Academic literature on the topic 'Self Employed Women’s Cooperative Bank in India'

The recognition of credit as a powerful instrument for the alleviation of poverty in the developing countries has led to a multitude of programmes on agricultural credit, co-operatives, and integrated rural development in the past few decades. Agricultural or land development banks, commercial banks and cooperatives have sought "small borrowers" in theory but have, on the whole, failed to reach the poor, particularly women. The loan repayment rates in these programmes often have been very low which, together with below-market interest rates imposed by governments, has resulted in the stagnation of most third world credit institutions aimed at "small borrowers". On the other hand, innovative Credit Delivery Systems (CDSs) for the poor or "poverty lending" has been on the increase in many developing countries over the last two or three decades. In stark contrast to the conventional credit programmes, these innovative experiments show. extremely high repayment rates. More importantly, they reveal that the standard stereotypes are wildly inaccurate: that women are more creditworthy than men and the poor more creditworthy than the non-poor. These experiments include the Bedan Kredit Kecamatan (BKK), MBM and YIS programmes in Indonesia, Grameen Bank and Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee (BRAC) in Bangladesh, Agha Khan Rural Support Programme (AKRSP) in Pakistan, Self Employed Women's Association (SEWA) and Working Women's Forum (WWF) in India, the Kababaihang Barangay of San Miguel, Bulacan (KBB) in the Philippines, Production Credit for Rural Women (pCRW) in Nepal, etc.

Bank plays an important role in Indian Financial system. The business of banking can grow with attracting and retaining customers. Financial business works more on retaining old customers rather than convincing new customers. In India, there is cut throat competition in Banking business as there are many public, private and foreign banks. Banks in India functions under the Umbrella of Reserve Bank of India which is the regulatory body. Banking segment broadly consists of Commercial Banks, Private Banks & Cooperative banks. Cooperative banks in India serve an important role in Indian Economy especially in rural areas of our country. In urban areas focus of Cooperative banks is mainly to serve the purpose of small industries and self-employed people. Cooperative Banks are regulated by Reserve Bank of India under Banking Regulation Act, 1949 and registered under urban cooperative Society Act, 1949. They are organized and managed on the principal of co-operation. Mutual trust and confidence are the pillars of Cooperative banks to work in local areas. The main objective of co-operative bank is to provide rural credit. The representation of Co-operative Credit Societies Act, 1904, gave the real push to the movement of Cooperative Banks in India. Co-operative Bank in India has a history of more than 100 years.

The Self-Employed Women’s Association (SEWA) is a national level trade union dedicated to the informal women workers of India. The organisation has contributed immensely to various facets of the Women’s movement such as to the labour movement, cooperative movement, women’s movement in general and more specifically to that of self-employed women and health movement in India and abroad. The paper aims to throw light on the socio-economic activities undertaken by SEWA at the grass-root level to make women self-employed, self- reliant, self-diligent and self-dependent in the Banaskantha district of Gujarat. It delineates SEWA’s initiatives in generating alternative sources of employment for women which are being made available to the region where there are hostile climatic conditions, acute scarcity of water, increased migration, limited access to capital and also limited employment opportunities. The organization’s initiative in the rural organizing process with its need-based integrated approach towards empowerment has transformed the lives of rural women of Gujarat particularly in the district of Banaskantha. The SEWA entities are democratic, self-managed and sustainable in terms of their functioning and work on the principle of full employment and self-reliance to produce individual and collective empowerment. It is both a union and a movement -A national, and now increasingly, a global movement of informal women workers, organizing for their rights, for recognition and inclusion in national plans, programmes and legislation.

PurposeA cooperative bank customer in India has varied needs and is a unique segment of Indian banking. The purpose of the study is to provide the sector with an understanding of the needs of the cooperative bank customers in the context of improving core competencies required for the delivery of service.Design/methodology/approachThe study adopted multiple methods that included the Delphi method as well for competency identification. Appropriate factor analyses are conducted to confirm the construct validity and to determine the underlying structure of the variables chosen for the study. Stepwise multiple regression analysis is employed for data analysis.FindingsSurprisingly, emotional competency showed an insignificant relationship with customer satisfaction. The social and technical competencies are found significant. The findings suggest the incorporation of technological advancements in cooperative banks.Research limitations/implicationsThe generalization of the results is limited as the work was confined only to cooperative banks and also because of the limited sample size. The self-reported nature of competency measures also limits the accuracy of results.Practical implicationsThis work suggests that a bank has to concentrate on improving the technical competencies of the employees. The findings could also aid the bank managements in policy decisions in recruitment, selection, performance appraisal among others.Social implicationsCompetent employees could help meet the customers to satisfy their financial needs and thereby the social and economic development of the weaker section of the society could be achieved.Originality/valueConducting primary research and identification of technical competency as the major contributor to customer satisfaction are the major contributions.

Pradhan Mantri Mudra Yojana (PMMY) is a flagship scheme of Government of India to “fund the unfunded” by bringing such enterprises to the formal financial system and extending affordable credit to them. It enables a small borrower to borrow from all Public Sector Banks such as PSU Banks, Regional Rural Banks and Cooperative Banks, Private Sector Banks, Foreign Banks, Micro Finance Institutions (MFI) and Non Banking Finance Companies (NBFC) for loans upto Rs 10 lakhs for non-farm income generating activities. The scheme was launched on 8th April, 2015 by the Hon'ble Prime Minister. In India many things revolve around mere perceptions, while getting into detail it often paint a different picture. It is a common misperception people have that large industries create more employment, though the truth is that “in India only 1.25 crore people find employment in large industries, whereas small enterprises employed 12 crore people”. In India, small businesses play an important role by providing employment to a large number of people. It is the second largest sector engaging uneducated and unskilled people after agriculture. Further, millions of low income earning group person aspire to set up small businesses but are unable to start, mostly due to credit limitations. Since banks do not find them eligible for credit loan. After identifying the importance of self employment people and small business units, government of India launched MUDRA Yojana to address the financial and other constraints. This paper is an attempt to know about the MUDRA Yojana and its key objectives. The paper highlights the role and importance of MUDRA bank towards small business units, it also review the Mudra yojna for the year of 2015-2019 in terms of many aspects.

This study set out to identify the specific success factors and impacts microfinance has for poor women who predominate in microfinance programs and to articulate policies to raise poor women above subsistence level in India. The study collected data from 200 poor female member of two organisations Vagad Region Service Research Organisation and Self Employed Women’s Cooperative Bank in India. The three data sets from surveys, case studies of selected members and interviews with staff from the respective organisations were triangulated. The results indicate membership of SEWA and VLSSS, gives members access to financial and non- financial products and services which enable them to improve their general standard of living. The poor female members predominate in microfinance because they value access to credit have high repayment rates, invest in the family, and use credit to escape social restrictions. Polices that can assist poor women to rise above subsistence level include providing access to decent health care, vocational training, and functioning education system, investment in public transport and road infrastructure and licences to run a business.