Unequal access to credit and finance

Unequal access to formal finance and savings instruments constitutes a third key mechanism limiting adaptation among marginalized castes. The analysis shows that lower-caste households are at least as likely, and often more likely, to borrow than upper castes, but they rely disproportionately on informal sources such as relatives and friends, while upper castes obtain more loans from banks and hold more formal savings in bank and post-office deposits.