Collector Sarfaraz Ahmad was all praise for National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) for organizing rural poor women into self-help groups, providing necessary training and capacity building in mobilizing savings and internal lending and linking them with the banks.
NABARD organized a programme at Swashakthi College in Karimnagar town on Friday to felicitate SHG women, best performing bank managers and banks to mark the 36th Foundation Day of NABARD and completion of silver jubilee of its flagship programme of SHG linkage with banks.
Speaking on the occasion, the Collector said that the NABARD’s initiative of SHG-bank linkage programme had become an excellent model for rural poverty alleviation and women empowerment.
Increased incomes
The women have gone beyond the using the bank linkage financial assistance to meet immediate consumption and household needs and the SHGs have taken up income generating activities and focused on asset creation which gives them regular income over a period of time, he stated.
Highlighting the achievements of SHGs, he called upon the womenfolk to play a crucial role in achieving open defecation free (ODF) villages by ensuring construction of individual sanitary latrines. He also informed them to participate in the planting and protection of sapling under Haritha haaram programme.
Institutional network
NABARD AGM R. Ravi Babu said that the seed (SHG-bank linkage) sown by NABARD in the year 1992 has become like a Banyan tree with strong institutional network (at village, mandal and district level federation), which is owned and steered by state government with the excellent support from banks.
He also said that the SHGs have won accolades from the bankers for the prompt repayment of loans. He said that NABARD had empowered women SHGs to take up integrated farming to increase the family income in the district. DRDO Venkateshwar Rao and bankers were also present.
The best performing branch managers of commercial banks (SBI and Andhra Bank), Telangana Grameena Bank and Karimnagar DCCB were presented with mementos by the Collector.
Further, two best women self-help groups who availed bank loans and used them for different income generating activities, developed economically as also prompt in repayment of bank loans were presented with mementos for their good work. Zilla Samakya president Meena, KDCCB DGM Ravinder Rao, LDM Rajaiah and others were also present.