SANGAREDDY: Stree Nidhi Bank is proving a boon to Indira Kranti Patham (IKP) groups in Medak district with women being able to overcome sticky situations. The bank, set up with 1,000-crore corpus fund recently, allows them to borrow money for a second time during emergency even without repaying the earlier loan. Earlier, women used to approach micro-finance companies and private money lenders for borrowing money if they had not repaid loans to the commercial banks.
The bank had already sanctioned Rs 2.64 crore loans to 517 women groups having 1,977 members for taking up cultivation and carrying out petty trades.
For obtaining loans from Stree Nidhi Bank, the government had even given gradings to the groups basing on their performance.
It also gave grades to the mandals.
According to the government’s guidelines, Nyalkel mandal alone, of the total 46 mandals in the district, was given C grade.
A maximum of 40 mandals obtained A grade while five others secured B grade.
“With a majority of the mandals being in the A grade, SHGs in the district can benefit the maximum,” opined DRDA project director Ravinder.
The district has 40,345 Self Help Groups with a membership of 4, 84,140 women.
However, only 1,399 women groups have qualified to to avail the Stree Nidhi Bank loans.
Other Women groups are yet to get clearance from the Registrar of Societies, he said adding that they are trying to get the necessary permission.
Stree Nidhi bank is a State Government initiative set up with a fund of Rs 1,000 crores to give loans to women who do not have access to commercial banks.