When the Debt Cuts Deep: Microcredit Lending and Organ Selling in Bangladesh
In: Public AnthropologistSearch for other papers by Monir Moniruzzaman in
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Abstract
While microcredit lending, a Nobel prize-winning program, is praised as a silver bullet to end world poverty, I discover that it adversely contributes to organ selling in Bangladesh. The poor become willing agents in selling their bodily organs to service debt is not a new topic; however, the ways they become entangled with the microfinance industry is an alarming phenomenon. Drawing on my ethnographic research on organ trafficking, I uncover that organ selling is driven by pressures brought on by the snowballing effects of microcredit loans. When borrowers are caught in a cycle of microloans, they face a series of coercion from loan officers, and their last resort is to sell an organ to repay the debt. In response, the microfinance industry denies using coercion for loan recovery and dismisses any connection with organ selling. In this article, I explain how microcredit debt is implicated in selling organs in Bangladesh.
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| All Time | Past 365 days | Past 30 Days | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Abstract Views | 172 | 172 | 39 |
| Full Text Views | 5 | 5 | 2 |
| PDF Views & Downloads | 13 | 13 | 9 |
When the Debt Cuts Deep: Microcredit Lending and Organ Selling in Bangladesh
In: Public AnthropologistSearch for other papers by Monir Moniruzzaman in
Current site
Google Scholar
PubMed
Abstract
While microcredit lending, a Nobel prize-winning program, is praised as a silver bullet to end world poverty, I discover that it adversely contributes to organ selling in Bangladesh. The poor become willing agents in selling their bodily organs to service debt is not a new topic; however, the ways they become entangled with the microfinance industry is an alarming phenomenon. Drawing on my ethnographic research on organ trafficking, I uncover that organ selling is driven by pressures brought on by the snowballing effects of microcredit loans. When borrowers are caught in a cycle of microloans, they face a series of coercion from loan officers, and their last resort is to sell an organ to repay the debt. In response, the microfinance industry denies using coercion for loan recovery and dismisses any connection with organ selling. In this article, I explain how microcredit debt is implicated in selling organs in Bangladesh.
| All Time | Past 365 days | Past 30 Days | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Abstract Views | 172 | 172 | 39 |
| Full Text Views | 5 | 5 | 2 |
| PDF Views & Downloads | 13 | 13 | 9 |
