Role of microfinance in promoting financial inclusion in Urban poor of Kolkata

This research paper evaluates the contribution of microfinance programs in promotion of financial inclusion in Urban poor of Kolkata. An ample amount of literature on microfinance studies the Role of Microfinance inadvertently in context of Rural poor to the extent that Microfinance has become synonymous with rural poverty. This study has examined the role of microfinance in an urban setting studying the impact of membership with various models of microfinance on financial inclusion of the urban poor population of Kolkata. The sample population has been picked up after a multilevel random sampling of the city. A total of 547 constituting both members (Customers of Microfinance are generally referred as members) and non members from Kolkata have been studied. The members are primarily from Microfinance Institutions(MFI) with a few representations from Self Help Group(SHG) and Self help Bank Linkage Programmes (SBLP). A conglomerative index of Financial Inclusion has been used to arrive at the Financial Inclusion status of each respondent. The index has been compared across members of microfinance and non members so as to come to a conclusion that members of microfinance have better financial Inclusion status that the non members.