BANKS AND WOMEN EMPOWERMENT

Shri C.M. Nanjappa
I PUC, Sri Venkateshwara College,
Hassan

Empowerment of women is essentially the process of upliftment of economic, social and political status of women, the traditionally unprivileged ones in the society. It involves the building up of a society wherein women can breathe without the fear of oppression, exploitation, apprehension, discrimination and the general feeling of persecution which goes with being a woman in a traditionally male dominated structure. One major therapy prescribed by women empowerment advocates is empowering women through legislation for ensuring participation in political decision making.

Such an approach provides the women with a constitutional platform to stand up to men, to raise their voice on issues concerning women oppression, subjugation and related issues and thus in effect, providing them with an identity in an orthodox male dominated socio-political set up, in addition to providing a much needed forum to seek redressal of problems directly affecting them, the true essence of empowerment.

Since women comprise the majority of the population below the poverty line and are very often in situations of extreme poverty, given the harsh realities of intra-household and social discrimination, macro-economic policies and poverty eradication programmes will specifically address the needs and problems of such women. There will be improved implementation of programmes which are already women oriented with special targets for women. Steps are being taken for mobilization of poor women and convergence of services, by offering them a range of economic and social options, along with necessary support measure to enhance their capabilities.

Before 1990’s, credit schemes for women were almost negligible. The concept of women’s credit was born on the insistence by women oriented studies that highlighted the discrimination and struggle of women in having access to credit. However, there is a perceptible gap in financing genuine credit needs of the poor, especially women in the rural sector.

The Government measures have attempted to help women by implementing different poverty alleviation programmes but with little success. Since most of them are target based involving lengthy procedures for loan disbursements, high transaction costs and lack of supervision and monitoring, Banks often suffer from poor repayment leading to a high level of non-performing assets.

Inorder to enhance women’s access to credit for consumption and production, the establishment of new and strengthening of existing micro-credit mechanisms and micro-financial institutions is being undertaken so that the outreach of credit is enhanced. Other supportive measures are being taken to ensure adequate flow of credit through extant financial institutions and banks, so that all women below poverty line have easy access to credit. Micro-credit has been promoted as a tool not only of women’s economic empowerment, but also of social and political empowerment. An assumption of micro-credit is that these programmes will significantly increase women’s incomes, enable women to control that income and also enable them to negotiate improvements in their status within the household. It was also assumed that micro-credit would give women access to support networks that enables them to advance their individual and collective interests at the local as well as macro-level.

Banks generally use individual rather than group-based lending and may not have scope for introducing, non-financial services. This means that they cannot be expected to have the type of the focused empowerment strategies which NGO’s have. Nevertheless, they can be actively involved in collaboration with other service providers giving for example:

• Enterprise and business development services for women and providing loans to female trainees
• Legal aid services for women
• Reproductive health services for women

Now-a-days the Banks are focusing a lot on the empowerment of women.

Given below are a few examples to show what some of the banks are doing to empower women and how they are playing a leading role in the life of women.

SEWA Bank now profits in millions. It presents a wonderful example of how poor, female and illiterate clients can keep properly managed micro-credit enterprises solvent and more. But the social impact of this women’s bank cannot be captured in an accounts register.

The ability of poor women to use credit productivity depends on broader socio-economic contexts. As SEWA prioritises the needs of those who work, save and borrow rather than some inert blueprint of capital growth, it helped rehabilitate Zebunissa even though the passbook she had salvaged showed a loan outstripping her deposits.

Established in 1906 by the captains of Indian industry, Bank of India was brought into the public sector in 1969. It continues to occupy a premier positioning the Indian banking scene today in terms of physical presence, asset level, range of well structured products and services and staff skills both in the cosmetic and international banking spheres.

There are several Indian women who have been successful in transforming their lives by taking loans from Bank of India.

Apart from general loan schemes, which are meant for both men and women, women entrepreneurs are also eligible for finance under Government sponsored programmes such as Prime Ministers Rozgar Yojana for educated unemployed young women in both urban and rural areas and the Swarna Jayanathi Sahakari Rozgar Yojana in urban areas.

