Foreign team lauds financial inclusion

Chilkur: Dr MCR HRD Institute arranged a field visit of the ASEAN Civil Servants to Chilkur village, Ranga Reddy District. The ASEAN Civil Servants from Indonesia, Cambodia, Myanmar, Thailand and Malaysia are attending a first-ever training programme on "e-Payment, Financial Inclusion, and Social Security", sponsored byASEAN Secretariat, Jakarta.

During the course of the field visit, the ASEAN Civil Servants were pleasantly surprised to know the inspiring success story of India in using technology for addressing problems of the poorest of the poor sections of the society, across a huge and complex network of villages, especially their women counterparts, and thereby ensuring their financial inclusion and social security.

The ASEAN Civil Servants visited Technology and Training Development Centre of Society for Elimination of Rural Poverty (SERP)/District Rural Development Agency, attended a presentation by SERP officials on the working of the Self-Help Groups at district, mandal, and village levels, and witnessed a photo exhibition of the various activities of the Self-Help Groups.

The ASEAN Civil Servants appreciated the innovative initiatives aimed at not only imparting free vocational training to rural youthbut also assisting them in their placements in different organisations, which resulted in bringing about a qualitative change in their lives.

The ASEAN Civil Servants participated in the meetings of Self-Help Groups and village organisation. They were extremely happy to note that the poor people from rural areas are coming out of the clutches of money lenders, who charge notoriously high rate of interest, and taking loans from banks for successfully setting up and running their small business enterprises. They visited paper plate making and beauty parlour units established by the Self-Help Group members from out of the loans taken from the banks.

The ASEAN Civil Servants witnessed live demonstration of banking transactions. The post master of Chilkur village demonstrated the issue of old-age pensions through use of biometric machine.

The ASEAN Civil Servants participated in the Holi celebrations at the Manjeera lawns with gusto and bonhomie and proved that Holi is a universal festival and knows no bars and boundaries.