Progress of mico-finance in western Maharashtra

The modern state of Maharashtra came into existence in the year 1960. The present Mumbai city became the capital city of Maharashtra. The modern history of Maharashtra includes the period from attainment of independence to the final separation of the states. Maharashtra is a state in the western region of India. It is the second most populous state after Uttar Pradesh and third largest state by area in India. Maharashtra is the wealthiest state in India, contributing 15% of the country's industrial output and 13.3% of its GDP at the end of March 2007. There are six administrative divisions like Amravati Division, Aurangabad Division (Marathwada), Konkan Division, Nagpur Division (Vidharbha), Nashik Division (North Maharashtra), and Pune Division (Western Maharashtra).

Since 1992, National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development launched Micro-Finance through Self-Help Groups in Maharashtra. Earlier, a large section of population were away from banking area i.e. labours, artisans, small and marginal farmer, dry land holder and small businessmen. They have not fulfilled the criteria for accessing credit from public sector banks. In practice, they have need of credits but get from informal sector instead of. These group of population was exploiting by the informal sector in terms of interest rate, land ownership, mortgage etc. Microfinance means providing very poor families with very small loans (micro credit) to help them engage in productive activities/small businesses. Deposits from 8.27 lakh Self Help Groups (SHG) were collected 724 crore, whereas the loans outstanding with 2.15 lakh SHGs were of 1,164 crore as on 31st March 2012. This paper is focused on Western Maharashtra, whereas located a large political as well as decision making power.

This paper is analysis the growth of micro-finance though the Self-Help Groups, saving and loan disbursement status, socio-economic situation of population in Western Maharashtra.