Running between 2019 and 2022, the project ‘Depleted by Debt? Focusing a gendered lens on climate resilience, credit and nutrition in Cambodia and South India’ has undertaken cutting-edge interdisciplinary research during the COVID-19 pandemic on some of the most pressing issues impacting rural communities today. The reports available below evidence how household over-indebtedness needs to be understood and tackled in tandem with the climate crisis and the negative impacts these are both having on people’s health and well-being.
Reports
Trapped in the service of debt How the burdens of repayment are fuelling the health poverty trap in rural Cambodia
Household debt is manifesting as a public health crisis which is fuelling the health poverty trap in rural Cambodia.
Microfinance, over-indebtedness and climate adaptation New evidence from rural Cambodia
Microfinance loans are leading to an over-indebtedness emergency that undermines borrowers’ long-term coping and adaptive capacity in a changing climate.
A crisis like no other Gendered burdens and caste dynamics of debt and food insecurity during the COVID-19 pandemic in Tamil Nadu
The COVID-19 pandemic worsened the long-standing problems of debt distress and food insecurity already impacting households in rural Tamil Nadu. This report explains the gendered and caste-based dynamics of these crises as they unfolded in one of India’s most populous states.
Microfinance, debt distress and data capture Evidence from pandemic times in rural South India
Reforms to the Microfinance sector in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic have privileged the interests of lending institutions and investors over the needs of women borrowers.