Have you ever seen a bank with no telephones, no typewriters, no carpets, no loan agreements and mostly, run by women? Well, difficult as it is to believe, there is one: The Grameen Bank. Grameen is not noticeably “bank-like”. But it does lend money and does get repaid with interest.

There are a few other companies and organizations which are working for the betterment of women such as,

The Reliance Insurance company has also introduced various plans for the betterment of women like the “Automatic Investment Plan” for example:

The successful working of Mahila Mandals has resulted in the formation of a large number of Self-Help Groups amongst women.

Mahila Viaks Nidhi is a specially designed fund for economic empowerment of women.

Lately a section of the development community has been questioning the impact of female-targetted micro-finance. Nirantar, a women’s resource centre, has been drawing media attention to “ the rise in women’s indebtedness as a result of back-to-back lending, higher incidence of violence in the event of women being unable to bring into the family the credit that is expected of them, and the tremendous pressure on women to repay which can cause them to migrate”.

Only training aimed at empowerment, and not “just” at employment can help poor women –given their socio-cultural background – identify the kind of competences needed to survive adequately and fruitfully in the commercial web. Training for empowerment will equip women to create conditions adequate for survival even when their present employment terminates.

Women’s entrepreneurial abilities are not always approved by their family; workloads are exhausting with the double burden of taking care of the home and family, as well as earning a livelihood; they enter into competition with less knowledge and training than their male counterparts; they have limited access to capital, with many banks doubting their credibility.

I would like to conclude, all in all, it is operative to recognize that the training needs and challenges of informal sector workers are far from being uni-dimensional. It is hardly a linear path leading from informality to formality. The challenges are enmeshed within the socio-economic conditions of the groups. Vocational training is one of the aspects along with these challenges can be addressed. What is required is a set of competencies which empowers the workers to make the right entrepreneurial choices. This is even more crucial for women operating in the informal sector.

BANKING AND WOMEN EMPOWERMENT

Kum. Priyanka S. Yadgiri
II Year Science ‘C’
V.B. Darbar College

Before 1990’s, credit schemes for rural women were almost negligible. The concept of women’s credit was born on the insistence of women oriented studies that highlighted the discrimination and struggle of women in having access to credit. However, there is a perceptible gap in financing genuine credit needs of the poor especially women in the rural sector.

There are certain misconceptions about the poor people that they need loan at subsidized rates of interest on soft terms, they lack education skills, capacity to save credit-worthiness and therefore are not bankable. Nevertheless, the experiences of several SHGs (self-help groups) reveal that rural poor are actually efficient managers of credit and finance. Availability of timely and adequate credit is essential for them to undertake any economic activity rather than credit subsidy.

The Government measures have attempted to help the poor by implementing different poverty alleviation programmes but with little success.

Under the trickle down theory in the planning process it was expected that women will equally benefit along with men. This has been belied by actual development. The 9th plan document recognizes that inspite of development measures and constitutional legal guarantees - women have lagged behind in almost all sectors.

In India, the emergence of liberalization and globalization in early 1990’s aggravated the problem of women workers in unorganized sectors from bad to worse as most of the women who were engaged in various self-employment activities have lost their livelihood. Despite in tremendous contribution of women to the agriculture sector, their work is considered just an extension of household domain and remains non-monetised.

Empowerment implies expansion of assets and capabilities of people to influence control and hold accountable institution that affects their lives. Empowerment is the process of enabling or authorizing an individual to think, behave, take action and control work in an autonomous way. It is the state of feelings of self-empowered to take control of one’s own destiny. It includes both controls over resources and over ideology (beliefs, values and attitudes).

Empowerment is a multi-dimensional social process that helps people gain control over their own lives, communities and in their society, by acting on issues that they define as important. Empowering women puts the spotlight on education and employment which are an essential element to sustainable development.

EMPOWERMENT : FOCUS ON POOR WOMEN

In India, the trickle down effects of macro-economic policies have failed to resolve the problem of gender inequality. Women have been the vulnerable section of society and constitute a sizeable segment of the poverty-struck population. Women face gender specific barriers to access education health, employment etc. Micro-finance deals with women below the poverty line. Micro loans are available solely and entirely to this target group of women.

The problem is more acute for women in countries like India, despite the fact that women’s labour makes a critical contribution to the economy. Evidence shows that groups of women are better customers than men, the better managers of resources. If loans are routed through women, benefits of loans are spread wider among the household.

