A file photograph of Rural Development Minister Giriraj Singh
| Photo Credit: PTI
At a time when the gross Non-Performing Assets (NPAs) of the general public sector banks is at 5%, the corresponding determine for the loans taken by ladies Self-Help Groups (SHGs) is 1.6%, coming down from 9.58% in 2014. This important reduce in NPAs has been caused by Business Correspondent (BC) Sakhis — ladies who present doorstep banking companies in rural areas.
Both BC Sakhis and Bank Sakhis are a gender-focused variant of the normal Business Correspondent mannequin. Women from SHGs, who’ve schooling until Class 10 at the least, are given coaching and deployed in these positions. According to the Rural Development Ministry, there are round 1,22,915 BC Sakhis at current. The Ministry is nonetheless aiming to have at the least one BC Sakhi in all the round 2.5 lakh panchayats within the nation, Rural Development Minister Giriraj Singh mentioned on Wednesday. Mr. Singh mentioned these ladies had been instrumental in bringing down the NPA charges.
Nearly ₹6.96 lakh crore of financial institution credit score has been accessed by the SHGs since 2013-14, in accordance with the Ministry. “The governments prior to 2014 believed in handholding the SHGs, while the BJP government under Prime Minister Narendra Modi believes in sustainable livelihood,” Mr. Singh mentioned.
Huge distinction
The Minister mentioned entry to institutional finance, and waiver offered on curiosity had made an enormous distinction for the ladies in these SHGs, bettering the compensation of loans taken by them.
According to figures obtainable with the Ministry, Uttar Pradesh has the best variety of 42,666 BC Sakhis, adopted by Madhya Pradesh (10,850 BC Sakhis), and Rajasthan (10,559 BC Sakhis).
Under the National Rural Livelihood Mission, offering monetary literacy to ladies had additionally been in focus, Mr. Singh mentioned.
“Over 2.75 crore women have been trained in financial literacy,” Mr. Singh mentioned. The Minister mentioned these steps would consolidate the muse for enabling ladies SHG members to earn over ₹1 lakh per 12 months, for assembly the targets underneath the ‘Lakhpati Didi’ scheme introduced by the federal government. Prime Minister Narendra Modi had introduced the ‘Lakhpati Didi’ Scheme on August 15, 2023. Initially, the federal government’s goal was enabling two crore ladies to earn ₹1 lakh every year, which was revised within the Budget and the goal was made three crore ladies.
Source: www.thehindu.com
