A small pocket in South India has made the microfinance industry sit up and review its heady growth and practices
Mohamed Saifulla smiles as he pulls out a thick folder in the pale green office of the Anjuman-E Islamia of Kolar. He may well smile. Saifulla and the Anjuman committee are in a great part responsible for the Indian microfinance industry now finding itself with its back against the wall. The outgoing president of the Anjuman committee, made up of nominees from the town’s mosques, Saifulla has agreed to show us details of women borrowers who were harassed by microfinance institutions for repayments. Instead what he brings out ceremoniously from a plastic bag is a file with clips of blog accounts, comments and newspaper articles about how the committee brought microfinance repayments to a grinding halt in Kolar.
The Anjuman’s Conundrum
Call for Regulation
(This story appears in the 16 April, 2010 issue of Forbes India. To visit our Archives, click here.)