Table Of ContentAmit K Bhandari · Ashok Kundu Editors
Microfinance,
Risk-taking
Behaviour
and Rural
Livelihood
Microfinance, Risk-taking Behaviour
and Rural Livelihood
Amit K. Bhandari Ashok Kundu
•
Editors
Microfinance, Risk-taking
Behaviour and Rural
Livelihood
123
Editors
Amit K.Bhandari Ashok Kundu
Kalyani Instituteof AppliedResearch, R. B.C. EveningCollege, Naihati
Training andDevelopment Kolkata, WestBengal
Kolkata, WestBengal India
India
ISBN 978-81-322-1283-6 ISBN 978-81-322-1284-3 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-81-322-1284-3
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Contents
Structural Transformation of Rural Finance in India:
A Critical Review . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Sreelata Biswas and Anup Kumar Saha
Risk-taking Behaviour in Financial Decision Making:
A Village-Level Study . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Amit K. Bhandari and Ashok Kundu
Impacts of Caste, Risk, and Time Preference on Borrowing
Behaviour: A Case Study in West Bengal, India. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
Nina Takashino, Keshav L. Maharjan and Seiichi Fukui
Microfinance and Rural Entrepreneurship: An Assessment. . . . . . . . . 49
Sudipto Ghosh and Amit K. Bhandari
SHGs for Poverty Alleviation: Insights from a Tamil Nadu
Village Under Rapid Economic Development . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
Koichi Fujita and Keiko Sato
Achievements and Challenges of SHG-Bank Linkage
Program in India: The Result of Village Surveys
in Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
Toshihiko Suda and M. C. S. Bantilan
Synergistic Effects of Microfinance Through SHGs: A Study
of Basic Health and Primary Education Indicators. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
Sharmistha Banerjee and Arijita Dutta
For a Better World: Livelihood Security Measurement
of the SHG Members . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
Avijit Brahmachary
v
vi Contents
Public Spending and Rural Livelihood in India:
A Study of MGNREGA. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155
Komol Singha and Parmod Kumar
Factual Achievement of MGNREGA Calls for an Optimal
Planning Using Fuzzy Logic. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173
Chinmoy Jana
Contributors
Sharmistha Banerjee Department of Business Management, University of Cal-
cutta, Kolkata, India
M. C. S. Bantilan ICRISAT, Hyderabad, India
Amit K. Bhandari Kalyani Institute of Applied Research, Training and Devel-
opment, Kalyani, West Bengal, India
SreelataBiswas DepartmentofEconomics,UniversityofKalyani,Kalyani,West
Bengal, India
Avijit Brahmachary Department of Economics, Kandi Raj College, Mursh-
idabad, West Bengal, India
Arijita Dutta Department of Economics, University of Calcutta, Kolkata, India
Koichi Fujita Center for Southeast Asian Studies, Kyoto University, Kyoto,
Japan
Seiichi Fukui Graduate School of Agriculture, Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan
Sudipto Ghosh DepartmentofSociology, UniversityofKalyani,Kalyani,West
Bengal, India
Chinmoy Jana Department of Public Systems Management, Indian Institute of
Social Welfare and Business Management, Kolkata, West Bengal, India
ParmodKumar ADRTC,InstituteforSocialandEconomicChange,Bangalore,
Karnataka, India
Ashok Kundu R. B. C. Evening College, Naihati, West Bengal, India
Keshav L. Maharajan Graduate School of International Development Studies,
Hiroshima University, Hiroshima, Japan
Anup Kumar Saha Department of Economics, Nabadwip Vidyasagar College,
Nabadwip, West Bengal, India
vii
viii Contributors
Keiko Sato Graduate School of Asian and African Area Studies, Kyoto Uni-
versity, Kyoto, Japan
Komol Singha ADRTC, Institute for Social and Economic Change, Bangalore,
Karnataka, India
Toshihiko Suda Daito Bunka University, Tokyo, Japan
Nina Takashino Graduate School of Agriculture, Tohoku University, Sendai,
Japan
About the Editors
Dr.AmitK.Bhandari ispresently anAssistantProfessorinEconomicsatR. B.
C. Evening College, Founder President of the Kalyani Institute of Applied
Research,TrainingandDevelopment(KIARTD)andaResearchFellowatIZAin
Bonn.HereceivedhisPh.D.inEconomicsfromtheUniversityofKalyaniin2007.
He began his career as an Economist in the financial services industry. He has
broad interdisciplinary research interests in social, economic and financial issues.
Formerly a Lecturer at the Indian Institute of Social Welfare and Business
Management (IISWBM), he founded the independent nonprofit research organi-
zationKIARTD.Hehaspublishedanumberofresearchpapersinreputedjournals
and books. He has served asProject Director for a number ofgovernment-funded
research projects.
Dr. Ashok Kundu is Associate Professor in Economics at R. B. C. Evening
College.HehasaPh.D.inEconomicsfromtheUniversityofKalyani.Dr.Kundu
has over 20 years of teaching and research experience in different academic
institutions where he has taught subjects like macroeconomics, development
economics, and economic history. His main research interests are in the field of
rural and agricultural development, rural finance, environmental economics, and
economic development. He has published a number of research papers and book
articles. He served as a principal investigator in several research projects funded
by national and international funding agencies.
ix
Introduction
Nearly 60 % of India’s mammoth 1.2 billion population lives in rural areas.
Unfortunately,India’sruralpopulationcontributesonly8%ofthegrossdomestic
product.India’sformalfinancialservicessectorisyettomeetthegrowingneedof
the rural population. The testimony is India’s booming informal lending market.
To create stability in the society, a well organized and inclusive financial system
should be built for the deprived class and the small enterprises to thrive on. It
assists them to be a part of the growing economy along with the reduction in
inequalityandpoverty.Accesstoeasyandaffordablecreditforthebackwardclass
by creating equal and fair opportunity enables them to integrate better into the
economy and actively contribute to development. It even helps them to be
prepared at times offinancial turmoil, as they can maintain their expenditure by
accumulating their savings during those hard times. Despite the importance of
accesstofinanceasacrucialweapontoalleviatepoverty,globallyaround2billion
peopleareexcludedfrombasicfinancialservices.Inmostdevelopingcountries,a
largesegmentofthesociety,particularlythosewhohavetomakeendsmeet,have
noreachtofinance.RuralsocietiesinIndiahave suffered acontinuouserosionof
theirstandardoflivingduetoinadequateaccesstoproductiveassetsandfinancial
resources. They have to depend on their informal source of income and on the
resources they are supplied at reasonably high price. This situation is even worse
in smaller least developed countries, where 90 % of the population is deprived of
thisaccess.Thisindirectlydamagesthegrowthofsociety,whenanindividualwith
brilliant entrepreneurial skill cannot implement the same due to lack offinancial
facilities. Rural people are hindered by limited access to finance, thus stagnating
the progress of the country to a prosperous future.
Theaccesstofinanceindevelopingcountriesisconsideredasanecessityoflife
just like food and water. Inadequate access to financial services is considered one
ofthemainreasonsbehindinadequateeconomicopportunityandpovertysituation
in developing countries. In most South Asian countries, the rural population
comprises two-thirds of the total population, where economic development is
skewedtowardurbanareas,whichdriveinequalityinincomedistribution.Poverty
isapersistentandwidespreadproblemwiththemajorityofthepoorpeopleliving
in rural areas. Rural financial services have been considered as an important tool
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