Abstract

India falls under low income class according to World Bank. It is second populated country in the world and around 70 % of its population lives in rural area. 60% of people depend on agriculture, as a result there is chronic underemployment and per capita income is only $ 3262. This is not enough to provide food to more than one individual. The obvious result is abject poverty, low rate of education, low sex ratio, and exploitation. The major factor account for high incidence of rural poverty is the low asset base. According to Reserve Bank of India, about 51 % of people house possess only 10% of the total asset of India .This has resulted low production capacity both in agriculture (which contribute around 22-25% of GDP) and Manufacturing sector. Rural people have very low access to institutionalized credit (from commercial bank).

Key terms: - Micro Finance, Financial Services, Poverty, NGOs, India.