The Hindu : Tamil Nadu News : Enhance assistance to self-help groups, banks urged

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Dec 24, 2004

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu

Enhance assistance to self-help groups, banks urged

By N. Ravi Kumar

CHENNAI, DEC. 23. Minutes before the function began, she occupied one of the chairs in a corner. Many people trickling into the hall seemed to have little indication of who she was — until Chinnapillai was ushered to the dais as the chief guest.

Clad in a simple blue cotton sari, wrapped around casually, and a white blouse, she might not fit into the conventional notions of a chief guest.

But in the context of the function — distribution of State-level awards for the best performance under the SHG (self-help groups)-bank linkage programme (2003-04) — Ms. Chinnapillai, Stree Shakti Puraskar winner in 1999, was perhaps the best bet.

Coming in as a last minute replacement for the head of a public sector commercial bank, who was scheduled to chair the function, the 55-year-old woman from the remote Pilluseri village in Madurai district, popular for her initiatives in the SHG movement, spoke briefly.

`Boon to rural poor'

Ms. Chinnapillai, who shot to the limelight when the then Prime Minister, A.B. Vajpayee, touched her feet at the Puraskar distribution, listed several public sector commercial banks and thanked them for their assistance to SHGs.

Pointing out that the rural poor benefited by their support, Ms. Chinnapillai, who never attended school, urged the banks to enhance the level of financial assistance.

She distributed the State-level awards of the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD), Tamil Nadu regional office.

`Poetic justice'

The Chief General Manager of the bank, Prakash Bakshi, said that in Ms. Chinnapillai becoming the chief guest and presenting the awards poetic justice was achieved.

"Banks used to giving ... have something to receive from the SHG, from the mother of the SHG movement," he pointed out.

While the SHG movement had reached a stage of maturity crossing the targets set in the early phases, the attempts to "load everything" by making them diversify into several areas were not good, he added.

The awards were presented to public and private sector commercial banks, regional rural banks, district central cooperative banks, primary agricultural cooperative banks and non-governmental organisations. Special awards were also distributed to bank branches that credit-linked more than 100 SHGs during the year.

After the function, Ms. Chinnapillai, who motivates Kalanjiam (SHGs) members under the Dhan Foundation, went to the snack counter and joined the queue there only to find people making way for her.

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