Question : LOAN TO SHGS

(a) whether the Government extended provision of bank loan for women self help groups in some additional districts of various States;

(b) if so, the details thereof and the reasons therefor;

(c) the details of the criteria for selection of districts for the said purpose;

(d) whether an expert group on the said purpose constituted under the former Deputy Governor of RBI has submitted their report; and

(e) if so, the details along with the major recommendations made by the group and the details of the action so far taken by the Government in this regard?

(MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF FINANCE) (SHRI JAYANT SINHA)

(a) to (c): The Self Help Group – Bank Linkage Programme (SHG-BLP) is being implemented by banks all over the country. For intensive implementation of SHG-BLP programme, the Ministry of Finance, Government of India has set up a ‘Women Self Help Group Development Fund’ with a proposed corpus of Rs.500 crore to implement a ‘Scheme for promotion of Women SHGs in 150 Left Wing Extremism [LWE] Affected and Backward districts of India’. A sum of Rs.184.18 crore has been contributed towards this Fund.

The criteria for selection of district for coverage under WSHGs Scheme are those affected by Left Wing Extremism and are backward districts of India. Under the Scheme, as on 28th February 2015, around 2.18 lakh Women SHGs were savings linked and around 1.03 lakh of these SHGs were credit linked.

(d) & (e): The Expert Group constituted under Smt. Usha Thorat, former Deputy Governor of RBI has submitted its report. The main recommendations and action taken so far is given in Annexure.