Question

why is the money lender still the largest single source of credit in India​

Answer 1

Answer:

While the government is set to forgive billions of dollars of loans of Indian farmers, the truly distressed among them will have no respite from misery. They owe money to moneylenders whereas the government waiver applies only to formal credit.

Almost every farmer in India’s massive rural swathes is tethered, in one way or another, to the sahukar, the Indian variety of the moneylender, the ubiquitous, ravenous loan shark.

For centuries, moneylenders have monopolised rural Indian credit markets. Families have lost land and assets, farmers have been asked to forfeit jewellery of their wives or to prostitute them to pay off debts, and, when all else has failed, they have tied the noose to end their misery.