Case Studies from Unnao - Uttar Pradesh

SHG MeMberS aS bank aGentS

germancooperationDEUTSCHE ZUSAMMENARBEIT

NatioNal BaNk For agriculture aNd rural developmeNt

Taking Rural India >> Forward

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Published By

Deutsche Gesellschaft für InternationaleZusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH

Rural Financial Institutions Programme

ContactDr. Detlev Holloh, GIZ Programme Director

A-2/18, Safdarjung EnclaveNew Delhi 110 029 / INDIAPhone: +91-11-4949 5353Telefax: +91-11-4949 5393Email: detIev.holloh@giz.deHomepage: www.giz.de

ResponsibleAmit Arora

AuthorsAbhishek LahiriNeetu BansalYachna Srivastava

Support TeamNeeraj PokhriyalMandeep Singh

EditorNitin Jindal

DesignAnshul Sharma/Artworkstudios.in

New Delhi, June 2015

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Financial Inclusion initiatives in India focus on

bringing unbanked population of the country

into the fold of mainstream, formal financial

services. Despite several innovative models

and pilots to provide doorstep banking, some

challenges remain unaddressed. The Business Corre-

spondent (BC) model has been on an evolving journey

globally with mixed success.

In India the BC story started as a part of Govt. of In-

dia’s formal policy in 2006. Sourcing BC agents (CSP-

Customer Service Points) locally who command trust

among the villagers and combating their high attrition

rate have been constant pain points.

Since early 1990s NABARD as the apex agriculture and

rural development Bank, has nurtured and grown the

SHG (self-help group) movement as an informal mode

of encouraging and inculcating habit of savings among

women. Today 73 lacs plus SHGs across the country

have proven that these women are a valuable human

resource network who can be leveraged by formal fi-

nancial institutions by acting as extended arm of banks

or as BC agents.

The GIZ-NABARD Rural Financial Institutions Pro-

gramme (RFIP) initiated a pilot project in the state of

Uttar Pradesh in May 2013 to find synergy between

SHG networks and Financial Inclusion. Today, select-

ed members of SHGs who are called as ‘Bank Sakhis’,

armed with capacity building training and project man-

agement support from the RFIP provide banking ser-

vices to their clients at their doorstep on behalf of the

partner bank.

Bank Sakhis provide basic banking services like Basic

Savings Bank Deposit Account (BSBDA) enrolment,

funds transfer, Recurring Deposit (RD), Fixed Deposit

(FD), solar home lighting system loan etc. Bank Sakhis

also facilitate all kinds of SHG-based banking transac-

tions by dual authentication application in the Micro-

ATM itself. This allows the Bank Sakhis to do all the

financial transactions of the group (from members to

group and from Group to members) at the village itself

without going to the bank branch. These Bank Sakhis

have broken the glass ceiling and have proven to be

trustworthy locally available human resource pool for

the bank.

We have tried to capture some of the success stories

from the field in the form of case studies. Each story

explains the journey of these Bank Sakhis, the chal-

lenges faced by them and the impact made in their lives

by this transition from a SHG member to a Bank agent.

The objective of these case studies is to share the in-

sights from the lives of these Bank Sakhis and learnings

from this project with all stakeholders engaged in the

Financial Inclusion ecosystem. We have also included a

case study of the Bank Manager which clearly demon-

strates the role of these Bank Sakhis in easing the day

to day operations of the bank branch.

We have also shared success stories on client satisfac-

tion, and how the Bank Branch is benefiting from these

Bank Sakhis.

Bank Sakhis have been able to perform better on mul-

tiple indicators as compared to other conventional BC

agents of the Bank. Percentage of dormant accounts is

less than 8% opened by the Bank Sakhis as compared

to close to 60% dormancy in bank accounts opened by

the conventional BC agent of the same bank. Similar-

ly, average quarterly balance per bank (Jan-Mar 2015)

account of clients enrolled by Bank Sakhis is INR 271

as compared to INR 78 balance per bank account by

conventional BC agents. Our experiences show that

the clients relate to and trust these Bank Sakhis well,

as they are members of existing SHGs in their villages.

Women who are first time users of banking facilities

come without any hesitation to these Bank Sakhis for

opening and operating Bank accounts.

