• TAPOSH KUMAR PAUL

South 24 parganas is a complex district stretching from the metropolitan Kolkata to remote riverine villages up to the mouth of Bay of Bengal and Sundarbans. The district has high population density. 84% of the population lives in the rural areas where lack of transport and communication facilities, weak delivery system, unemployment, poverty, malnutrition exists. BPL families constitute 37.21% of the population. Banks, hospitals and secondary schools are very few proportionate to population. There are 19 MFIs operating in this district. Microfinance is playing a pivot role to extend financial services to unbanked section of population. . It is not just about giving micro credit to the poor rather it is a tool whose objective is to assist poor to work their way out of poverty. It covers a wide range of services like credit, savings, insurance, remittance and also non-financial services like training, counselling etc. Micro credit offers access to financial resources to the poorest of the poor in the rural areas of the Sundarbans. It allows people to undertake self-employment activities, to form self help groups (SHGs), to venture very small business without depending on money-lenders. The internal challenges of the MFIs are: no uniform delivery model, high operational/transaction costs, high rate of interest, poor record keeping, fraud and cash theft etc. The external challenges are: lack of good road, electricity, information technology in rural areas, lack of banking culture in rural areas, reluctant to pay interest, non-recovery of loan, corruption, government policy changes etc. This article is an exploratory research based on secondary data. This paper attempts to highlight the challenges of microfinance in this district after COVID-19 pandemic since March 2020.

Microfinance, capacity building, empowerment, rural development, Pandamic

"THE CHALLENGES OF MICROFINANCE IN THE DISTRICT OF SOUTH 24 PARGANAS, WEST BENGAL- A STUDY AFTER PANDEMIC", International Journal of Emerging Technologies and Innovative Research (www.jetir.org), ISSN:2349-5162, Vol.9, Issue 5, page no.i169-i175, May-2022, Available :http://www.jetir.org/papers/JETIR2205923.pdf

"THE CHALLENGES OF MICROFINANCE IN THE DISTRICT OF SOUTH 24 PARGANAS, WEST BENGAL- A STUDY AFTER PANDEMIC", International Journal of Emerging Technologies and Innovative Research (www.jetir.org | UGC and issn Approved), ISSN:2349-5162, Vol.9, Issue 5, page no. ppi169-i175, May-2022, Available at : http://www.jetir.org/papers/JETIR2205923.pdf