Question : Loans to Women

(a) whether the Government has taken a note that single women often face discrimination in getting loans, especially for home loans due to mandatory co-applicant policy for single women in various private loan lending organizations such as banks;
(b) if so, the corrective steps taken by the Government to address the gender discrimination and if not, the reasons for such discriminatory policies to exist;
(c) the details for the past five years for the number of single women who applied for loans and the loans sanctioned and the number of single men who applied for various loans and the loans sanctioned from private banks; and
(d) whether the Government plans to take action against organisations or banks that implement gender discriminatory policies against loan grants for women, especially single women and if so, the details thereof?

THE MINISTER OF STATE FOR FINANCE

(a) to (d): To prevent gender discrimination in lending, Reserve Bank of India (RBI) vide its Master Circular on “Loans and Advances – Statutory and other restriction” dated 1.7.2015, has issued Guidelines on Fair Practices Code for Lenders, which include inter alia that banks must not discriminate on grounds of sex, caste and religion in the matter of lending, however, it does not preclude banks from participating in credit-linked schemes framed for weaker sections of the society. RBI has further advised that Boards of banks and financial institutions should lay down a clear policy on Fair Practices Code based on aforementioned RBI guidelines in respect of all lending. Further, banks provide loans based on assessment of credit-worthiness of prospective borrowers, guided by their Board-approved loan policy framed within RBI guidelines.
With regard to data on number of loan application and sanctions pertaining to single-women and single-men, RBI has informed that it does not maintain gender specific data.
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