Shadow Correspondent
Samba Oct 23 :
National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) organised a one day Capacity Building programme for Bankers at Samba. The programme was organised by Surinder Singh, District Development Manager of NABARD.
Singh highlighted the concept of SHG and JLG and discussed that although the banking network in rural and semi-urban areas had increased many fold after nationalization, even then many of the rural households are still dependent on the money lenders, shop keepers and market vendors for their petty credit needs. The needs of these rural poor are small but often arise at unpredictable times and are usually of a marginal nature.
Against this background an alternate mechanism for meeting the credit needs of the rural poor in the form of Self Help Groups (SHGs) and Joint Liability Groups has been evolved.
He added that more than one thousand Self Help Groups have been formed in district Samba. These groups are credit linked with banks and have taken up various income generating activities ranging from dairy to mushroom production etc. It was also discussed that villages are faced with problems related to poverty, illiteracy, lack of skills, health care etc. These are problems that cannot be tackled individually but can be better solved through group efforts.
Today these groups have become the vehicle of change for tackling such socio economic problems. He added that these micro credit programmes are an effective tool towards women empowerment and financial inclusion.
He apprised that NABARD provides capacity building assistance and financial support to NGO/Banks for promotion and broad basing of microfinance operations.
Lead Bank Officer, Satish Kumar Sharma, Director RSETI Sanjay Dhar, Regional Manager J&K Grameen Bank Ram Pal Sharma also made some insightful observations during the meeting and added useful inputs to the deliberations in the house.