This clearly indicates that a strong business case can

be built by the Banks based on this Bank Sakhi (SHG

members as Bank Sakhi) model.

IntrodUCtIon

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Bank Sakhi helpS ShGs Graduate to Micro-atM

BaSed tranSactionS

It was in November 2009, that RGMVP staff first visited her

village and tried to mobilize the community to form Self-

Help Groups. Rajkumari who was already aware of SHG

concept was quite instrumental in the formation of groups

in her village.

rajkumari as bank Sakhi

Her life took a tremendous turn for better once she got

introduced to the GIZ-NABARD RFIP (Rural Financial In-

stitutions Programme) project team as a potential Bank

Sakhi for ‘’SHG members as Bank agent project” (Bank Hu-

mare Gaon). It was hard to believe then that one day she

will be running a small banking outlet in her village which

is a reality today and an inspirational success story.

It all started in August 2013 when she took induction train-

ing as a Bank agent. This was followed by an introductory

visit by the Branch Manager of Gramin Bank of Aryavrat,

Ucchgaon. Since then Rajkumari has never looked back.

Starting off with 331 banking transactions a month in No-

vember 2013, she achieved 2,240 transactions totalling

over Rs 5.5 Lacs in March 2015. Though during trainings,

she was only taught how to do individual transactions and

individual fund transfers but she extrapolated that if ac-

count to account fund transfer was possible, then the same

could be applied to SHG transactions also. Therefore in

October 2014, she convinced her SHG members to save in

their individual accounts and then transfer the amount to

group account through fund transfer. Once this was suc-

cessful, she further replicated the same in other

four SHGs of her Gram Panchayat.

Rajkumari narrates her experience of SHG

transactions through Micro-ATM - “Hume to

laga ki jaise koi jadu ki chadi mil gayi ho” (“I

felt like as if I got a magic-wand”).

This Micro-ATM did turned out to be a

magic-wand which solved their major

problem of going to the bank every month

for depositing their collective savings and

repayment instalments. The tedious task

of walking 5 kilometres to Ucchgaon, waiting in queues

name of bank Sakhi: rajkumari devi

age: 35 years

education: 8th pass

Husband’s profession: agriculture

Village: kodrabhagat kheda, in Sum-

erpur block of Unnao district,

Uttar Pradesh.

Figure 1: Status of transaction count of Rajkumari since start till 31st Mar 2015

Figure 2: Income growth chart of Rajkumari since start till March 2015

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for hours and losing out on whole day has been con-

verted to just touch of one button “fund transfer”. It not

only increased the number of transactions of Rajkumari

but also promoted SHG members to save more and reg-

ularly in their respective individual accounts.

Successful fund transfer of savings of SHG members to

the group account was a big milestone which convinced

the RFIP team to look deeper at the backend data which

indeed reflected increase in number of fund transfers es-

pecially in meagre amounts of Rs.10/- per week or Rs.50/-

per month coming from SHG members.

Backed by this initial success, it was only recently in Febru-

ary 2015 that the bank integrated a ‘dual authentication’

application in the Micro-ATM (backed by financial assis-

tance from the NABARD) which allowed debits(including

fund transfer) from SHG accounts to comply with the need

of joint signatures/authorization required to debit SHGs

account. Since then, the number of transactions have been

increasing considerably. It has been just 2 months since

the launch of dual authentication application in the Micro-

ATM, thus providing debit facility to SHG members from

SHG account as well as savings deposit account, but these

initial results are still worth sharing.

Rajkumari shares, “Pahle loan ki kisht, bank jaane ke inte-

zaar mai ghar mai kharch ho jaati thi aur ab kisht ikathaa

hote hi SHG ke sadasya aakar jama kar dete hain” (“Earlier

loan instalments used to get spent in household expenses

in the process of waiting to go to the bank but nowadays,

SHG members deposit it as soon as it is collected.”)

Figure 3: Percentage composition of SHG transactions out of total transactions in March 2015

Rajkumari doing transaction for one of her customers using Micro-ATM

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There has been a substantial increase in the income

of Rajkumari. She started with a monthly earning of

Rs. 414 (She gets Rs1.25/ financial transaction) but it

picked up in December 2013 due to opening of new ac-

counts on which she earned Rs.5 per account opened. In

initial days, major part of her income came from enrol-

ment drives but once it got saturated, she focused more

on commission from transactions.

