In India, the economic disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic have high-lighted the conflict of interests involved in commercialised microfinance, as well as the limits of state-subsidised micro-credit provisioning through self-help group (SHG) collectives, both of which failed to protect poor women during this crisis. Our research on these two forms of micro-lending, carried out over the two-year period following March 2020, has documented the impact of the pandemic on different stakeholders and at different scales. Locating our in-depth study of three rural sites in Tamil Nadu, South India, in the broader landscape of microcredit, we analyse policy measures and discourses ranging from the global to the national and sub-national state, and discuss their impact on the lives of low-income women. Our sector-level analysis, together with our village-level data, force us to challenge claims that India’s financial inclusion infrastructure was an effective channel for aid during the pandemic.