National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) has selected eight districts to introduce its micro pension project. Madurai has been selected as one of these eight districts. The micro pension scheme has been designed to aid the rural class.

In order to begin the preparation activities for the launch, a workshop was held in Madurai in which banks like State Bank of India (SBI), Indian Bank, Canara Bank, Indian Overseas Bank (IOB), Tamilnad Merchantile Bank (TMB), Union Bank of India (UBI), Pandyan Grama Bank and Madurai District Co-operative Bank participated.

Apart from them, participation was also observed from Farmers Clubs, self-help groups and non-governmental organisations.

"A majority of the working poor and low-income women workers in rural India are excluded from formal pension schemes. This segment is vulnerable to old age poverty as barely 5 per cent of it has saving habit. This scheme aims to focus on this segment," said R. Shankar Narayan, Assistant General Manager, NABARD.

He said that Madurai is amongst the only two districts in south India which have been selected for the purpose.

He said that the poor people also needed a safe mode of pension for themselves.