In the process to increase her income through transac-

tion commissions, she started doing SHG transactions at

SHG meetings. Minimum 11 transactions used to be done

in just one meeting through fund transfer which also in-

creased once the dual authentication application got in-

stalled in the micro-ATM.

As per figure 2, we can see that Rajkumari has been earn-

ing average income of Rs. 1816 per month. It was for the

month of April 2015, data was analyzed and found that

(Figure 3) 20% of total transactions of Rajkumari are from

SHG transactions which involve savings of members, fund

transfer as well as withdrawals while 1% is just withdrawal/

debits through dual authentication transaction since this

facility has been introduced very recently only. At present,

Rajkumari has 72 SHG clients out of which 47 are now using

Rajkumari recording acknowledgment of transaction from her customer

their bank account for SHG transactions. It is from 47 SHG

clients, she is doing minimum 188 transactions per month

but if rest of the SHG members also use their bank account,

Rajkumari has the potential to do minimum 288 transac-

tions per month providing incremental transactional rev-

enue. She has further potential to increase this income also,

if the inter lending within the group increases. It’s is found

that earlier SHG members used to hesitate in going to bank

and withdrawing money as it involved investment of both

time and money but now, since this facility is within the

village itself, it is assumed that members will use their SHG

funds more for inter lending purpose which will not only

increase their SHG corpus with incoming interest but also

increase transactions of Bank Sakhi.

Bank Sakhis like Rajkumari have proved that banking is

not a rocket science. With sincerity, hard-work and dedi-

cation, they are ready to play a crucial role in financial

inclusion efforts.

SHG-Micro-ATM integration has already started add-

ing feathers in the caps of Bank Sakhis. The transactions

happening from the village are motivating both dormant

groups as well as non-SHG members to organize them-

selves as SHGs.

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FroM a hoMeMaker to villaGe Banker

Seema first joined a Self-help Group (SHG) in 2011 and

later on became the Village Organisation (VO) represent-

ative from her SHG. In 2013, she was selected as a Bank

Sakhi but she got her Micro-ATM (Hand Held Device) only

in January 2014. Till then she kept helping other Bank Sakhi

in the enrolment process.

Initially she faced lot of problems in convincing people to

do transactions through the micro-ATM machine but with

lot of efforts from her, they started doing it. In fact people

used to deposit money and immediately go to bank and

check it in their account. However, once the trust got estab-

lished, villagers gained confidence on transacting through

Micro-ATM. Now she has customers from all age groups

i.e. from school-children to old men and women. She says

“pahle log gullak mein paisa dalte the par ab seedha bank

mein dal dete hai” (Earlier people used to save in cash box/

piggybank but now they directly save in Bank).

There are customers who now receive money from their

near and dear in different cities like Ratlam, Delhi and

Ludhiana. There are beneficiaries of Samajwadi Pension

Scheme who get their money directly from micro-ATM as

well as beneficiaries of Janani Suraksha Yojna who get their

cheques cleared through the Bank Sakhi and are able to

withdraw money at the village itself using the BC channel

manned by Seema Devi.

Seema started with a transaction count of 337 in the

month of January 2014 which grew to 1,187 by March

2015. She started depositing collective savings of SHG

through the “fund transfer facility” in December 2014

which increased her transactions from 317 to 705 per

month. It again increased once the dual authentication

facility was launched in month of February 2015 which

led to increase in transactions from 756 to 1,187 in

Mar’2015. This has already prompted members to do their

group transactions from their respective bank accounts in

view of greater convenience and transparency due to such

facility of fund transfer option and dual authentication fa-

cility to debit group’s bank account in the village itself.

Seema Devi operating her Micro-ATM

name: Seema Devi

age: 33 yrs.

education: Post Graduate

Husband’s profession: Grocery shop owner

Location: Kesrikheda, Sumerpur block in

Unnao district, Uttar Pradesh

Figure 1: Status of monthly transaction count of Seema Devi

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SHG-BC integration using Micro ATM has resolved a ma-

jor problem of SHG members and office bearers of walking

5 kilometres to the bank, waiting in queues and tussling

with bank officials. It also resolved most of the conflicts

among SHG members for going to bank as no one enjoyed

this visit. She says, “Pahle bank jaane ke naam par ladai hoti

thi, koi bhi apna pura din barbad nahi karna chahta tha, par

ab machine se len den hone se asaan ho gaya” (Earlier there

used to be fight among SHG members for going to the

bank as nobody wanted to waste their whole day but now

this has become easy because transactions have started

happening on the machine).

