Around 90% of the loans taken by members of cooperatives for women under the aegis of the Working Women’s Forum (India) — The Indian Cooperative Network for Women (ICNW) are being repaid, Nandini Azad, president of the forum, said on Wednesday.
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She was addressing an online event organised by the International Raiffeisen Union (Germany), which is the largest and oldest cooperative union in the world with members in 53 countries. Ms. Azad said that this was possible with continuous follow-up at every level by staffers. “We reduced the loan amount following our interaction with the IRU. The Forum has its own set of internal auditors and credit rating mechanism to ensure that the very deserving and those who will make the effort to repay are given loans,” she said.
The women, most of whom were earning very paltry sum, have begun to support their families, provide good education for their children and employ a few other women thanks to the loans, Ms. Azad said.
She said the Forum, which was formed in 1978, promoted the ICNW India in 1981 with 800 women members now reached out to 6,00,000 women members in 6,544 villages/slums in South India.