(a) whether the Government has set up women Self Help Groups(SHGs) Development Fund to empower women and promote SHGs;
(b) if so, the objectives and the salient features of the said Fund;
(c) the details of the districts identified for financing the women SHGs projects from the Fund;
(d) the details of funds sanctioned, released and utilized for the last two years and the current year; and
(e) the other steps taken to empower and promote women SHGs and the outcome thereof?
(MINISTER OF FINANCE IN THE MINISTRY OF FINANCE) (SHRI ARUN JAITLEY)
(a) to (e) : A Statement is laid on the Table of the House.
Statement referred to in reply to parts (a) to (e) of LokSabha Starred Question No. 450 for answer on 08thAugust, 2014 tabled by Shri C.S. Putta Raju regarding ‘Women SHGs Development Fund”.
(a) & (b): Yes, Madam. As per the budget announcement of 2011-12, Ministry of Finance, Government of India has set up a ‘Women Self Help Group Development Fund’ with a proposed corpus of Rs.500 crore in National Bank for Agriculture and Rural development (NABARD) for three years i.e. up to 2013-14.
Objective of the Fund:
1) To provide access to sustainable banking services to the poor households in rural areas by formation and nurturing of Women SHGs. 2) To converge other development programmes aimed at poor women/households through these groups. 3) To promote and support livelihood development programmes for the poor through SHGs. 4) To empower the poor women socioeconomically through these initiatives. Salient features of the fund: 1) The Scheme is being implemented in 150 identified Left Wing Extremism (LWE) and Backward districts across 28 States through identified NGOs/Support organizations. The NGO serve not merely as an Self Help Group Promoting Institution (SHPI) for promoting and enabling credit linkage of these groups with banks, but also as Banking/business facilitators, tracking, monitoring these groups and also being responsible for loan repayments. 2) NABARD supports awareness programmes and capacity building programmes for all identified members of the participating banks and other key stakeholders of the programme. 3) The identified NGOs will be eligible for grant assistance from NABARD upto a maximum of Rs.10,000 per SHG promoted and nurtured. 4) The banks lend to SHGs at a rate not more than bank’s base rate plus 5% p.a. 5) A service charge of 5% p.a on monthly average outstanding credit is payable by the bank to the respective NGOs/ partner organisations. The service charge is expected to meet the administrative, transaction and risk cost of the NGOs.
(c) The details of districts identified for financing the WSHGs project is attached at Annex.
(d) The details of Funds sanctioned, released andutilized are as follows:
(e) The Self Help Group Bank Linkage programme pioneered by NABARD, continues to be the largest micro finance programme with an outreach of 10 crore rural households. As on 31 March 2013, 73.18 lakh SHGs have been Savings linked, of which 59.38 lakh are exclusive Women SHGs. NABARD has been continuously supporting training and capacity building of different stakeholders of SHG Bank Linkage programme such as bankers, NGOs, government officials, SHG members and trainers. Cumulatively, over 30.34 lakhs stake holders have been trained as on 31stMarch 2014. The Ministry of Rural Development, Government of India has launched National Rural Livelihood Mission (NRLM) whose mandate is to establish strong, inclusive and financially sustainable institutions of the rural poor women for promoting sustainable and viable livelihoods including placement linked skilling. The scheme has provision for interest subvention to cover the difference between the Lending Rate of the banks and 7%, on all credit from the banks/ financial institutions availed by women SHGs, for a maximum of Rs.3,00,000 per SHG. In select 150 most backward districts referred to as Category – I districts, the women SHGs get additional subvention of 3% on prompt repayment.
As on Fund released by No. of SHGs No. of SHGs No. of SHGs Amount of Grant utilise Govt. to NABARD formed Saving Linked Credit Linked (Rs. in crore) (Rs.in crore) 31st Mar, 2012 100.00 - - - - 31st Mar, 2013 - 1,34,275 50,001 11,106 16.99 31st Mar, 2014 84.183 1,88,583 1,49,820 50,875 34.37