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Micro-credit initiatives for equitable and sustainable development : who pays?; a case study of the Grameen Bank Program in rural Bangladesh
A. Rahman
- 01 Jan 1996
740
TL;DR: In this paper, anthropological research on the micro-credit program of the Grameen Bank shows that bank workers are expected to increase disbursement of loans among their members and press for high recovery rates to earn profit necessary for economic viability of the institution.
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Abstract: Abstract There is a growing acknowledgement that micro-credit programs have potential for equitable and sustainable development. However, my anthropological research on the micro-credit program of the Grameen Bank shows that bank workers are expected to increase disbursement of loans among their members and press for high recovery rates to earn profit necessary for economic viability of the institution. To ensure timely repayment in the loan centers bank workers and borrowing peers inflict an intense pressure on women clients. In the study community many borrowers maintain their regular payment schedules through a process of loan recycling that considerably increases the debt-liability on the individual households, increases tension and frustration among household members, produces new forms of dominance over women and increases violence in society.
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Citations
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References
Domination and the Arts of Resistance: Hidden Transcripts
TL;DR: The first public declaration of the hidden transcript was made by as discussed by the authors, who argued that behind the official story domination, acting and fantasy the public transcript as a respectable performance false-consciousness or laying it on thick making social space for a dissident subculture voice under domination.
4.5K
The microfinance promise
TL;DR: In this article, the authors highlight the diversity of innovative mechanisms beyond group-lending contracts, the measurement of financial sustainability, the estimation of economic and social impacts, the costs and benefits of subsidization, and the potential to reduce poverty through savings programs rather than just credit.
Rural credit programs and women's empowerment in Bangladesh
TL;DR: In this article, the authors used a combination of sample survey and case study data to argue that the success of Grameen Bank, is particular, in empowering women is due both to its strong, central focus on credit and its skillful use of rules and rituals to make the loan program function.
1.6K
•Book
Who Takes the Credit?: Gender, Power, and Control Over Loan Use in Rural Credit Programmes in Bangladesh
Anne Marie Goetz,Rina Sen Gupta +1 more
- 01 Jan 1994
TL;DR: The authors explored variations in the degree to which women borrowers control their loans directly, reporting on recent research which found a significant proportion of women's loans to be controlled by male relatives, and found that a preoccupation with credit performance, measured primarily in terms of high repayment rates, affects the incentives of fieldworkers dispensing and recovering credit, in ways which may outweigh concerns to ensure that women develop meaningful control over their investment activities.
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