Abstract            Volume:4  Issue-6  Year-2016         Original Research Articles

Online ISSN : 2347 - 3215 Issues : 12 per year Publisher : Excellent Publishers Email : editorijcret@gmail.com

Microfinance refers to a plethora of financial facilities like savings, deposits, loans, insurance and remittance made available to the under privileged and economically weaker sections of society. From small efforts of starting informal self-help groups (SHG) to accessing the much-needed savings and credit services in the early 1980s, the microfinance sector has grown significantly today. Its relevance can be gauged from the fact that micro-credit is also a part of the priority sector agenda followed by the government since many years. In the current day scenario, it has emerged as a powerful tool of financial inclusion and poverty alleviation. If used judiciously, it can stimulate economic growth in developing nations such as ours. However, the focus of microfinance and microcredit in particular, has always been on rural populace with special attention to women entrepreneurs and agriculture sector. The urban population has been largely ignored. This paper is an attempt to measure the impact of micro-credit on the income and standard of living of the poor of Delhi/ NCR. For the purpose of this study, data has been collected from a sample of 110 respondents. The study infers that majority of the urban poor have availed loans for short term mainly for consumption purpose and that too from money lenders. They do not have recourse to credit from formal institutional lenders due to lack of awareness, accessibility as well as unavailability of collateral which they felt is required by the latter. The study infers that there is a vast untapped but bankable, yet largely uninformed micro-credit market in urban areas. The need is to connect with them, inform and educate them about the benefits of microfinance.

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