At a recent training session on financial inclusion (FI) and self-help groups (SHGs) held at the Bankers Institute of Rural Development (BIRD), the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD), Mangalore, 71 participants shared their thoughts on the training and the challenges they will be facing when they return to their districts.
The participants, from scheduled banks and various Pragathi Gramin banks in Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, and Tamil Nadu, attended theory classes and visited a Financial Literacy and Credit Counselling Centre (FLCC) in Udupi to understand the role of business correspondents (BCs), business facilitators (BFs), and technology in FI.
Srinivas, from Andhra Pradesh Gramin Bank, Kadapa, who looks after loan recovery, said: “This (branchless banking) was totally new to us. We got to know about the FLCC…we have to start….now we know the theory, went for the field visit and understood the practical problems.”
Dayakar Reddy, Chief Manager, Vijaya Bank, FI Cell, Lead Bank Cell, Vidyanagar, Mandya, said the training helped him as he was new to the bank's FI division. There were several practical problems in implementing FI, he said.
People were not interested in acting as business correspondents and banks must monitor them every day to prevent misuse of money. Some business correspondents were not available to banks when required. There was a need to get people connected to banks as 8 to 10 per cent people in the region of her bank was located keep cash at home.
This would earn people interest and the money would flow into the economy, said Anupama H. Chavan, Assistant Manager, Karnataka Vikas Grameena Bank, Viveknagar, Bijapur.
In the SHG group, Sripad, Assistant Manager, Pragathi Gramin Bank, Karur, Siraguppa taluk, Bellary, said financial literacy through business correspondents and business facilitators role was important in Bellary. “It (working towards financial literacy) is very, very tough…we need to keep guiding them,” he said.
M.M. Baheti, General Manager, NABARD, Mangalore, said the earnings of business correspondents were supplementary, and was easy in villages. It was important for business correspondents to be disciplined to ensure money was promptly deposited with banks and to keep accounts correctly.
He said a wide choice of people could be identified as business correspondents such as the “kirana” shopowner, a businessman, members of SHGs or farmers' club, or the primary agriculture credit societies (PACS).
“It requires discipline, it has to be sustained,” he said. It required handling the machine and an online process so the person must be conversant with technology.
