HYDERABAD: An NIRDPR study conducted on the financial status of self help groups (SHGs) in Andhra Pradesh, Odisha and Madhya Pradesh found that many of the SHGs were affected from Non-Performing Assets (NPAs) because of non-cooperation and non-repayment by other members of the SHGs, miscellaneous expenses and expectations of loan waiver from the government.
Apart from covering economic indicators like income, expenses, savings, loans and investments, the study examined end uses of loans.Various factors behind the growth of NPAs in SHGs and regular book-keeping by SHGs for their long term sustainability were also looked into.
Commissioned by the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD), the NIRDPR team covered a sample of 663 individual members of SHGs from the three states.In addition, the team took responses from 58 stakeholders such as credit officers in banks, line department officials and office-bearers of Self-Help Promoting Institutions in the sample states.
M Srikanth, Associate Professor and Head, Centre for Financial Inclusion and Entrepreneurship, NIRDPR, said, “Though the Self-Help Group-Bank Linkage Programme (SHG-BLP) was witnessing lower loan defaults by its members in its earlier years, bad loans have been mounting up in the recent past due to various reasons. NPAs peaked to a record high of 7.4 per cent in the SHG-BLP in the FY 2014-15 and later reduced to 5.19 per cent as on March 31, 2019.”