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Jorhat bank powers marginalised women entrepreneurs
Highlights
Empowering women through bank. Konoklota Women Urban Cooperative Bank in Assam, marginalized Women Entrepreneurs. Jorhat bank powers marginalised women entrepreneurs.
Indian Finance minister P Chidambaram’s announcement of setting up of an all women public sector bank in the country was widely welcomed by politician, and civil society groups, saying it will bring women empowerment, however very few are aware that a similar bank is running successfully for over 13 years in Assam, a remote Indian province has already been doing the same.
The Konoklota Women Urban Cooperative bank formally started functioning from February 26, 2000 under the leadership of Lakhimi Baruah, a 64-year-old women, in the Jorhat district in Assam.
“I had worked at a bank till 1990 myself and I was always aware about the difficulties faced by women, especially poor, deprived and illiterate women in banking. When I started the bank my vision was to empower such women, and today when I look back I feel that I have been able to contribute towards women empowerment in some way,” said Baruah.
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Baruah, who is currently associated with the bank as the managing director, has been instrumental in the bank’s growth and today it has a working capital of over seven crores, and the bank has three functional branches in the district, and two more are coming up in the neighbouring districts of Sivasagar and Golaghat soon. Besides this, the bank’s management has also written to the government for permission to set up at least one branch in all the twenty seven districts in Assam.Today the three functional branches of the bank are thronged by almost two hundred fifty people every day, and the customers point out that it is the women friendly approach of the bank and its employees which attracts them.
“This bank is unlike other banks where illiterate women like us are turned down and are not provided any assistance. Here the bank employees are very welcoming and they help us at each and every step, including filling up withdrawal forms, and we just put our thumb impression,” said Phulmoni Karmakar, an illiterate woman who works as a daily wage labourer in a tea garden getting a wage of less than eighty rupees a day, pointed out that earlier she never had any savings as she didn’t have a bank account.
“However after I opened an account in this bank about 4 years back things have started to change and today I have a savings worth Rs 8,000 in the bank, and moreover I have learnt banking and how to save money, and this will help me a lot to become financially secure soon,” said Karmakar.
The customers also get attracted by the very low minimum balance which is required in savings accounts in this bank—just one hundred rupees, compared to one thousand rupees in the bigger banks.
“There are people in the state who get pension—such as old-age pension, of less than hundred rupees a month, and for such people it is near impossible to open an account in bigger banks and they come to us,” said Baruah.
Apart from playing the role of an institution educating illiterate and marginalized women in this patriarchal society about banking and encouraging them in opening bank accounts and savings, the bank has also managed to empower over five thousand women financially by offering them support to start small entrepreneurship activities.
After her busy schedule in the bank, Baruah even finds time to organise meetings to spread awareness about banking and financial empowerment of women. After listening to her, even girl students from the tea garden areas have now come forward to do banking—which is something rare in the tea garden areas in the state.
“Since our vision is in empowering women, we strongly believe that it is important to offer them support and guidance so that they can become financially independent—for this we give loans at very small interest rates to women who are interested to start entrepreneurial activities and over the years thousands of women have been benefitted. Our interest rates are lower than the bigger banks,” said Baruah.
The bank officials also ensure that loans are sanctioned within stipulated time frame, and even helps the customers with completing the formalities for the loan application.
“The stipulated timing for sanctioning of a small loan of around Rs 2,000 is a few hours, and a slightly bigger loan of around Rs 50,000 takes about a week, moreover we help customers in filling the forms and documentations. This quick sanctioning of loans has not affected our loan recovery—which is over 93 per cent,” said Lakhi Rani Agniborah, branch manager of the Jorhat branch of the bank.
On being asked how easy it is to avail loans, Trishna Neog, a 42-year-old lady pointed out that she has taken loan two times from this bank and both the time it took less than a week for the loan amount to be sanctioned and moreover it was hassle free.
Neog today runs a small livestock farm and is able to save over Rs 15,000 a year, and moreover she is able to support her husband financially who runs a small tyre shop in the town.
“I never knew about loans, and I was never aware that banking is so easy. My life has changed considerably after I got in touch with this bank, and today I know how to do banking, to do savings, and also how to avail loan facilities. I plan to go for a bigger loan once I clear the existing loan and then set up a bigger business,” said Neog.
There is however voice which points out that the bank needs to change its approach and take up aggressive steps for rapid growth. Nirmala Borah, professor of economics at the JB College in Jorhat conducted a study on the bank, and she pointed out that the bank needs to be more aggressive in lending and asset building, and should also go for publicity drives.
“The bank has been able to absorb a huge number of illiterate people whom almost none of the big banks actually want, and besides this it has been able to help thousands of women by giving out small loans. However to grow the loan amount has to be bigger, and it is important to note that to grow, the bank needs to be profit oriented,” said Borah.
Meanwhile, the newly appointed deputy commissioner of the Jorhat district, Solanki Vishal Vasant, when approached said that he is yet to make a formal visit to the bank, and added that the government will try to take steps to help the bank.
“I have heard about the bank and how it has helped thousands of poor and marginalized women, if possible the district administration will try to help the bank through the National Rural Livelihoods Mission (NRLM),” added the deputy commissioner.
The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of our organisation.
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