ON August 23-24, 2025, more than 500 women from across India gathered at Surjeet Bhawan in New Delhi to tell their stories of debt, despair, and defiance. The ‘National Public Hearing on Women’s Rising Indebtedness and Micro Finance Institutions (MFI) Loot’, organised by the All India Democratic Women’s Association (AIDWA), became a platform where the silent burden of loans, harassment by MFIs, and the failure of public banks erupted into a collective cry for justice. It was not just another programme.