Microfinance, the provision of loans and insurance to the poor, has contributed much to India’s economic advancement, and has focused its efforts on the 700 million rural poor around the nation. Today, microfinance has been recognized as a proven poverty-alleviation mechanism in developing nations around the world, and SKS Microfinance has been a leader in bringing microfinance into the mainstream, providing financial services to hundreds of thousands of poor across the country.

Despite this success, microfinance has not been able to reach the ultra poor, the bottom 5% of the poor whose lives are characterized by chronic hunger, persistent poor health, and illiteracy.

The ultra poor lack a stable income and often do not have the means to feed their families more than once a day; they include widows with a large number of children, the elderly, the disabled, and other severely marginalized groups. The ultra poor lack the ability and confidence to join mainstream microfinance, and require economic, health and social development inputs to create sustainable change in their lives.