Microloan

How micro loans have made entrepreneurs out of supposedly simple rural people

The truth about human beings is that everyone is a born entrepreneur. Everyone has the desire of doing something on his own, but few people actually get the chance to do it. The problem is obviously money. Poverty in a third world country like India had become a vicious cycle; a trap that promised to kill whoever dared to cross its path. The poor people had all the initiative in the world, but where would they get the money to do anything? This is the premise which made Professor Mohammad Yunus start the Grameen Bank of Bangladesh in making micro loans available to economically- disadvantaged people. India borrowed the example and developed MFIs to give out micro loans to mainly rural women, though men were not left out.

A micro loan can do wonders for a person belonging to a low- income background. As said earlier, poor people don’t lack the initiative, all they need is the money. Once they got hold of micro loans, they had the freedom of starting their own small home- based businesses. Women engaged themselves in making stuffed toys, pickles, detergents, soaps, chapattis, etc. while men set up small shops or started a woodworking business.

Micro loans in India mark a turning point. The supposedly simple rural folk with nothing to show on their resumes became entrepreneurs. Their success can be easily measured by the 97% repayment of micro loans MFI’s in India have calculated. With micro loans in India, it’s been success all the way!