Social Impacts and Constraints of Microcredit in the Alleviation of Poverty

The practice of microcredit, which was considered an imperative to development since the 1980s, has recently come under critical attack for its limitations in poverty alleviation. This need for critical appraisal has led to substantial scholarship emerging from the assessment of credit initiatives throughout the world.

Social Impacts and Constraints of Microcredit in the Alleviation of Poverty provides a brief overview of microcredit as a heterogeneous economic intervention in different societies (South Asia, Africa and Latin America) and critically examines the successes and limitations of microcredit delivery under the Orangi Pilot Project in the squatter settlement of Orangi at the periphery of Karachi, Pakistan. The study attempts to locate the role of credit in the day-to-day realities of a small study sample and explore social impacts of credit in the lives of clients and their families.