India's apex development bank, National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) has announced four central cooperative banks under the Orissa State Cooperative Bank (OSCB) as Self Help Promotion Institutes (SHPIs). These SHIPs are declared in the wake of promoting Self Help Groups (SHGs) in Orissa. The SHPIs aim to advance the movement of SHGs in the state of Orrisa by encouraging participation of people. These institutes will basically focus on women belonging to weaker sections of the society. Also they will extend credit linkage to the groups through various banks and financial institutions. The central cooperative banks, which have been chosen to fulfill the plans, include the banks in Berhampur, Balasore, Keonjhar and Sundergarh. An official from NABARD said, "Orissa is the front runner in formation of the SHGs, but many groups are not linked with the financial institutions so far." The official added that the development bank has been keen to promote SHGs and link these groups to banks. It is for this purpose that the bank has set up SHPIs in the state. The government of Orrisa has laid more stress on women SHGs to make them economically self sufficient. The state government has also launched a programme named Mission Shakti, with an aim to provide credit linkage to more than one lakh women self help groups (WSHGs) in the state during the current fiscal. It involves loans amounting Rs 659.63 crore. At the end of first fiscal quarter in June, around 30,659 SHGs were linked with the primary agriculture societies (PAC) and central cooperative banks under OSCB in the state, with a financial linkage of about Rs 77.89 crore. As many as 5,560 SHGs were linked with the central cooperative bank, Koraput with Rs 8.54 crore, followed by 5,030 groups in Balasore with linkage of Rs 16.51 crore and 1,870 groups in Berhampur with a credit limkage of Rs 7.74 crore. Under the SHPIs, the Central Cooperative Bank in Berhampur is expected to form additional 360 SHGs by the end of February 2010. Maheswar Khillar, the secretary of Central Cooperative Bank of Berhampur said, "We have already formed about 100 SHGs and we hope to achieve the target." In the banks move to tap more than 1 lakh women SHGs, 101483 WSHG accounts will be opened during the current fiscal. This is about 19.56 % more than the last fiscal. The banks have been advised to see that the loans extended by them are deployed for the stated objective and are not diverted for other purposes. |
