Rural development has always been an importantissue in all discussions pertaining to economic development, especially ofdeveloping countries, throughout the world.Ours as adeveloping nation needs to up-bring people in the rural areas.
This is because, though Indiais growing at an amazing growth rate of 7% and about to touch a two digit one, the facts remain that more than 70% of the population lives in villages, depending primarily on agriculture, and the growth rate shown by agriculturalsector was only 2.77 per cent in the last financial year. The growth rate of India is majorlycontributed by Services and Manufacturing sectors and this suppresses theinsufficient growth rate of agricultural sector and the huge majority dependingon that from coming to the limelight. Rural development as an integrated concept ofgrowth and poverty elimination has been of paramount concern in all theconsequent five year plans. Rural Development (RD) programmes comprise offollowing:
Provision of basic infrastructure facilities in the rural areas e.g. schools, health facilities, roads, drinking water, electrification etc.Improving agricultural productivity in the rural areas.Provision of social services like health and education Implementing scheme for the promotion of rural industry, increasing agriculture productivity, providing rural employment etc.Assistance to individual families and their Self Help Groups (SHG) living below poverty line by providing productive resources through credit and subsidy. The majorfactor accounted for high incidence of rural poverty in India is the low asset base.According to Reserve Bank of India, about 51 % of people house possess only 10% of the total asset of India.This has resulted low production capacity both in agriculture andManufacturing sector. Rural people have very low access to institutionalizedcredit factor of production.
To mitigate this aggravated condition of lack ofproviding institutionalised credit, in Nineties, National bank for agricultureand rural development (NABARD) launches pilot projects of Microfinance tobridge the gap between demand and supply of funds in the lower rungs of ruraleconomy. Microfinance, the buzzing word of this decade was meant to cure theillness of rural economy. With this concept of Self Reliance, SelfSufficiency and Self Help gained momentum. The Indian microfinance isdominated by Self Help Groups (SHGs) and their linkage to Banks.
Microfinance is an interesting concept. You lendsmall risk-bearing money to those at the bottom of the pyramid, lessprivileged, for whom commercial banks are a no; you charge them at varyinginterest rates (ranging from 150% higher than the prime lending rate all theway to almost 50% lower); and then you wait in the anticipation that these lessprivileged people will generate a higher income by which they can repay theirEMIs. So here Trust is the major asset and this asset will not depreciate butonly appreciate.
It is in this context, that wehave take it into concern the immense service done by Dhanalakshmi Bank, whichventured into micro credit in 1998 as part of its social welfare obligations, has sanctioned Rs.211.97 crore under this scheme covering 5, 49, 200 beneficiariestill September 30, former year. The outstanding balance under micro credit wasRs.110.94 crore. During the one-year period ended September 2008, the growth inthis sector was nearly 50 per cent, the bank had driven the micro creditprocess through collaboration with self-help groups, appropriate liaison withNGOs, reputed charitable organisations and government departments likeKudumbasree. This Thrissur-based Dhanalakshmi Bank has thus registered impressiveperformance in micro-credit finance Dhanalakshmi Bank has set a micro-credittarget of Rs 51 crore this fiscal, according to a statement from the bank. Thebank, which had launched the programme with a credit line of Rs 47 lakh to aself-help group, aims at helping rural women in their multifaceted activitiesto improve their living standards, the statement adds. It has set up amicro-credit cell at its corporate office The programme has so far reached outto 17, 500 members belonging to 880 SHGs across the country, with a net outlayof Rs 11.45 crore.
It has been found from practice institutionswhich are small players has more ethical and social commitment to the society.They believe in social banking, and are totally devoid of any agenda hidden.This clear transparency in banking is dhanalakshmi’s brand. The boldness theyexhibit in today’s new generation’s clutter culture is due to this. So herethey have all tryst, tradition and technology as they claim. ‘We are small but we are many, we are many weare small; we were here before you rose, we will be here when you fall.’.