Formal financial institutions (FFIs) in a developing economy often fail to meet the loan requirements of the poor. It is frequently stated that the poor are non bankable. Given this, several models and structures have emerged for making them bankable.

First, on the basis of primary data collected in a rural setting in the State of Orissa, an attempt has been made in this paper to compare the socioeconomic status of male- and female- headed households.

Recent studies examining British attitudes and ideologies which structured colonial policies towards 'outcaste'2 and 'deviant' groups in indigenous society, have suggested that the groups who were marginalised included those whose activities were conceived of as 'threatening' to new normative def