Since women’s empowerment is the key to socio-economic development of the community; bringing women into the mainstream of national development has been a major concern of government. The ministry of rural development has special components for women in its programmes. Funds are earmarked as “Women’s component” to ensure flow of adequate resources for the same. Besides Swarnajayanti Grameen Swarojgar Yojana (SGSY), Ministry of Rural Development is implementing other scheme having women’s component. They are the Indira Awas Yojana (IAJ), National Social Assistance Programme (NSAP), Restructured Rural Sanitation Programme, Accelerated Rural Water Supply Programme (ARWSP) the erstwhile Integrated Rural Development Programme (IRDP), the erstwhile Development of Women and Children in Rural Areas (DWCRA) and the Jawahar Rozgar Yojana (JRY).

CONCEPT AND FEATURES OF MICRO FINANCE

The term ‘Micro Finance’ is of recent origin and is commonly used in addressing issues related to poverty alleviation, financial support to micro entrepreneurs, gender development etc. Micro finance is defined as “Provision of thrift, credit and other financial services and products of very small amounts to the poor in rural semi-urban or urban areas for enabling them to raise their income levels and improve the living standards”. The term “Micro” literally means “small”.

WOMEN’S EMPOWERMENT AND MICRO FINANCE : DIFFERENT PARADIGMS

Concern with women’s access to credit and assumptions about contributions to women’s empowerment are not new. From the early 1970s women’s movements in a number of countries became increasingly interested in the degree to which women were able to access poverty-focussed credit programmes and credit co-operatives. In India, organizations like Self-employed Women’s Association (SEWA) among others with origins and affiliations in the Indian labour and women’s movements identified credit as a major constraint in their work with informal sector women workers.

The problem of Women’s access to credit was given particular emphasis at the first International Women’s Conference in Mexico in 1975 as part of emerging awareness of the importance of women’s productive role both for national economies and for women’s rights. This led to the setting up of the Women’s World Banking network and production of manuals for women’s credit provision. Other women’s organizations world-wide set up credit and savings components both as a way of increasing women’s incomes and bringing women together to address wider gender issues.

ROLE OF DEVELOPMENT BANKS

MAHILA VIKAS NIDHI (MVN)

MVN is specially designed fund for economic empowerment of women. Training and employment opportunities are provided to them through creation of necessary infrastructure. Besides supply of improved inputs, production and technological improvements are also covered under the MVN scheme. The progress of this scheme has been noteworthy.

NATIONAL BANK FOR AGRICULTURAL AND RURAL DEVELOPMENT (NABARD) AND ITS OPERATION

A pilot project for linking SHGs with banks was launched by NABARD in 1992. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) persuaded commercial banks, regional rural banks and co-operative banks to actively participate in the linkage programme. Under the RBI’s guidelines, banks were given permission to open saving bank account in the name of SHGs and relaxation of security requirements.

WOMEN CENTRED ACTIVITIES

To tap the potentialities and managerial capacities of rural women RASS has implemented several activities. RASS has been instrumental in organizing rural women to show their strength and defend themselves for their rights with the formation of Mahila Mandals. These Mandals work under the direct supervision and guidance of RASS and also, get regular information about Government programmes, bank financing, marketing trends etc. The successful working of Mahila Mandals has resulted in the formation of large number of SHGs.

For women to get gainful employment especially belonging to SC, ST and BCs, RASS provides training facilities and generates innovative programmes. The vocational skills, thus acquired, help women to be self-reliant.

GROWTH AND PERFORMANCE OF SHGs

The successful working of Mahila Mandals has resulted in the formation of a large number of SHGs. In 1990, with the help from RASS, 30 SHGs were formed involving 10-15 women members. Within a year, there were 123 SHGs with a total membership of 1559 women. A significant feature of this system was that a large number of women shifted their borrowing from traditional moneylenders to SHGs at reasonable rates of interest. Moreover, RASS has linked with Rashtriya Mahila Kosh (RMK) and NABARD to mobilize funds. Some of the notable features of this scheme are a high percentage (96) of repayment, utilization of funds for income creating activities and generation of saving by women members in the SHGs.