There has been considerable increase in the income of See-

ma. Initially she earned mostly from the enrolment process

but later on as the transaction count increased and enrol-

ments got saturated, her income has been coming mostly

from transactions. It is also observed clearly in figure 2,

that from March 2014 the enrolments

slowed down and transaction count

started picking up. Though there has

been a dip in her income from Sep-

tember 2014 to December 2014 but

as the SHG transactions started, it

again increased from Rs. 396 in the

month of December to Rs. 1,381 in

January 2015 and it kept rising to Rs.

1,984 in month of March 2015. The

average income of Seema has been

Rs. 967 per month.

The data for month of April 2015 was analyzed and it has

been found that Seema has done 636 transactions in April,

out of which 9% of it is SHG transactions which involve

savings of SHG members, their withdrawals as well as re-

payment to the group and withdrawal/debits from SHG

accounts through dual authentication application. There

are 43 SHG members in Kesri Kheda who have bank ac-

counts while only 27 are using it for SHG transaction. At

present, minimum 54 transactions have been done but if

all 43 members use it actively, the transaction count will be

just double. At present, though transaction revenue is very

low, Seema is earning minimum Rs.160 for SHG transac-

tions per month from 27 SHG clients who use their savings

bank accounts in SHG meeting but if other members also

start using their savings bank account, she has the poten-

tial to earn minimum Rs.240 per month from SHG transac-

tions. There is also further potential of increase in transac-

tion, if inter lending within the SHGs increases.

Seema has got a new identity in her village as “banker didi”

and she is quite proud of it. The role of Bank Sakhi for See-

ma has given a direction to her life, to contribute in the

progress of her community and village. She has not only

earned respect but is now considered to be a role model for

other women of the villages.

Though it is too early to comprehend the impact of Micro-

ATM on SHG members but it is quite visible that, it will

lead to digitization of SHG financial transactions and will

add a different dimension to the ongoing SHG movement,

without frequent visits to the Bank!

Figure 2: Income growth in Seema Devi since start till March 2015

Figure 3: Percentage composition of SHG transactions out of total transactions in month of April 2015

 

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A Bank Sakhi doing an SHG transaction

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Bank Sakhi BreakS Social BarrierSFinancial empowerment along with social empowerment

Sakhi’s profile

Uma Devi, 39 years old, mother of four kids, belongs to

a high caste Brahmin family. Coming from a small fam-

ily, she was not able to adjust to a large joint family after

her marriage and she left her house because of increased

work pressure. However, on being persuaded by her family

and getting support from her parents-in-law, she returned

back to her husband’s family. She herself tells this story

and explains how things have changed as she learnt how to

Uma Devi in a Block Level Association Meeting as a Bank Sakhi in her village Jagatpur

“Jo mahila kal tak pallu ke bina kisi se baat

nahi karti thi, aaj wahi Bank Manager aur Gram

Pradhan ke bagal mein kursi pe baithti hai. Bank

mein jaate hain to log kursi khali kar dete hain.

Kehte hain – aap baithiye. Sab Namaste karte

hain. Bachche bhi jaante hain chachi ke paas

khata khulta hai” – “The lady that never used

to speak in front of anybody without a veil, now

sits alongside the Bank Manager and village

representative on a chair. People offer her their

chair to sit when she goes to the bank. Every-

body greets her. Even children knows that this

aunty opens bank accounts”,

says proud Uma Devi on her new role as a

Bank Sakhi.

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handle bigger responsibilities. Her husband is a farmer and

earns hardly enough to take care of the expenses of raising

four kids (three of them are girls). One of her daughters got

recently married in January, 2015.

