The Tamil Nadu Corporation for Development of Women is set to appoint ‘Bank Mitras’ in various places, and help about 3,000 women SHGs and 265 Panchayat Level Federations (PLFs) forge credit linkage with banks to the tune of Rs. 102 crore in the district.
This was as part of an attempt to increase the rural household incomes by helping the women folk belonging to SHGs and PLFs commence entrepreneurial activities for livelihood enhancement.
‘Bank Mitras’
J. Manoharan, Assistant Project Officer of Mahalir Thittam under Tamil Nadu Corporation for Development of Women, told The Hindu that the ‘Bank Mitras’ (ie friends of banks) would be persons selected from among the members of SHGs/ PLFs who had a certain minimum educational qualification.
Sources here added that the ‘Bank Mitras’, whose responsibility would be to liaison with the respective lending banks for credit and recovery services, would be appointed with a salary, to be disbursed from the corpus created under the Tamil Nadu State Rural Livelihood Mission.
The ‘Bank Mitras’ would be trained adequately before been asked to carry out the designated liaison works.
Credit linkage
To ensure that credit disbursement target of Rs. 102 crore was attained as quickly as possible during the current financial year, the Lead Bank has communicated to all banks functioning in the district asking the institutions to expeditiously clear the proposals seeking credit as and when received from the SHGs/ PLFs.
Extension
The speedy extension of credit would encourage women from poor families across the district to join the SHG movement and become ‘community professionals’.
The loans can be used for setting up business ventures like tailoring unit, handloom weaving facility and cottage industries, among others, and the entire scheme is evolved on ‘demand driven’ strategy.
