Credit can be taken as a tool for helping the poor. Many government-sponsored programs are used in order to bring about a social change. The objective of the programs is to create lenders’ organizations and at the same time increase their selfconfidence and capacity.

It is very difficult to find a solution to hunger and rural pov erty without providing secure and gainful employment to the people, irrespective of their profession. Developmental studies focus more on the rural areas where there is poverty and hunger. It is essential that one should not ignore the strategies involved in poverty alleviation schemes and should give priority to those who are in the informal sector employment. This kind of employment is an offshoot of the constraints met by the poor, especially in rural areas. Informal economy also exists in the urban localities, which includes Foreign aid-funded credit schemes targeted at the poor do not reach the poor but get diverted to others. State-run credit cooperatives have often left only bitter memories for the poor. This is the result of corruption and outright theft. In short, access to credit has proven to be difficult, costly and often ineffective for the poor. But, some of them may argue that credit is not as important to many of the rural poor as it is commonly believed. The issue of credit distracts their attention from important questions related to the retention of surplus production by households and communities and to the activities of squatters or unlicensed street vendors struggling for survival in environments constrained by extreme poverty and deprivation.

Professional Banker Magazine, Social Empowerment, Self-Help Groups, SHGs, Microfinance Programs, Microfinance System, Civil Societies, Rural Development Programmes, Foreign Aid-Funded Credit Schemes, Iindian Economy, Education Sector.