You Can Bank on It: Women are Doin' It for Themselves

The Mann Deshi Mahila Sahakari Bank (Mann Land Women's Cooperative Bank) of Mhaswad village, India, is unique in the fact that it is the country's first rural cooperative bank of its kind – for and by women.

The absence of a formal education has not deterred these women from managing a system of microcredit that is suited to their needs when the big nationalized banks have failed to see any value in serving them. In the process, they have changed the quality of life in their villages by empowering themselves economically, educationally and politically. Now, even the big nationalized banks want them as clients. [Article]