity of formal rural-based financial institutions encourages the local money lenders to take opportunity of financially support the farmers. In response to this issue, a case study was conducted in Ciamis District, West Java Province. Primary data was collected using an interview technique. Data were organized, processed, an interpreted using a descriptive type of analysis. The study revealed that the rice farmers need an inclusive credit support from pre-planting to post-harvest and marketing of their products. Farmers require working capital to continue their farm activities and to support value chain financing of the agribusiness. Although the existing local micro financial institutions showed good performance, however they lacked fund and access to formal financial institutions such as banks or CSR soft loans. Government is suggested to strengthen the existing local micro financial institutions by linking them to sources of funds and to support business to business relations for better service to smallholding farmers. Inclusive value chain financing implies that farmers, micro financial institutions, and local governments are strongly integrated to achieve better farm performance. Ministry of Agriculture has a strategic role to take initiative to strengthening an inclusive agricultural value chain financing on the existing local micro financial institutions.

EXTENT OF PARTICIPATION OF RURAL WOMEN IN FISHING COMMUNITY: APPROACHES TOWARD SUSTAINABLE LIVELIHOOD

Women’s contribution to small-scale fishing community is often unrecognized and the real benefits from their involvement in activities are not objectively assessed. This qualitative research study focuses on the women’s participation in fishing community in Aklan. The findings revealed that in most fishing activities, women’s role is significant. Women’s participation in fishing includes: net mending, sorting fish, fish vending, trading and market retailing and processing and preservation. Women also have been found directly involved in preparing cage and maintenance, procuring good quality seed, and stocking. Some women are also found to be selling fish on their own, and most vend by the public market and streets. Fishing is an occupation dominated by men because of the image that only men go to sea in their fishing boats. In most cases, women in fishing communities are not allowed to go with the fishing vessels, but this prohibition is tied mostly to the need for them to remain within the premises of the household so they can attend to their designated responsibilities in the home. Due to this, they have little direct involvement in fish capture. However they are involved in shell and fry gathering/gleaning, spear fishing in rivers, reef fishing using scoop nets, traps and fish baskets, all of which tend to be near-shore activities. Women’s participants’ family income has increased which is mostly used for food, health, and education as a very important positive aspect of change. Women’s participation in fishing community, according to the findings, ensures certain extent of social and economic empowerment in the rural societies. However, they expressed that they would like to sustain through bank and NGO loan, local moneylender and petty cash personal savings. KEY WORDS: Fishing Community, Income, Participation, Rural Women, Sustainable Livelihood

Production and Prospects of Agriculture -A case Study of Shimoga District of Karnataka

Agriculture has a predominant role not only for food grains to the people but also supplies raw materials to the industries and it is considered as integral part of social, culture, tradition, and combination of all walks of life in the district. The present paper focuses on the problems and prospects of agriculture in the Shimoga District of Karnataka especially on major production problems faced by the farmers. The production problems like quality seeds are not available, sources of irrigation non-available in time; supply of power is insufficient, non-availability of labour in the peak period, literacy rate of the farmers is very low, farmers depended on local moneylenders etc. The paper highlights on the prospects of agriculture, such as plantation and horticulture, dairy farming, mushroom, organic farming etc. The multistage random sampling methodology was followed to collect the primary data. The statistical tool used for testing hypothesis is chi-square test. It is significant at 5% level of significance that there is an association between production and the problem of agricultural products. (P<0.001). The sustainability of agriculture is possible where there is need for perfect synergy between public and private sectors, civil society organizations in the society.

Usury and Restitution in Late Medieval Episcopal Statutes: A Case Study in the Local Reception of Conciliar Decrees

