Caste-ing wider nets of credit: A mixed methods analysis of informal lending and caste relations in Bihar

Khanna, Madhulika; Majumdar, Shruti

doi:10.1016/j.wdp.2020.100265

Cited by 8 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 29 publications

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“…Remarkably, SCs and STs were not just relatively more in debt than were OBCs, but they were also absolutely more in debt than their OBC counterparts in 2017 (see Table 5). This is not only a radical departure from the caste-based distribution of debt in the pre-dispossession period, but it also stands in contrast to the common understanding that household debt is directly (not inversely) related to caste rank (e.g., see Khanna & Majumdar, 2020, who find that Dalits in Bihar are not more likely to have outstanding loans; moreover, the average size of their loans was 11% lower than that of other castes; see also Guérin, D'Espallier, & Venkatasubramanian, 2013).…”

Section: Differential Indebtednessmentioning

confidence: 87%

“…The lower strata were saddled with 'bad' debts or those that pose a major risk to the livelihood and reputation of the borrower (Guérin, 2014a(Guérin, , 2014b. By contrast, middle castes were more likely to assume 'good' debts, which are cheap, allow financial returns to savings and 'enhance the status of the borrower' (Guérin, 2014a(Guérin, , 2014b; see also Khanna & Majumdar, 2020). Accordingly, the most common reason for seeking loans by Dalits and Lambadas was consumption smoothing, that is, to finance daily expenditures or to pay for a ceremony, medical treatment or home repair.…”

Section: Differential Indebtednessmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Indebted by dispossession: The long‐term impacts of a Special Economic Zone on caste inequality in rural Telangana

Agarwal

2021

Journal of Agrarian Change

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This paper contributes to a growing scholarship examining the ways in which dispossession in neoliberal India is reinforcing and reconfiguring agrarian social hierarchies. Existing studies have focussed on the differential successes of villagers in Special Economic Zone (SEZ)-generated real estate markets, incorporation of land losers into stratified labour markets and the caste-based politics of dispossession. Few studies, however, have systematically explored the long-term implications of state-orchestrated dispossession on agrarian credit and debt relations. Based on longterm fieldwork on a village partially expropriated for a SEZ in the South Indian state of Telangana, this study shows how dispossession has led to a sharp rise of overindebtedness within the land losing population. Dispossession deprived villagers of land and livestock; low compensation was inadequate to obtain replacement assets; and labour inside the SEZ was insufficient to ensure

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Section: Differential Indebtednessmentioning

confidence: 87%

Section: Differential Indebtednessmentioning

confidence: 99%

Indebted by dispossession: The long‐term impacts of a Special Economic Zone on caste inequality in rural Telangana

Agarwal

2021

Journal of Agrarian Change

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“…Tiwari et al (2022) record this evidence at the household level in the state of Uttar Pradesh. On the other side, the informal markets also suffer from caste-based discrimination (Khanna and Majumdar, 2020). The bias in credit markets suggests the possibility that the banks could also discriminate by locating their branches in areas with higher upper-caste population.…”

