Women business correspondents help cut NPAs of self-help groups

A file photo of Rural Development Minister Giriraj Singh  | Photo Credit: PTI

At a time when the gross Non-Performing Assets (NPAs) of the public sector banks is at 5%, the corresponding figure for the loans taken by women Self-Help Groups (SHGs) is 1.6%, coming down from 9.58% in 2014. This significant cut in NPAs has been brought about by Business Correspondent (BC) Sakhis — women who provide doorstep banking services in rural areas.

Both BC Sakhis and Bank Sakhis are a gender-focused variant of the traditional Business Correspondent model. Women from SHGs, who have education till Class 10 at least, are given training and deployed in these positions. According to the Rural Development Ministry, there are around 1,22,915 BC Sakhis at present. The Ministry is however aiming to have at least one BC Sakhi in all of the around 2.5 lakh panchayats in the country, Rural Development Minister Giriraj Singh said on Wednesday. Mr. Singh said these women had been instrumental in bringing down the NPA rates.

Nearly ₹6.96 lakh crore of bank credit has been accessed by the SHGs since 2013-14, according to 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 said.

Huge difference

The Minister said access to institutional finance, and waiver provided on interest had made a huge difference for the women in these SHGs, improving the repayment of loans taken by them.

According to figures available with the Ministry, Uttar Pradesh has the highest number of 42,666 BC Sakhis, followed by Madhya Pradesh (10,850 BC Sakhis), and Rajasthan (10,559 BC Sakhis).

Under the National Rural Livelihood Mission, providing financial literacy to women had also been in focus, Mr. Singh said.

“Over 2.75 crore women have been trained in financial literacy,” Mr. Singh said. The Minister said these steps would consolidate the foundation for enabling women SHG members to earn over ₹1 lakh per year, for meeting the targets under the ‘Lakhpati Didi’ scheme announced by the government. Prime Minister Narendra Modi had announced the ‘Lakhpati Didi’ Scheme on August 15, 2023. Initially, the government’s target was enabling two crore women to earn ₹1 lakh per annum, which was revised in the Budget and the target was made three crore women.