Usury and Restitution in Late Medieval Episcopal Statutes:A Case Study in the Local Reception of Conciliar Decrees Rowan Dorin and Raffaella Bianchi Riva Sometime before 1282, the archbishop of Cologne Siegfried II von Westerburg promulgated a set of synodal statutes for his diocese.1 Among the eighteen articles was one 'On Manifest Usurers', which began by spelling out the canonical sanctions against manifest usurers as set forth at the Third Lateran Council in 1179, accompanied by a succinct definition of what made a usurer 'manifest'. The article then turned to the matter of usurious restitution, insisting that the decree (constitutio) issued by Pope Gregory X at the Second Council of Lyon be observed.2 Rather than paraphrase its provisions, the article quoted verbatim nearly the entire decree, from its opening words (Quamquam usurarii…) to its penultimate phrase. Manifest usurers were thus to be denied church burial unless they had made full restitution of their usurious gains, or else provided an appropriate security (cautio). Clerics who violated this prohibition were to be suspended from office, and they were likewise barred from hearing confession or granting absolution to usurers who had failed to make appropriate satisfaction for their wrongdoing. Absent from Siegfried's statutes, however, was any mention of the Lyonese decree's dramatic concluding sanction, which nullified ipso iure the testament of any manifest usurer who failed to adhere to its [End Page 309] specified restitution procedures. Whatever the reason for this omission, it meant that Quamquam usurarii as it was enshrined in the synodal statutes of Cologne differed in an important respect from the decree's text as codified and commented in learned contexts.3 In itself, this discrepancy might not seem especially noteworthy. After all, bishops who sought to integrate the church's general law into their local legislation faced the dual challenge of streamlining it to align with local priorities and simplifying it to make it accessible to local audiences.4 The Cologne case was somewhat unusual, however, inasmuch as its drafters did not merely simplify the text of the conciliar decree. Instead, they selectively excised a passage from what was otherwise a faithful recopying of its text. Moreover, this excision reflected a broader pattern in the local reception of Quamquam usurarii during the late thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. While roughly one hundred surviving diocesan statutes and provincial canons issued in this period betray the influence of the Lyonese decree, only thirty of these explicitly transmit its testamentary nullification clause.5 Other elements of Quamquam usurarii fared even worse in terms of their local dissemination: the Cologne statute was among a mere handful to reference the decree's provision concerning the liability of those tasked with estimating the amount to be restituted.6 Even more striking is the fact that most late medieval prelates ignored Quamquam usurarii entirely when [End Page 310] drawing up anti-usury statutes for their dioceses and provinces. Although the conciliar fathers who had gathered at Lyon in 1274 had furnished clerics with new weapons to fight the scourge of Christian moneylending, few bishops chose to brandish them within their local legislative traditions. While much has been written concerning the church's teachings on usury and their impact on medieval economic practices, the enforcement of the canonical sanctions against usurers has proven a more elusive target.7 Only rarely do the surviving records of the twelfth to fourteenth centuries reveal bishops and local clergy across Latin Christendom taking direct measures against accused Christian usurers, whether by imposing excommunication, ordering exhumation, or distributing restituted sums.8 In part, this reflects the widespread loss of medieval ecclesiastical court records, and likewise of the sorts of fiscal accounts that might show restitution efforts at work. There are certainly exceptions: narrative accounts of bishops and preachers rousing townsfolk against local moneylenders; lists of notorious [End Page 311] usurers whose names were posted on the doors of their parish churches; disputes over the boundaries of secular and ecclesiastical jurisdiction concerning usurers and their activities; and other scattered sources. But it is hard to determine to what extent these signal unusual bursts of ecclesiastical zeal (as the laments of rigorist observers might suggest), and to what extent they instead...

Debt/credit, money and social relationships in the underground credit markets of Soweto, South Africa

This article engages with contemporary debates about debt and money from the vantage point of an ethnographic study of unregulated, small-scale moneylending business who continues to operate in the township of Soweto’s poorer neighbourhoods. Following Peebles’ argument that reading poor people’s unwillingness to bank with formal institutions as a sign of ignorance is unwarranted, this article describes persistent dynamics of underground credit markets and personalized credit relationships, demonstrating how the practice of ukumashonisa (extending cash money as credit) by neighbourhood lenders are embedded in social fields shared by lenders and borrowers. This article further demonstrates how the vilification of the figure of the township moneylender ( mashonisa) by a broad coalition of civil society groups, trade unions, the state and commercial financial institutions, assisted in the financialization of poor people’s monies. This public consensus about the depravity of the neighbourhood moneylender is not shared by all Sowetans, especially poor and unemployed Sowetans who have been pushed into a greater dependency on both money and intense personalized social relationships as they try to survive. Seeking out personalized credit relationships, and turning debt transactions, contracts and relationships with local moneylenders into exchanges that take on the appearance of gifts rather than commodity exchanges, continues to remain a strategy for people who are no longer able to count on stable wage work as their primary source of income.

Poverty and technical efficiency in presence of heterogeneity in household behaviours