Her journey as a Sakhi

After 18 years of being a housewife, Uma Devi joined an

SHG promoted by Rajiv Gandhi Mahila Vikas Pariyojana

(RGMVP). As she was fairly educated, she was made the

treasurer of the SHG and so, she started visiting bank to

do the financial transactions for the SHG. She got in touch

with the Branch Manager of Gramin Bank of Aryavart and

got to know about the “SHG as a BC” project and expressed

her interest in joining the same. She was found suitable as

per the eligibility criteria and was appointed as a Banking

Correspondent (BC) agent. Her fellow SHG members also

extended full support for her selection as she is very hard

working. She has been a very good performer ever since.

She has opened 624 accounts by April 2015 and has done

transactions amounting to over Rs. 2.24 million. This is

higher than the average enrolment of 393 done by other

CSPs of the bank and even higher than overall average fig-

ure of 449 by all Bank Sakhis.

She serves four villages in her Gram Panchayat and on an

average, does more than 500 transactions in a month. This

is higher than the average of 372 transactions done by

other CSPs of the bank and even higher than overall avg.

figure of 386 by all Bank Sakhis till date. Earlier, it took a

lot of convincing for people to open accounts but now be-

cause of her efforts and word-of-mouth publicity, people

know her and come to her for opening not just their own

accounts, but of all their family members.

the challenge: caste barriers

Casteism is a major problem in her Gram Panchayat. Peo-

ple have very conservative thinking and still believe in the

traditional caste system. About 50% people of her village

belong to Scheduled Castes. Coming from a place where

so-called lower caste people are not even supposed to

come in front of others, Uma Devi never hesitated in trans-

acting with the so-called lower caste people, even though Uma Devi with Naziya Bano and other customers

Customers’ testimonials

“Inka Kaam bhi achchha hai, swabhav bhi

achchha hai. Koi chhoot-achhoot ka vichar nahi

hai. Raat beraat zaroorat pade to phone kar

dete hain, ye machine leke aa jati hain, Manager

thodi na aate hain!” – “Her work and nature are

very good. She never thinks about caste. If we

need banking services even in odd hours, we

just call her; she comes at our doorstep with

her machine. No Bank Manager will do that”,

-Naziya Bano, a Muslim customer of Uma Devi.

“Chahe gareeb ho chahe ameer ho, apne bara-

bar samajhti hain. Kauno unch-neech ka vichar

nahi” “She considers poor and rich equal. There

is no discrimination”-Pyarelal, another so-

called lower caste customer of Uma Devi.

“Bahar jaate hain to saas poochti hai kitna leke

ja rahi ho, chachi ghar aake le jati hain to koi

kuch nahi poochta”- If we go out to deposit

money, mother-in-law asks how much are you

taking with you. Sakhi comes at home, so no-

body asks anything”, says one of her customers.

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her husband and family did not approve of the same in the

beginning. She faced a lot of problem in convincing her

own family to provide banking services to them. Despite

the social difference, Uma Devi facilitated account opening

for them by going against the social norms. She convinced

her family about the importance of her work and how she

is instrumental in changing the lives of the so-called low

caste poor people. Because of all her hard work, she is now

able to break the age old barriers between the so-called

lower and upper castes.

new changed set-up

People from the so-called lower castes now come to her

house any time of the day and she also visits them for con-

ducting banking transactions. With continued efforts, she

has been able to win the support of not just her family

members, but also her customers. This work has changed

her image in the family. She is now considered to be a very

knowledgeable family member and no major decision

is taken in her house without consulting her. Her family

members seriously consider her opinion before taking any

important decision.

What helped Uma devi bring this change?

She feels being a woman she is in a better position to do this

job as she does not hesitate to visit people at their home.

People also trust women more as they feel that women will

not run away with their money. She feels this account is a

great help to villagers who have to spend both money and

time to visit bank branch for small value transactions. She

is especially a big help to women who cannot save as they

are not allowed to go out of the house.

“Uma Devi bahut hi confident mahila hain. Unka

koi kaam atak jaye to haath ke haath phone

karke keh deti hain theek karwao. Jaise ki POS

machine mein koi problem aayi, to turant Anwar

sahab ko phone kar deti hain. Manch pe jake

bolna hai ki hamari ye samasya hai, to koi aur

nahi bol pata, ye bol deti hain. Pehli CSP thi jo

seedhe laptop taang ke nikal padi Enrolment

karne”– “Uma Devi is a very confident woman.

