India - Adhikar Microfinance Pvt. Ltd.

Offering more than microfinance in India

Combining microfinance with other essential development services is the key to successful development, and Oikocredit partner Adhikar is a testament to that fact.

While microfinance remains the focus of the organization, Adhikar has worked hard to turn many of its self-help groups, into formal working cooperatives that can strengthen communities. More than 20,000 female clients have been empowered through 55 independent cooperative groups. As well as these groups, the MFI’s reach goes beyond loans to include education, health and sanitation, remittance and legal services to a total client base of 50,000.

Adhikar chief executive officer Mohammad Amin was in Germany earlier this year, answering questions about microfinance in India and the importance of other development tools. Mr Amin said the organization’s remittance service allows migrant workers who have left their villages to work in the city to send money back to the families in their hometowns.

“Banks are quite rigid, and it is very difficult for them to establish a ‘Know-Your-Customer’ base with these people because they need addresses,” he said.

 “Also, migrant workers often work dawn until dusk, so it is impossible for them to go to a bank. Adhikar provides services until midnight, we collect money from their doors and we deliver it to their families – and we do it within 24 hours. The families, the ailing parents, are not able to go to the banks, which may be 15 to 20km away from their house.”

Adhikar’s legal advisors, dubbed the ‘barefoot lawyers’, bridge the gap between authorities and the poor, striving to make each party understand the needs of the other. With a 100% female client base, many clients are subject to domestic violence, meaning the counseling and legal advice offered by the organization is invaluable.

“We provide counseling to these people so they can access the judicial system, but in many places it’s expensive so we can mediate counseling,” Mr Amin said.

Oikocredit and Adhikar have a unique relationship, which proved its strength during recent volatile times for the Indian microfinance market. Both parties work towards a holistic approach to development in India, including sanitation and alternative energy programmes, as well as the creation of the “housing improvement loan” which has provided 6400 families with mud-houses. Adhikar has been an Oikocredit partner since 2008, receiving a total of INR 180 million (€ 2.59 million) in loans.

Date last revised: 13-4-2012

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