Microfinance and Financial Inclusion of Poor : A Ner Perspective

Microfinance has passed a long way from micro-saving to micro-credit and this journey has created an unforgettable history of developing not only the rural people but also the urban poor too especially women. Though the concept “Microfinance” refers to small financial activities like saving, credit, insurance, payment remittances etc. but have covered a wider dimension and shown a greater impact in improving socioeconomic life of poor people by providing a channel through which they are getting involvement into the financial system of a country. The poor people especially women have been always excluded from the formal financial system basically either due to social background or economic backwardness and even sometimes both. Therefore in order to overcome the challenging issues like poverty, unemployment, malnutrition, lack of formal credit support, improvement in socio-economic status, the government of India in association with NABARD and RBI introduced the concept of Self Help Groups. This paper will try to highlight the growth and progress of SHGs over different period of time, loan disbursed and repayment status with special reference to NER