Can Credit Solve Poverty and Precarity? Explorations in the Margins of Metropolitan India

This paper examines the complex and uneven impact of credit on low-income urban households in India, with a focus on women’s borrowing practices and intra-household financial dynamics. Drawing on four years of ethnographic research and in-depth interviews in Mumbai, it moves beyond income-based measures of poverty to analyze credit’s role in asset accumulation and erosion and intergenerational mobility. While women borrowers show notable financial agency in navigating multiple credit sources, outcomes vary widely: only a small subset achieve upward mobility, while many maintain or lose economic ground. These divergent trajectories are shaped not only by external economic conditions but also by intra-household cooperation, dynamics of control over credit, and long-term family investment strategies. By foregrounding the social processes mediating credit use, this study offers a grounded, intra-household perspective on broadening financial access among lower-income households globally. It concludes with policy recommendations aimed at reimagining credit systems through family-centered financial counseling and through product design that supports household-level cooperation and long-term resilience.