If any of her work gets stuck, she straightaway

calls and asks it to be straightened out. If it is to

be said on a platform about any problem they

are facing then nobody else can do it except

her. She was the first CSP who hung the laptop

on her shoulder and went out to do enrolment”,

says her supervisor Rajneesh.

Uma Devi is very happy playing the role of a Bank Sakhi.

She feels proud that she can provide banking services to

people who are not able to manage a regular bank account.

Also, she has become a catalyst in promoting savings hab-

it in villagers. In addition to the social service, she is also

able to generate a monthly income and receives timely

payment for her services which helps her manage her

household expenses.

To know more about Uma Devi’s journey as a Bank Sakhi,

please see the video at

http://www.aryavart-rrb.com/financial_inclusion.html

13

FroM iGnoMiny to popularity Journey of a Bank Sakhi’s empowerment

Sakhi’s profile

Bindeshwari got married in 2007, but she stayed at her par-

ents’ place for another 2 years to finish her education. She

was always a very good student and her teachers used to

tell her that one day, she would do something great. She

completed her Bachelor of Arts in 2009 but was not able

to do anything meaningful after that. She then gave birth

to her first child in 2011 and started remaining busy with

household work. On and off, she would help her husband

Balram in his business but even then, there wasn’t much to

do. Bindeshwari later joined a Self Help Group (SHG) under

Rajiv Gandhi Mahila Vikas Pariyojana (RGMVP) for saving

some money.

tough journey as a Sakhi

When she heard about the ‘SHG as a BC’ project, she got

very excited. She thought that this was an opportunity to

use her knowledge and education for the betterment of her

“Ye sochte the ke bas yeh hi sab kuch hain, aur

main kuch nahi kar sakti. Ab inko bhi samajh

aata hai ki hum kandhe se kandha mila kar inke

sath chal sakte hain. Is kaam ke baad poore pa-

riwar ka mere liye swabhav hi badal gaya hai”-

“My husband used to think that I cannot do

anything. Now he has realised that I am capable

and can support him to manage household

expenses. After becoming a Sakhi, behaviour

of entire family has positively changed for me,”

says Bindeshwari

Bindeshwari with her husband in her village Gobraha in Sumerpur block of Unnao District

14

society and to prove her real worth. Though Balram and his

family did not approve of this much as they felt that this

is not a stable job, Bindeshwari had taken a decision for

herself and there was no looking back. But still family sup-

port was lacking which pinched Bindeshwari a lot. Once, a

government scheme was announced, to avail the benefits

of which the villagers needed to have bank accounts. So,

the local Bank Manager told Balram that he should let his

wife work as Bank’s BC agent to help the fellow villagers in

this as she is an educated lady. This made him feel proud

of his wife and changed his attitude towards her work. Af-

ter that he started supporting her. Bindeswari is currently

earning an average amount of Rs 2,426/- per month which

has made her family’s life very comfortable. This is higher

than the average commission figure of Rs. 1,442 earned

by all CSPs other than Bank Sakhis of the bank. Earlier

there were no such earnings and maximum portion of

the income used to be spent for meeting daily household

expenses. Bindeshwari has opened RDs for her husband

and for herself. All the family members are now insured

and save a handsome amount monthly. Bindeshwari adds,

“Pehle kuch bachta hi nahi tha, jo aata tha wo pati ke busi-

ness or ghar ke kharcho me hi chala jaata tha. Par Bank

Sakhi banne ke baad humne bachat ki aadat daali hai or is

se humko bahut surakshit mehsus hota hai.”- “Earlier there

used to be no saving at all, whatever we used to earn was

spent on my husband’s business or household expenses.

But after becoming a Bank Sakhi we have inculcated a

habit of saving and this makes us feel very secure”. All this

has solidified their relation. Bindeshwari feels she is an em-

powered woman now.

It was not an easy task though. Initially Bindeshwari was

hesitant to meet people. Like other women in her village,

she also used to cover her face. When she had to distrib-

ute cards to her customers, she had to ask others for help.

Gradually, she gained confidence. Now, after finishing her

household chores, Bindeshwari leaves her daughter with

her family and sets off on her bicycle to help people with-

draw and deposit small amounts at their doorsteps. Now,

more than 46% of her customers are active account users.