Section: Explanatory Variablesmentioning

confidence: 99%

What influences village-level access to a bank branch? Evidence from India

Garg

Gupta

2023

IJBM

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PurposeFinancial access is key to achieving several economic goals in developing countries. This paper aims to construct a longitudinal village-level measure of financial access in India and understand the role of RBI's policies and village characteristics in influencing the access.Design/methodology/approachThe authors adopt a spatial approach in developing a metric of financial access. In particular, they measure the distance of each unbanked village in India to the nearest banked-centre from 1951 to 2019. The authors use this measure to conduct two exercises. First, a descriptive study is undertaken to assess how RBI's policies on bank branch expansion from 1951 to 2019 influenced the proximity to bank branches. Second, the authors conduct regression analyses to investigate how socio-economic and demographic characteristics of villages influence their proximity to bank branches.FindingsThe average distance of an unbanked village to the nearest banked-centre has declined from 43.5 km in 1951 to 4.2 km in 2019. The gain in bank access has varied geographically and over time. In 2001, bank branches were relatively distant from villages with under-privileged caste groups and proximate to areas with better infrastructure. This relationship worsened after 2005 when RBI introduced liberalized branch expansion policies. By 2019, proximity responds much more adversely to the presence of underprivileged groups. At the same time, banks have moved closer to economically better-off villages and villages with workforce in non-farm enterprises rather than agriculture.Originality/valueFirst, studies in the Indian context focus on state-level determinants of bank branching, this is the first study to develop a longitudinal measure of financial access at the village level. This helps to understand spatial heterogeneity in bank branch access within states, which other studies are unable to do. Second, the paper analyses the role of village-level socio-economic and demographic characteristics in proximity to bank branches. This analysis helps in discovering micro-foundations of growth of bank branch network. The granularity of the approach adopted here overcomes the confoundedness problems that the studies at a more aggregate level face.

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“…In some cases, money lenders require collateral. For example, Khanna and Majumdar (2020) show that collateral or personal guarantee is a prerequisite to getting a loan from moneylenders in India. Social pressure restrains the number of moneylenders exercising their power.…”

Section: Informal Creditmentioning

confidence: 99%

Financial inclusion and the poor

Simatele¹

2021

Financial Inclusion: Basic Theories and Empirical Evidence From African Countries

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Peer Review DeclarationThe publisher (AOSIS) endorses the South African 'National Scholarly Book Publishers Forum Best Practice for Peer Review of Scholarly Books'. The manuscript was subjected to rigorous two-step peer review prior to publication, with the identities of the reviewers not revealed to the author(s). The reviewers were independent of the publisher and/ or authors in question. The reviewers commented positively on the scholarly merits of the manuscript and recommended that the manuscript be published. Where the reviewers recommended revision and/or improvements to the manuscript, the authors responded adequately to such recommendations. v Research JustificationFinancial inclusion has been noted as a key driver of poverty alleviation and growth. Yet most of the scholarly work that exists lacks a comprehensive discussion on how the poor interact with financial services and the channels through which such services can affect their livelihoods. This book addresses this gap in scholarship. This is important in creating a substantive understanding of how useful financial inclusion is as a concept and practice. The number of articles written on the determinants and effects of financial inclusion at a broad cross-country level is growing. Yet almost all of this literature assumes the impacts of financial inclusion without paying attention to how these effects are transmitted. An understanding of the transmission mechanisms is fundamental to effective application. Moreover, a rapidly developing discourse in financial inclusion literature is digital finance. Much has been written and is being written about the benefits of digital finance with hardly any discussion of the channels through which such benefits are transmitted. This book discusses the various transmission mechanisms through which not only traditional finance can affect the poor but also how digital finance is transmitted to poverty. Most significantly, the chapter on digital finance provides cross-country evidence for African countries.Moreover, the often-macro perspective in the financial inclusion literature implies that country-specific nuances that can provide critical learning points are often overlooked. This book provides six original empirical case studies of financial inclusion in six African countries. The case studies cover a broad area of topics most important to African countries and highlight the unique African setting. The role of cooperative financial institutions and social entrepreneurship presented in this volume, for example, is hardly researched in Africa and yet is an important vehicle to circumvent the restrictive and exclusive bank-based financial markets unique to Africa. The chapters employ various methodologies depending on the topic being addressed in the chapter. Most of these use quantitative methods. Five chapters are empirical in nature and use inferential statistics, whilst the other two use mixed methods with qualitative data as well as descriptive statistics. This scholarly book offers researchers who focus on f...

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Caste-ing wider nets of credit: A mixed methods analysis of informal lending and caste relations in Bihar

Cited by 8 publications

References 29 publications

Indebted by dispossession: The long‐term impacts of a Special Economic Zone on caste inequality in rural Telangana

Indebted by dispossession: The long‐term impacts of a Special Economic Zone on caste inequality in rural Telangana

What influences village-level access to a bank branch? Evidence from India

Financial inclusion and the poor

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