The concept of Micro-lending is to help people by giving them opportunity. Banks, Financial Institutions which are regulated by banks or NGO’s will give small amounts of loans to women and to below poverty line people to run small scaled industries or to support their basic needs.
Micro-finance or Micro lending was popularized by Noble Prize winner, professor Muhammad Yunus with the creation of Grameen Bank that lend money to Small Scaled Industries and women who support family by doing some agricultural works.
Micro-finance is not a solution for all poverty problems in India. It is one of the steps in order to eliminate poverty by providing funding opportunities to individuals who wish to start or expand a small business and thrive their self-sustain.
After the success of Grameen Bank in east, there are a variety of similar organizations emerged including Kiva.org, accion.com, Milaap.com, bitgiving.com and others and. As per Microfinance Information Exchange 2017 Factsheet, in India there are 27 out of top 100 Microfinance institutions in the world.
If we say Micro-finance, by default it reflect to rural areas of the country, but as per 2016 statistics given by one of the Major Microfinance Institution 73% of the borrowers belongs to urban population.
Data as of May 2017 Directory of Micro Finance Institutions in India
