This is an IHeart podcast.

I'm Maeve Higgins and this is Solvable, interviews with the world's most innovative thinkers working to solve the world's biggest problems.

My name is Somia Roy and I'm trying to solve the problem of marginalized communities by bringing

the power of micro enterprise and microfinance to strengthen these communities.

The problem that I'm focused on is to look at communities that are in both in poverty

as well as they face social exclusion and to look at how micro-enterprice can strengthen

these communities.

So we're in India today, a fabulous country that's about 10 years away from becoming the

biggest in the world, population-wise.

India's had this booming economy that is slowing somewhat these days, but this huge nation has

seen massive improvements in the quality of life for many of its 1.3 billion citizens.

The work that they've done is extraordinary, and the speed of it too. In the

ten years leading up to 2016, India lifted 271 million people out of poverty. However, the

World Bank's median poverty line is $3.10 a day and over half of India's population are stuck there, at least

for now. More than 250 million people survive there on less than $2 a day. So if it takes money

to make money, can't they just borrow some and clamber up the ladder that

way?

Sadly, no.

That particular slice of upward mobility is not available to many Indians.

Banks will not do it, claiming limitations like, oh, lack of security, high operating costs.

But you know, there's an alternative, and that's our guest,

Saumya Roy's solvable. Microfinance provides loans to poor people with the goal of creating

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