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between poverty and technical efficiency (TE) of paddy farmers in presence of their heterogeneous selling behaviours. This paper explains how such behavioural heterogeneity affects this relationship in south-western Bangladesh.Design/methodology/approachTranslog production frontier model was used to estimate TE since it fitted the data set better. On the other hand, poverty indices were constructed by using P-α method. Then, multinomial logit models examined the existence of heterogeneous selling behaviours. It revealed adequate evidences in favour of behavioural heterogeneity. Finally, the authors employed a series of two stage instrumental variable regression models to relate poverty and TE with and without considering the behavioural heterogeneity.FindingsThe study finds that around 18, 39 and 44 per cent of households exhibit autarkic, non-wholesaling and wholesaling behaviour, respectively. Market failure due to transaction cost and credit constraints leads to emergence of such heterogeneity. Across these heterogeneous behaviours, impact of improving TE on poverty status significantly differs. Without controlling behavioural heterogeneity, TE significantly improves the poverty status of the rural farm households. However, scenario is changed after controlling this heterogeneity. After behavioural segregations, TE improves poverty status only for wholesalers. In contrary to prior expectation, it worsens the poverty situation for both autarkic and non-wholesaling households. Simultaneous failure in both credit and product market for these households might be the plausible reason behind this heterodox finding. Credit market failure compels these households to borrow from local money lenders with costlier terms. This effort might improve their TE. But, product market failure makes their additional production due to improved TE unsold. Thus, repayment of credit directly reduces their consumption expenditure. Therefore, an effort to improve TE might increase prevalence and depth of poverty when market failure exists. Henceforth, the improvement of TE appears as an effective policy instrument only when households exhibit wholesaling behaviour.Originality/valueThe earlier studies show the relationship between TE and poverty status but did not account behavioural heterogeneity. The authors attempt to overcome this shortcoming and show how market failure induced behavioural heterogeneity affects the effectiveness of TE on improving poverty status of farm households.

Land Ownership and Land Management System in Chars: A Study in Sariakandi Upazila under Bogura District of Bangladesh

Bangladesh is an agricultural country. Her Per capita land in comparison to the number of people is very insignificant and hence the management of land system holds a vital role in the economic and social aspects of the country. Scarce land and the rapid increase of population of the country are creating high pressure over land-man ratio. The present land management system undergone a long process and is not fully computerized. A research was conducted in four villages namely Nayapara, Karamjapara, Dighapara and Karnibari of Hatsherpur union of Sariakandi upazila under Bogura district to know the land ownership of the residents of the chars and to review the existing land management system in chars. It was found that most of the peoples (98%) in chars live in leased land areas who take lease from land owner. Half of the respondents of the study are fully satisfied with the service of the Surveyor. The inhabitants of the char, lacking resources and capital to generate new income take loans from local money lenders in high interest. More than two-third people (71%) opined that there is no land related conflict. Women in the char areas are becoming empowered by increasing their income by involving in agricultural activities. Farmers expect training on different aspects of agriculture like seed technology, livestock rearing etc. Land Information System (LIS) may be the most accountable and feasible systematic approach for developing an up-to-date land administration and management.

The Middleman

The Middleman Rida Segri (bio) The gods gave Guddu the most unremarkable face in the world. He looked like everyone else in Maharashtra, in Bihar, in practically every state in India. He was certain that this was what made him well suited to be a dalal, a middleman for the madams in Mumbai. He supplied girls to the Kamathipura brothels. Kamathipura like Kamasutra, the book of love. Something of a misnomer for a neighborhood of whores, but that was neither here nor there. Every month, he picked a dusty village in the neighboring state, chatted up the local moneylender, slipped him a bribe to find out the names of poor families with young daughters and large debts. He knocked on their doors, stepped into their sooty little huts, offered them fifteen thousand rupees in exchange for a daughter. He never told them that he would sell the girls, though he suspected that some of the more desperate parents would not object if they found out. Your girls will be dishwashers, servants, shopgirls in the city, he assured them. They will send money back to the village every month. The village he chose that day had seen several farmer suicides in the past few months. The drought dried up the land and the crops never came, only dust. Guddu was a farmer's son, but he had no sympathy for men who strung themselves up on trees like that. His own father sold his land for pennies and moved to Mumbai to work as a laborer when things got hard. He did not fold into himself and die. The dying happened several years later, when he was sleeping on the pavement one summer night. He had his head bludgeoned in by a hammer that night as he slept, the fiftieth victim of a madman from Hubli who did those sorts of things in the dark. Some people liked to argue that that was a much worse fate than hanging oneself off a skinny old tree in the comfort of your own farmland. But those people did not understand what it meant to fight the gods. The moneylender he met that day in the village looked like the money-lender in every other village: black blazer, white tunic and dhoti, an unctuous [End Page 72] air of servility. Guddu sat across from the man in his matchbox-sized shop, watching him lick his index finger as he sifted through his ledger without pausing at a single name. "Come, brother, I don't have all day," said Guddu, sighing. He pushed a wad of rupees across the table. "A little gift to speed up your hand." The moneylender took the wad and slipped it into a drawer without looking up. Within minutes he had several names for Guddu: a Muslim family with three daughters, a lower-caste farming family with two, and a cow skinner family with four. Guddu chose the farmers. No more cow skinners for him. He had stolen a girl from a cow skinner family once. She was the most pliant girl he had ever seen, uncomplaining, unquestioning, completely resigned to her fate. After he had sold her in Kamathipura he did penance by giving his entire commission to the first temple that allowed him to step inside its gates. The moneylender coughed until Guddu gave him a few more bank-notes in exchange for directions. He left the shop and walked out, squinting in the sun. There were no roads in this village, only dusty packed earth, dry and cracked and hardened by sun. He walked along the path, passing by one, two, three men squatting on their haunches who stopped doing nothing to stare at him as he went past. Guddu made no attempt to be inconspicuous. Tomorrow the men would be unable to recall the contours of his face. The farmer opened the door and stood blinking at him. His skin stretched taut and shiny over his broad cheekbones. He had on no shirt, only a blue lungi. Guddu could count all his ribs. "You look a little like my father," he said, to which the farmer did not reply. "Why have you come?" asked the farmer...

