India's microfinance loans: Women in rural areas trapped in debt spiral

FOCUS © FRANCE 24

Microfinance – lending small sums of money to the very poor to lift them out of poverty – has been widely taken up in India. But almost 50 years after its introduction, the results are mixed. Microcredits, mainly for women, have turned Indian social structures upside down. In the agricultural state of Maharashtra, microfinance has become a living hell, with women trapped in a spiral of debt and harassed by creditors. In some villages, almost all the women are in debt. Our correspondents report.