MICRO FINANCE INSTRUMENT FOR WOMEN’S EMPOWERMENT

Micro Finance is emerging as a powerful instrument for poverty alleviation in the new economy.

Perception women is that learning to manage money and rotate funds builds women’s capacities and confidence to intervene in local governance beyond the limited goals of ensuring access to credit. Further, it combines the goals of financial sustainability with that of creating community owned institutions.

ROLE OF BANKS IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF VILLAGES

Kum. Priya S. Patil
Presentation Girls’ Composite P.U.College
Dharwad

India is our country. It is the seventh largest country in the world. India is a country that is full of villages. Villages are the centres of India’s life. More than 70% of the people live in villages. The main occupation of the villagers is agriculture. It is the farmer who produces food for the nation. The far is popularly known as ‘Negilayogi’.

Further, the essential commodities like milk, curds, butter and vegetables are produced only in villages. From the villages these items are taken to cities and towns. Raw materials like cotton, oil seeds and other products are also available only from a village. Even the labourers working in towns come mostly from the villages. A village occupies a very important place in Indian life. So it is said from ‘Halli to Delhi’ or think of the village first and then of Delhi. The village is the backbone of all progress and development of the nation. The nation is totally dependent on villages. It is for this reason that Gandhiji advocated ‘Grama Swarajya’ for the growth of villages. If villages grow, the nation will progress. The general hinderances to the progress and development of the villages are poverty, illiteracy, debt, uncertainity of rainfall, non-cooperation among the members of the community, communal feelings and the atrocities of landlords and the rich on weaker sections. The poor who are unable to fulfill their basic necessities like food, clothing and shelter struggle day and night in the fields of rich landlords to have a meal per day. The farmer who tills the land grows the yields and flatly handovers it to the owners. The tiller works days and nights together to get a bread of one day. This is the poor condition of the farmers in villages.

Earlier the word ‘bank’ seemed to be strange for the people who were ignorant about this. In ancient days people used to save their money in knots, hiding in pots and also under the earth. But, people could not save considerable amount of money because the money kept like that was driven away either by robbers or by natural calamities like earthquake, water over flow etc. So people did not have any safe measures to save money.

T.M.A. Pai was the pioneer to start the first time in India. He was from Maharashtra and the villagers had fishing as their occupation. He made the fisherman’s their to take out 25 paise each day and made them to keep it in the bank and the money was used for the farmers or fisherman whenever they were in need of it. Like this from that day today it has been rendering service to people by giving security to the money kept at the bank and giving low interest. The bank was ‘Syndicate bank of Maharashtra’ and today it has it’s branches all over India. Today it has become a famous bank in Maharashtra.

Co-operative societies and co-operate banks were started by the weaker sections of the society to free themselves from exploitation. Especially women have been employed from these societies. i.e., they provide loans for women to start group works such as craft making snacks making, agarbathi making, pickles making, cotton making in the cottage industries. Women can form groups like ‘Shree Sakti’ or ‘Swayam Sahaya Sanhgha’ by which they can be employed and make other women not only employed but also literate them by providing night schools especially in rural areas. Even women can have hen farm, Milk Diary which are the major source of income in daily life. Co-operative banks or Grameena banks implement schemes and many programmes for the development of children recently it has undertaken ‘Black board Scheme’ in which they provide black board for each schools in rural areas inorder to literate the children. Adults in urban areas i.e., the town and city people can be offered loans for foreign and higher class studies after which they stand on their own legs the loan has to be repaid with low amount of interest. Nationalised banks provide loans for constructing houses for residence.

There is rapid expansion of the branch network of these banks and they are helping common people by providing financial assistance who take up self-employment. By 1997, there were about 63,534 branches of banks all over the country. These banks fulfill all the requirements of rural people. There are more than one lakh co-operative banks in our country. From these banks our farmers and economically weaker sections get:

a) Short term loans (which can be repaid in 15 months).

b) Medium term loans (Duration of which extents from 15 months to 7 years).

c) Long term loans (Duration of which extends from 7 years to 25 years)

These banks are very helpful in a country like India, which is dominated by rural areas. At the village level there are Primary Agricultural Co-operative Banks with branches at taluk level and at state level there are Apex Banks. At the District Level there are District Central Co-operative Banks. All the co-operative banks have affiliation with State Apex Banks. The important Stock Markets are

i. State Financial Corporation (SFC)

ii. Industrial Development Bank of India (IDBI)

iii. Industrial Credit and Investment Bank (ICIB)

iv. Small Industries Development Bank (SIDB)

v. Foreign Exchange Banks (F.E.B.)

