NABARD’s SHG initiative raises Rs 61,000 cr loans for poor women

New Delhi, July 10 (IANS) The Self Help Group (SHG) Bank Linkage Programme run by NABARD has helped poor women source collateral-free loans totalling Rs 61,000 crore from the banking system, the government said on Monday on the eve of NABARD's 36th foundation day celebrations here, to be attended also by Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley.

"Since its pilot stage in 1992, the SHG Programme has come a long way in covering more than 10 crore rural families. It had a catalytic effect in sourcing collateral-free loans to the tune of Rs 61,000 crore to these poor women from the mainstream banking system at the normal rates of interest," a Finance Ministry release said here.

"With more than 8.5 crore rural women as the direct participants in this mass movement, NABARD will be celebrating the silver jubilee of the SHG Bank Linkage Programme in the national capital on Tuesday, July 11, 2017," it said.

The Union Finance Minister will be the chief guest at the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development's (NABARD) 36th foundation day event dedicated to celebrating the silver jubilee of the SHG Programme, the statement added.

This programme of financial inclusion, which delivers savings and credit services to the rural poor through their self-managed SHGs, has accumulated, "savings of Rs 16,000 crore in banks and double of that amount in their internal lending" as on March 31, 2017, the statement said.

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