Alternative Credit Institutions and Poverty Alleviation: A Sociological Interpretation of Self Help Groups

The concept “microfinance” covers broad spectrums from traditional business for which social objectives are only a by-product, to traditional social service organisations, for whom reaching the poorest is the prime objective.
This book presents a brief review of microfinance and poverty alleviation and critique to development history, women empowerment and moneylenders. It highlights some critical questions which were asked that whether the microfinance mechanism freed the poorest of the poor from the clutches of local moneylenders? Whether the entire SHGs member got empowered with the help of microfinance institutions? Can SHPI and SHG be declaring as alternative financial methods to alleviate poverty? How SHG can be cultivate with the help of social capital theory? The idea that openness is good for sustainable livelihoods and microfinance has become deeply ingrained in development discourse. The book demonstrates social capital and critical to previous development theories along with India’s development plan and policies. It brings out a clear picture of SHG that it could be an alternative financial institution for poor people to engage themselves into the poverty alleviation programme.
This piece of work is useful for research scholar of social sciences, especially for economy and sociology. It is also useful for person engage with practicing and theorising microfinance and SHG.