Uses of banks: Many a times we need more money than what we possess. In the same way our excess money is advanced as loans to others. Taking loans and advancing loans is called Banking. We preserve the wealth we gained for future use in the form of money providing institutions are Land Development Banks, National Bank for Agricultural and Rural Development (NABARD), State Cooperative Apex Banks, Industrial development Banks, Unit Trust of India, Life Insurance Corporation of India and also the nationalized banks. The Reserve Bank of India is established to control and regulate the affairs of these financial institutions. There are Co-operative Banks also.

Not only for agriculture banks provides loans to buy vehicles that are helpful for agriculture i.e., Tractor which is a modern method used for sowing. Also the products (agricultural) produced must be transported for the distribution in regulated markets by Trucks, Trains etc., for the loans farmers would not wait for weeks or months together i.e., loans are available within a short period of three days nowadays. Banks provide so many loans; Do you think that banks do for their profit? No, it is not for the profit of banks but it is like ‘ taking water from the pond and then throwing into the same pond’ i.e., the banks are from the people and for the people. They provide loans form the invested money of others and take interest from them on the contrary the person who has invested gets the interest for investing over a certain period of time only. In this way banks are helpful for the people.

The banks were not much started earlier so if people wanted to keep money in banks they had to travel from far away places; if he was a labour he had to miss his daily wages at that day and spend money on his traveling charges and had to reach over the bank. People had to face many difficulties of such type. The village people were illiterate and could not take the use of banks.

Nowadays, banks have been flourished on each nook and corner of town as well as villages rendering services to the people for their various needs. Do we know what exactly banks are? :

Banks: Banks help in the mobilization of the savings of the people and their savings are utilized in productive sectors or to provide credit to the people for various purposes.

Even though farmers have agriculture as their occupation no such good yields are produced because of the following reasons:

i) Our farmers are poor and cannot invest money on modernisation

ii) Irrigation facilities are inadequate and our agriculture is a gamble with rainfall.

iii) Agricultural land is subject to sub-divisions and fragmentation.

iv) Old methods are still followed.

v) Soil erosion takes place during the rainy season.

vi) No proper marketing facilities are available for agricultural production and

vii) Our farmers are ignorant about modern methods of cultivation and the literacy rate in villages is low.

In almost all the Five-year Plans, measures have been taken to improve agriculture. They are first of all Banks are the helpers with them nothing is possible. As farmers are poor banks provide long term as well short term loans for the modernization of agriculture. Since our agriculture is a gamble with rainfall bank also provides loans for irrigation facilities such as drip irrigation etc. Bank also provides loans for owning more land which avoids sub-division and fragmentation. It also provides loans for fertilisers, pesticides, insecticides. The co-operative banks also provide good quality seeds not only that but also provide training for their sowing, harvesting and also provide many other things.

Irrigation has been provided through many multi-purpose river valley projects. Through co-operative societies proper marketing facilities have been provided and also loans at lower rate of interest are made available. Not only marketing facilities but these societies also provide training for the farmers how their products should be sold with all communication skills needed. By this farmers get standard yield for their products.

Banks also provide stock market and capital markets. Together with banks many other financial institutions which go hand in hand with banks also provide long-term and short-term loans for agricultural development. The important capital we deposit our savings in the banks. By doing so the volume of money will increase, because interest is added to our deposits. It helps our future. Our saving and deposits help in the economic development of nation also.

Through money the value can be transferred from one place to another safely, easily and quickly. Quick transfer of money is possible through banks, as a result scientific and technological advancement. This helps in the economic development of world also.

We say from the first to last about loans, loans loans !!! what is the main duty of people after taking loans. They must be able to repay the loan within a given period of time which would be useful and safe for them. The farmers should not create any situations of having debt which cause severe problems later. The bank and the people must go hand in hand then only the nation will progress and can compete with other countries which are already developed.