An Study of Microfinance Schemes and its Awareness in Madhya Pradesh

ABSTRACT Since early 1980, the existing banking services policies; procedure and system were not able to fulfill the needs and requirement of the poor people. There are 24 crore people below the poverty line in our country. Thus NABARD (national bank of rural development), DPIP (district poverty initiative project), NRLM (national rural livelihoods mission) recommended various alternative policies system, and procedure should be put in use to save the poor from the control of moneylenders. Thus, microfinance was introduced in banking sector. Micro financing is regarded as a tool of socio economic development, in developing countries like India. In India the beginning of microfinance movement could be drawn to self help group (SHG) bank linkage programme (SBLP) that started as a lead project in 1992 by NABARD. It plays an important role in poverty alleviation and economic development. Micro credit and microfinance both are different concepts. Micro credit is a small amount of money, given as by bank or any legal registered institutions, whereas microfinance include various services such as loan, saving, insurance, transfer services and microcredit. Microcredit, microfinance, micro insurance, remittances, micro saving, micro entrepreneurs, banking and non banking services provided through the micro financing. The schemes of microfinance have been found as an effective instrument for economic development. Government of India and state governments should also provide support for capacity building initiative and ensure transparency and enhance reliability through disclosure.