Alleviation of poverty, the core of all development efforts has remained a very complex and critical concern among developing countries. Poverty is deep rooted covering several interlocked aspect such as assetlessness, under-employment, uncertain and relatively unproductive employment and low remuneration, lack of bargaining power, economic vulnerability, literacy and proneness to disease, social disadvantage and political powerlessness. To fully exploit India's potential and improve living standard for all parts of society, mass mobilization of downtrodden population into productive and sustainable jobs, mostly through self employment and entrepreneurship, is required. Microfinance is fast emerging the world over as an effective tool for poverty alleviation, equitable and inclusive growth, and women empowerment in the developing world. There has been impressive growth in microfinance activities over the three decades or more in India.Today, when the majority of world's population is living below subsistence level, more than 3,000 organizations are providing microfinance services to the millions of the world's poor. Providing employment opportunities to rural women and developing the living status of the rural folk by providing credit with less interest is the major concern of the microfinance. Microfinance use innovative contractual practices and organizational forms to reduce the risk and cost of making loans, such as lending to groups rather than just to one person. Some microcredit organization give their clients more than loan, offering education, training, health care and other social services. In spite of the impressive figures, microfinance in India is still presently too small to create a massive impact on poverty alleviation, but if perused with skill, it holds the promise to alter the socio economic face of India's poor
