ABSTRACT

Micro credit has been considering as a powerful tool for eradicating the poverty and improves the standard of living of people especially for those who are excluded from formal financial sector. Micro credit is a very small amount of loan proving to a group of people in order to conduct the Income Generating Activities (IGA) which leads to the profit and increase in savings of the members and ultimately the betterment of standard of living. In Kerala, a community-based, poverty reduction project of the Government, called Kudumbashree, is the major player who initiates to form SHG’s from rural area and to provide assistance for them to setup micro enterprises, by providing micro loans. Besides Kudumbashree, several NGO’s are also providing credible services to the rural society in order to institute and foster the performance of micro enterprises. The present study is an attempt to analyze the role of micro credit in the development of micro enterprises, in Kottayam district. This study conducted with the broad objective to determine availability of micro credit in micro enterprises, level of assistance provided by various micro finance institutions and the cost, sales, profit pattern of micro enterprises in order to understand the savings of members.

Keywords :Micro credit, Micro enterprises, SHG’s, Kudumbashree, NGO’s, Kottayam District.