Non-fiction · 2010 · Finalist, National Business Book Award
Saris on Scooters
How Microcredit is Changing Village India
- Publisher
- Dundurn Press
- In French
- Saris en scooter, Éditions Stanké
- Reporting
- India, 2001–2008
About the book
Renowned author and journalist Sheila McLeod Arnopoulos uses her talent for investigative reporting to take us deep into the poorest villages in India. Yet, far from being passive victims of their circumstances, the women who live there have joined forces and are making astute use of microcredit to break the cycle of poverty.
Microcredit was made famous by Bangladeshi economist Muhammad Yunus and consists of very small loans made primarily to women for the production of essential commodities or to start small businesses. Based on a number of trips to India between 2001 and 2008, Arnopoulos shows her sense of solidarity and desire for authenticity by sharing the daily life of these villagers.
This first-person account of her extensive travels focuses primarily on these women’s inspiring success stories. After witnessing many such situations first-hand, she believes these villages have a potential strength equal to that of the modern, high-tech cities in India.
En français
Saris en scooter – La révolution du microcrédit dans l’Inde des villages. L’auteure et journaliste Sheila McLeod Arnopoulos propose, dans la tradition des grands reportages, une incursion fascinante dans l’univers de villageoises indiennes parmi les plus pauvres.
What reviewers said
“Read this book! The women described within these pages demonstrate an extraordinary courage and determination to not only survive, but to thrive.”
“Sleeping on hut floors and traveling on rickety buses and dusty rickshaws, she writes of her intimate interactions with the women of India with warmth and optimism…”
More reviews
“Well-documented, eminently readable and uplifting.”
Maya Khankhoje, Herizons Magazine
“A welcome alternative approach … bears witness to the agency gained by women in self-help groups.”
Jamie Charlebois, Canadian Journal of Development Studies
“A vivid and fascinating account of the struggles and achievements of remarkable women…”
Ann Diamond, Too Small to Fail · Read the review
“The first-person account of her extensive travels focuses primarily on Indian rural women’s inspiring success stories.”
The Weekly Voice · Read the review
Where to buy
United States
You can also ask for it at your local bookshop or library.
From the reporting
The women of Saris on Scooters
A mayor, a seedkeeper, a radio host, embroiderers and dairy farmers: photographs from Sheila’s trips to village India.