Does Financial Inclusion Promote Women Empowerment? Evidence from Bangladesh

Financial inclusion empowers individuals and families, especially women and the poor, and well-functioning financial systems enrich whole countries. While a plethora of literature exists in connection between the financial inclusion and women empowerment most of those are cross country studies and findings are mixed. And there is relative dearth of studies examining the nexus of financial inclusion and women empowerment of developing economy, particularly Bangladesh. This study attempted to fill this gap. In order to achieve the objective, a survey, by means of structured questionnaire, has been conducted on 500 rural women living in the Kurigram and Gaibandha district of Bangladesh during January to February 2017. Study reveals that financial inclusion increases women income, purchasing power, living standard and position in the family. Study also reveals that after availing financial inclusion progrmmes, rural women become able to meet their emergencies, give child better education, get better medical facility, reduce dependency on local money lenders which means that financial inclusion programmes promotes women’s economic empowerment. Findings of the study is of greater importance to the academicians, practitioners and policy makers of the country to design such packages as to foster financial inclusion which will lead to more women empowerment which in turn will lead to the inclusive development of the country.

Social Networks and Factor Markets: Panel Data Evidence from Ethiopia

We investigate the role of an indigenous social network in Ethiopia, the iddir, in facilitating factor market transactions among smallholder farmers. We use detailed longitudinal household survey data and employ fixed effects estimation approaches to identify the effect of iddir membership on factor market transactions among farmers. We find that joining an iddir network improves households’ access to land, labour and credit transactions. Our findings also hint that iddir networks may crowd-out borrowing from local moneylenders (locally referred as ‘Arata Abedari’), a relatively expensive credit source. These results suggest that non-market institutions can play crucial roles in facilitating market transactions.

Financial Inclusion and Distributive Justice

The major focus of the Union Budget for the financial year 2011-12, 2012-13 and 2013-14 was to achieve the larger aim of the financial inclusion. It focuses on the poor who do not enjoy the formal financial institutional support and get them out of the clutches of local money lenders. The objectives of the study are to scrutinize the achievement of the Government of India in pursuing the goal of the financial inclusion. Simultaneously the research work focuses on in-depth study of different school of thoughts of distributive justice and to explore the common interfaces between the financial inclusion and distributive justice. The methodology used for the proposed study is based on secondary information available from several research articles prevalent in the different reputed national and international journals in the sphere of financial inclusion. Apart from these, the data has been collected from the database of the Reserve Bank of India and the Ministry of Finance, Government of India as well as from the different published reports. The proposed study has identified the gap between the Pareto Optimality and Social Optimality. The Pareto Optimality organisation is one in which any change that makes some people better off makes some others worse off. Social Optimality implies maximisation of social welfare. The same can be achieved when efficient allocations of resources are accompanied with distributive justice. The dream of real financial inclusion will be materialized only when the entire population of the nation will be able to become the beneficiary from the different financial reforms made by the different regulatory apex bodies of the country such as the Reserve Bank of India, the Security Exchange Board of India and Insurance Regulatory Development Authority of India.

Rural Indebtedness in India and its Consequences

paper has focused on extent of rural indebtedness. Indebtedness has been increased over the decadesamong the most of the states except Gujarat, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Orissa, either because of huge loans ordue to low income which is not sufficient enough to pay off the Indebtedness is found to be high among cultivators group when compared to that of non-cultivators. Thus, it became a serious problem of Indian farmers. This situation gives proof of a well known saying in the country The Indian Farmer is born in debt, lives in debt and dies in debt. main causes of indebtedness are poverty, ancestral debt, illiteracy and ignorance. harmful consequences of indebtedness are low standard of living, health problem, low productivity, suicides etc. For this problem, government should take suitable remedial measures like settlement of old debt, reduction of dependence on local money lenders, control of new loans etc.