Page 43 - Banking Finance January 2018

ARTICLE

II. To create group feeling among women.
III. To enhance the confidence and capabilities of women.

IV. To develop collective decision making among women.
V. To encourage habit of saving among women and facili-
tate the accumulation of their own capital resource
base.
VI. To motivate women taking up social responsibilities
particularly related to women development.

SHG Movement - A Mission:
SBI has taken up SHG movement as a mission. A noble mis-
sion to reach those families who were hitherto having no
ton. DC, with the goal of reaching 100 million of the world's access to the credit by any formal financial institution and,
poorest families, with credit for self-employment and other therefore, were depending on informal sources and mon-
financial and business services by the year 2005. Support eylenders.
for these goals has come from prominent world leaders and
major financial institutions. Micro Finance - Deep Roots in SBI:

Micro finance is not new to State Bank of India. Bank's as-
Self help Groups sociation with non-government organizations (NGOs) or
Since the reconstitution of the Commission in January 2000, voluntary agencies in extending financial help can be traced
the Commission started projects with the aim of making as far back as 1976 well before NABARD introduced SHG-
women economically empowered. One of the major initia- Bank Credit Linkage Programmed as a pilot project in 1992.
tives taken by the Delhi Commission for Women in the year
2000-2001 was to set up pilot projects in collaboration with Steady Growth in SHG-Bank Credit Link-
partner NGOs for empowering women economically and
thus helping prevent crimes against women. The Commis- age Programme:
sion tied up with various NGOs working in various parts of SBI - Leader In SHG-Bank Credit Linkage
Delhi for formation of Self-Help Groups. A major effort to provide banking services to the weaker
and unorganised sector was the Bank Self Help Group Link-
What is S H Gs
age Programme that was launched in early 1990s. The
SHG is a group formed by the community women, which has programme was started at the initiative of NABARD in
specific number of members like 15 or 20. In such a group 1992 to link the unorganised sector with the formal bank-
the poorest women would come together for emergency, ing sector.
disaster, social reasons, economic support to each other
have ease of conversation, social interaction and economic Working of the programme
interactions. Self Help Groups (SHGs) are a homogenous Under this programme, banks were allowed to open sav-
group of 10-20 individuals who come together for saving and ings accounts for Self-Help Groups (SHGs). SHGs are regis-
internally helping each other in times of need. Group mem-
tered/unregistered entities which usually has a membership
bers are engaged in livelihood activities such as running a
of 15 to 20 members from very low income families, usually
retail shop, cattle rearing, zari work, tailoring jobs, making
women. They mobilize savings from members and use the
candles, artificial jewellery etc. Each individual saves a fixed pooled funds to give loans to the needy members. Under
amount on a monthly basis.
this programme, banks provide loans to the SHGs against
Objectives group guarantee and the quantum of loan could be several
times the deposits placed by such SHGs with the banks.
I. To sensitize women of target area for the need of SHG Banks should consider entire credit requirements of SHG
and its relevance in their empowerment process. members, namely, (a) income generation activities, (b) so-

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