Shiyana Gunasekara

Micro-financing has been globally praised for alleviating poverty and empowering the most vulnerable by providing financial services to marginalized groups who would otherwise not have access to banks and credit institutions. A twenty-year-old model, microfinance in India has revolved around targeting women, primarily lumped around the below-poverty-line determined by the World Bank each year. While microfinance has become standardized, institutionalized, and commercialized over the years, we must examine whether women have become a mere vehicle for such microfinance institutions to claim empowerment of the poor and poverty alleviation, or if they are engaged in progression towards gender equality and social development.  This cross-sectional exploratory study explores three types of microfinance outfits: for-profit, cooperative, and non-profit. By employing a variety of qualitative methods including structured and semi-structured in-depth interviews, focus group discussions, participant observation, and secondary findings, the study investigates the shift of the female member’s role within the trend of microfinance standardization in the Indian context. I examine the different levels of organization of three microfinance institutions  in order to understand their current and future aspirations, their targeting approaches, and the shift of women members from participants to targets. I find that, contrary to the hypothesis of a cooperative being the most democratic and therefore inclusive form of financial access for female clients, the distinctions in practices and performances This study aims to bring awareness to the impact of microfinance on women through the lens of gender equality and commercialization while exploring the implications of the reviving microfinance industry in India .