ABSTRACT
Social entrepreneurs and social enterprises are trying to bring social change in a sustained manner. The issues of sustainable development are addressed by these entrepreneurs and enterprises in order to meet the dire need of the marginalised section of society in three ways: sustainable environment, sustainable economy, and sustainable society. In the area of sustainable economy, these enterprises are creating livelihoods in terms of wage employment and self-employment in rural areas as well as in the urban slums of developing nations. Here, micro-enterprises are considered as agencies of providing tangible assets such as food, income, etc. Microfinance institutions as a semi-formal financial source have emerged as one of the important financial sources for these marginalised self-employed people, due to a lack of access to formal financial sources. These institutions are considered as providers of intangible assets such as access to resources. This chapter focuses on the micro-entrepreneurs based in the slums of Mumbai, India, and studies their credit accessibility and usages. In the process, it also analysed the role of ‘microfinance institutions’ as ‘social enterprises’ in creating sustainable livelihoods for the marginalised micro-entrepreneurs.
