In recent decades, in line with UN millennium goals oriented toward “financial inclusion,” the Indian government, together with the private and charitable sectors, has greatly expanded access to basic financial services focused on women, especially those with marginalized identities. These efforts have expanded the commercial microfinance industry in ways that appear to deliver empowerment to women at an unprecedented scale. In this talk, Radhakrishnan lays out a framework for interpreting the material and symbolic dimensions of value extraction in microfinance and other new financial industries targeting the marginalized. Based on interviews with microfinance borrowers, field staff, leaders, and policy makers, over the course of a decade, this talk examines the double-sided sword of trust and value extraction that commercial microfinance accomplishes, as well as its ambivalent “impact” for women borrowers.

Discussant: Prof Smitha Radhakrishnan (Wellesley College)

Participants from outside the University of Pretoria are kindly requested to RSVP to Mr. Jason Love at [email protected]