It remains to be seen whether Bharat Mahila Bank—the first all-woman bank inaugurated by the Prime Minister a couple of days ago—lives up its high billing. But away from the limelight, a woman from Gujarat with a modest background already epitomises the spirit of a changing India that is unshackling itself from the stereotypes and biases that have been haunting it.
Madhuben Hasmukhbhai Parmar, 40, a 12th standard pass-out from Gujarat Board of Secondary Education, is the chief operations officer of a cooperative society with nearly 20,000 members and a turnover of around Rs 10 crore.
About 6,000 of these members are poor Muslims, including 4,000 women. One of the branches she manages is dedicated only to the four-lakh-strong Muslim community in Juhapura, largely a ghetto without many civic amenities on the outskirts of Ahmedabad where no government offices or banks were seen until the recent past.
According to surveys, about 20 lakh people, out of 50 lakh population in Ahmedabad, still live in slums and ‘chawls’, unaware of high-sounding words like financial penetration and inclusive growth.
Madhuben heads the Saath Savings and Credit Cooperative Society Ltd, which has seven offices in Ahmedabad’s slum areas, offering loans of up to Rs 30,000 to the poor to set up their own livelihoods. “Our recoveries are about 98 per cent and only 35 members, out of 1,000 clients, were unable to pay in time,” she told Business Line .
The society has a staff of 80, only a quarter of them graduates, most trained in operating computers. Fifteen members of the staff are women—and managers of all seven branches are women! Their salaries range from Rs 5,000 to Rs 10,000 per month. Madhuben draws a gross salary of Rs 18,300 per month.
She has been associated with Saath, an NGO working among the bottom of the pyramid of socio-economic infrastructure, for the last 22 years and with the cooperative body since 2002.
Rajendra Joshi, Founder and Managing Trustee of Saath, said the society follows the model of Muhammed Yunus, Nobel Peace Laureate and eminent economist- banker from Bangladesh, and lends money only to small groups of four to six people who stand guarantee to one another.
The society has reduced the poor people’s dependence on loan sharks and money-lenders. These beneficiaries were unable to even open accounts and get loans from traditional banks due to lack of penetration of formal sector, unavailability of required documents and absence of collateral security.
He said the society charges 24 per cent interest which reduces each month and the overall interest comes down to just 13 per cent in a year. The sanctioned loans are provided in three ‘cycles’ or installments over a period of one year, for a repayment period of up to 30 months. “We had an outstanding of Rs 7 crore last month,” Madhuben said, adding that the society has advanced loans of Rs 15 crore over the last five years.
The society also provides loans up to Rs 15,000 for social functions like marriage.
The well-organised society, which registered a profit of Rs 20 lakh last fiscal, focuses on recovery of loans from sixth to 20th day of each month, on loan appraisals and approvals from 21st to 27th day and from 28th to the last day on settlement of accounts, she said.
She is now awaiting permission to expand her society’s functions beyond the 20 wards of the city.
Her husband is an agarbatti-maker and she lives in a joint family with her in-laws and two school-going children.
And she had not heard of Bharat Mahila Bank until yesterday!