The Hindu : Karnataka News : SHG-bank linkage registers growth

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, May 04, 2005

Karnataka

Karnataka

SHG-bank linkage registers growth

T.V. Sivanandan

10.79 lakh SHGs linked with banks; the southern States have marched ahead of others: NABARD

GULBARGA: The bank linkage with self-help groups (SHGs) in the country has registered a tremendous growth over the past few years and the southern States have marched ahead of the others, according to the National Agriculture Bank and Rural Development (NABARD).

Official sources told The Hindu here on Tuesday that according to the latest data compiled by NABARD, 10.79 lakh SHGs have been linked and financed by banks as on March 31, 2004. The cumulative loans extended to these SHGs is more than Rs. 3,904 crores.

Sources said that more than 1.67 crore families have benefited under the SHG cover having credit linkage, and 90 per cent of these SHGs are women's groups. The growth of SHGs and linkage to banks has been steady since 1992 and according to the figures available with NABARD, the credit linkage to the SHGs stood at 32,995 with a credit of only Rs. 57.1 crores in 1992-1999.

Coverage

The credit linkage to SHGs has spread all over the country and covers 563 districts.

Majority of the SHGs having credit linkage facility are in the southern region owing to the early start of the programme there.

In southern region, comprising Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Kerala, and Pondicherry, a total of 6.74 lakh SHGs have been provided credit linkage with a total assistance of Rs. 3,073 crores, followed by eastern region, comprising Orissa, Bihar, West Bengal, Jharkhand, and Andaman and Nicobar Islands where Rs. 260 crores has been provided as assistance to 1.58 lakh SHGs.

Sources said in central region, comprising Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Uttar Padesh, and Uttaranchal, a total of 1,27,009 SHGs have been provided an assistance of Rs. 276 crores. In the western region, comprising Gujarat, Maharashtra, and Goa, a total of 54,815 SHGs have been provided a loan of Rs. 141 crores. In Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan, Haryana, Punjab, Jammu and Kashmir, and New Delhi, 52,396 SHGs have been linked with banks and have a total credit flow of Rs. 132 crores. In the northeastern region, 12,278 SHGs have been provided an assistance of Rs. 20 crores.

Lion's share

The commercial banks have the lion's share with a total linkage of more than 5.38 lakh SHGs up to the end of March 2004 and providing assistance of Rs. 2,254.8 crores, which is 58 per cent of the total assistance. The regional rural banks with a total coverage of 4.05 lakh SHGs have provided Rs. 1,278.2 crores so far and the cooperative banks have provided linkage to 1.34 lakh SHGs with assistance of Rs. 371.1 crores.

Among the States, 36 per cent of the total SHGs linked with banks are from Andhra Pradesh, followed by 14 per cent from Tamil Nadu, 10 per cent from Karnataka, and seven per cent from Uttar Pradesh. The remaining 33 per cent is shared by the other States. One remarkable aspect of the linkage programme is the high on time repayment of the loans by the SHGs, which is more than 95 per cent, according to NABARD.

According to a study conducted by NABARD, 31 per cent of the household members of SHGs are landless agricultural labourers and 54 per cent are small and marginal farmers. Nearly 70 per cent of the loans have been used for income-generating activities. The average net income of the household in the post SHG situation has increased by nearly 33 per cent and about 64 per cent of the incremental income of the SHG member household is generated from the non-farm and off-farm activities.

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