MICROFINANCE AND SOCIO-ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT OF POOR FAMILIES IN RURAL INDIA: AN EMPIRICAL INVESTIGATION

The objective of this study was to investigate the impact of microfinance on ultra poor in outcomes including, income, health, and schooling of children, food security, housing and women empowerment. A total of 204 respondents were selected randomly including microfinance beneficiaries (MB) and non-beneficiaries (NB). The collected data were analyzed through descriptive statistics using t-test. Findings revealed that, microfinance has positive impact on income, health and education of children. While as there was no significant impact on women empowerment, job creation, and housing of borrower. The major factors hindering poor access to credit were reported to be lack of information, high interest rate, attitude of officials and lack of collateral. The available evidence shows that microfinance programs and policies do well, as well as harm to the livelihoods of poor