Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Tuesday said that banks should divert loans to self-help groups in order to help generate employment in the unorganised sector in the country.
“People who look for work in the unorganised sector are much more than those in the organised sector,” Mr. Jaitley said at the 36th Foundation Day of National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development. “So, if the banking system, through various schemes, diverts loans to this sector, there will be creation of more jobs.”
He said that although India had grown over the last two-and-a-half decades, the distribution of this development has not been equitable. “In the last 2-2.5 decades, our growth has increased,” he said. “When the economy improves, in the development, some people are left behind. The number of people left behind is not small. More benefit is received in cities, businesses and [the] organised sector. The urban slums, tribal areas, people on the margins, they do not receive much benefit.”
It was keeping this in mind that self-help groups were devised 25 years ago, so that those in the unorganised sector could get loans, he said.
