BENGALURU: In the absence of financial literacy, women in rural India are unable to make informed choices. As a result, many get trapped in a cycle of debt and poverty. There are, however, potential alternatives that can come to the rescue in such situations. Swabhimaan is one such alternative.
Swabhimaan is a sister concern of Rang De, an online platform where thousands of Indians come together to contribute to the loan needs of villagers. Swabhimaan is the first step in a journey that allows borrowers in villages across India to directly gain access to financial literacy and microcredit at their doorsteps. This is through a custom-made digital bioscope where villagers can go and apply for loans and receive financial literacy training.
The initiative was launched on International Women’s Day (March 8) this year. Bengaluru-based techie couple Ram N K and Smita Ram, who returned from the UK almost a decade ago, co-founded Rang De. The couple terms Swabhimaan a financial inclusion revolution.
Currently, Swabhimaan is being piloted in Yeshvantpur village in Kolar district. “Swabhimaan means self-respect. We want to create a system so that a person in a village gets the same respect that a person in a city gets when she takes a loan. Eliminating the many tiers of middlemen, these women should get interest rates as low as 5 per cent in some cases, but moneylenders charge well above 20-30 per cent. Most importantly, to get access to loans, they will learn about financial literacy, which will help the community in the long run,” says Ram.
“There are just 13 bank branches for one lakh adults in the country. Taking a loan from a bank often requires a villager to commute for miles, forgoing a day’s work, standing in a queue and dealing with a lot of paperwork. For women, it’s even more challenging and intimidating. In many cases, they don’t even have assets in their names,” Smita explains.
Ram adds that they picked Yeshvantpur village, 43km east of Bengaluru, because all the women here have bank accounts and are comfortable with technology. The village has a diverse community with Telugu, Hindi and Kannada-speaking people. “If these women can learn financial literacy and avail loans without any help, we believe this initiative can be scaled up across the country,” Ram says.
Smita recalls how they first approached the villagers.
“We organised financial literacy training workshops that were attended by many women. We awarded financial literacy certificates to the first group of women that took the exam on the bioscope and applied for low-cost loans,” she says.
“If you ever wanted to make a difference to rural India, then visit www.rangde.org and give a loan to a woman from a village. With your help, she can stand on her feet,” Smita adds.
Apart from the loans disbursed through Swabhimaan, Rang De continues to highlight the requirements of nearly a thousand men and women from rural India every month on its website.