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participants had their interview at home and involved their spouse, and others preferred to be interviewed alone, at the project. It was important to allow for these choices, as debt is a very sensitive issue, and could lead to disagreements amongst partners who were not comfortable with discussing these matters together. I am aware that there may be some financial transactions he or she was not aware of (or concealed by other members of the household) but I felt that hearing conflicting accounts of how money was handled could lead to tension between household members or create confusion during the data analysis stage.
By capturing the full set of cash flows, as per the South African diaries, I hoped to minimise the margin of error – the amount by which the household had over or underreported cash flows – and ensure data quality. In Collin et al.’s South African diaries, the margin of error decreased significantly over the first six interviews, as trust and understanding built up between the interviewer and interviewee (2009:208). I hoped that as I built up trust and rapport with research participants, they would feel comfortable answering questions honestly and clarifying details where these were unclear. In the end I was pleasantly surprised by their candour. However, I found that I could not completely eliminate error, as the income and financial inflows did not always correlate with expenditure and financial outflows. I suspect households were not able to recall all expenses even though we visited them each week and encouraged them to keep notes. The financial diaries enabled me to consider how each household’s financial behaviour
influenced their debt levels and make comparisons between various households.
(4) Interviews with Microfinance Lenders
Interviews with the microfinance lenders were a suitable method for my research as it enabled to me clarify their lending terms and conditions, which were not generally published on their websites or promotional material and remained unclear to many of their borrowers. I did not feel comfortable asking in-depth questions such as how they defined over-indebtedness or what precautions they took to avoid borrower over-indebtedness as I felt that field officers would be constrained from speaking freely on these issues because of loyalty to their organisations.
I wanted to gain a clearer understanding of the lending terms and conditions of microfinance lenders. Despite anecdotal evidence from borrowers, the diaries did not provide a complete picture regarding the influence of lending practices on household over-indebtedness. For this reason, I confirmed certain aspects by interviewing the lenders. This included five NGOs, two credit unions, a shomiti, a bank and a government department lender. A shomiti is a private organisation that lends to members and non-members, often at higher interest rates than NGOs.
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I encountered three types of mahajons in my research but I did not meet with them directly.
Mahajon is the South Asian term for individual moneylenders that lend with interest (Collins et al., 2009:206-7). Rather, I interviewed an intermediary who had assisted many KHCP staff to access mahajon loans, and asked the borrowers themselves. I came across to other lending types, namely haolats which are small, interest-free loans given by acquaintances of the borrower, and shopkeeper credit, whereby borrowers could buy goods on credit.
I found lender interviews very useful in enabling me to compare the basic terms and conditions of various lenders and I elaborate on these in chapter five.It also deepened my understanding of how lending practices influence household indebtedness in the Bangladeshi context. Lenders were happy to explain their policies and clarify any questions I had.However, they were more hesitant to answer if I strayed outside these questions to ask for their opinion on lender policies or issues of borrower indebtedness. Few of the lenders were comfortable with using an audio recorder or providing a copy of their loan application form. Grameen was the only NGO that refused an interview unless I had written permission from their national headquarters in Dhaka.
Concerns about staff indebtedness prompted Dr Baker to set up a Staff Benefit Fund (SBF) in early 2015 and the KHCP Committee approved this in August 2015. Initial loans of up to 15,000 taka may be approved by the trustees, and subsequent loans of up to 35,000 taka. No member may take a loan greater than the value of his or her Provident Fund balance. The fund has an initial balance of 600,000 taka and became operational in April 2017. I have been able to offer general feedback to the management staff on relevant issues I encountered in my research, as well as provisions in the project’s amended Provident Fund policy which allows for staff to withdraw a certain portion of their Fund before they retire, under specific categories. I also committed to sharing the results of my research with KHCP management, as well as the participants, through an oral presentation (Banks & Scheyvens, 2014:178).