Poonkodi, 34, has two daughters, Suganya and Aananthi, 14 and 12, and a son Arun, 10, who attend government schools. Before taking out a loan, there was a time when Poonkodi’s family survived on boiled roots. Her father worried so about their health that he brought them food from his far-away village on foot. Her husband earned 25 rupees ($.57) daily wages. They couldn’t pay school fees. Poonkodi took a job as a house maid for 600 rupees a month. When she took her first loan five years ago, she also hocked her jewelry and bought a high producing dairy cow.

Today, after six loans, getting up at 4:00 am to start the day milking her four cows feels more like a reward than a hardship. Her husband, formerly a heavy drinker, helps her deliver the milk by bicycle door to door twice a day. Poonkodi still cleans houses to supplement their income. She now owns a two-room thatched house where five family members and her sister sleep in one room on the cement floor or a wood platform. She would like to purchase another high quality cow like her most recent addition, a Holstein.