This is significantly higher than the average active account

usage of only 7% of client base enrolled by all CSPs other

than Bank Sakhis of the bank as on March 2015. Recently,

she also won the first prize for achieving the maximum

number of unique customer transactions. She receives very

good feedback from the villagers. According to her female

customers, upon becoming a Bank Sakhi she was able to

convince people to inculcate a saving habit. Women are

more hesitant to come out of their homes. Villagers appre-

ciate that a woman is supporting them in livelihood activi-

ties. The Branch Manager of Gramin Bank of Aryavart also

tries to help her in her endeavours.

Her vision and dreams

She feels sad that so many men in her village spend all

their income on alcohol, leaving their wives with little or

no money to run the house. When these women try to de-

posit some money in bank, they are even beaten up by their

husbands. Also, there are many widows and old people for

whom it’s not easy to open and maintain a bank account.

One day, Bindeshwari hopes she would be able to address

all these issues through empowering these people by open-

ing their bank accounts as savings can be their best protec-

tion. She wants the turnaround time in account opening to

be shorter and better service. It’s still a battle to win, but

Bindeshwari is confident that she can now do anything.

“Ab humara aatmavishwas bahut badh gaya hai, koi

kaam karne mein sankoch nahi hota, kahin bhi jane ke

liye boliye, hum tayar rehte hai. Yeh sab is naye project

ki wajah se ho paya hai”- “Now my confidence has

increased tremendously and I am not afraid to do

anything. You ask me to go anywhere and I am ready.

All this is because of this new project.”

- says a confident Bindeshwari

Bindeshwari starts her daily trip for serving customers in neighbouring villages

15

Bank Sakhi proMoteS SavinGS inculcating savings habit among tiny tots

Sakhi’s profile: from tailoring to banking

Krishna Devi is a 45 year old lady staying in a small village

called Mubarakpur in Sumerpur block in the state of Ut-

tar Pradesh. She lives with her husband and four children.

When she first heard about ‘SHG as BC’ project, she did not

believe it to be true

“Bank ka kaam koi mamuli kaam nahi hai jo ghar baithe hi

kiya ja sake. Aisa kabhi dekha suna nahi, aisa laga, zaroor

kuch gadbad hai” – “Banking is not an ordinary work that

can be done sitting at home. Had never seen or heard any-

thing like this, so I thought that there is something fishy

about this concept”, says Krishna Devi.

“Log humse poochte hain ‘kya milta hai?’ Hum

kehte hain kamaai bhi hoti hai aur izzat bhi milti

hai. Hum Lodhi hain, par Thakur bhi samman dete

hain!” – “People ask me, what do you get as re-

muneration? I tell them that I earn some money

along with a lot of respect. I belong to a so-called

lower caste but even the so-called higher caste

people give me a lot of respect now”,

says Krishna Devi.

“Bada beta to bahut khush hai. Kehta hai ‘Mummy

Manager ban gayi hain.” – “My elder son is

extremely happy. He says that I have now

become a bank manager”,

says Krishna Devi.

Kids throng Krishna Devi’s desk to make savings

16

excellent performance

But then she learnt more about the project from the lo-

cal bank branch and started working as a Bank Sakhi with

a lot of enthusiasm. She joined the ‘SHG as BC’ project in

August, 2013. Since then, she has opened 750 savings bank

account till 30th April 2015, which is more than 50% of the

total population in her Gram Panchayat (1376, as per Cen-

sus 2011). This is higher than average enrolment of 393 by

all other CSPs (other than Bank Sakhis) of the same bank.

She has also done over 16,000 transactions of savings bank

account holder till April 2015. On an average, Krishna Devi

has conducted 1,124 transactions/month in last six month

till April 2015. She tries to spend as much time as possible

to visit all the villages in her allocated area so that she can

provide doorstep service to the people.

She is now the primary bread earner in her family and her

husband and kids support her in this work as well. Earlier

her husband used to be the only bread earner and used to

earn Rs. 1,500-2,000/- monthly. As a Bank Sakhi, she earns

an average of INR 2,416 per month. This is higher than the

overall average commission of INR 1,560 made by all the

Bank Sakhis in last one year. This is also higher than aver-

age commission of INR 1,442 of all other CSPs (other than

Bank Sakhis) of the bank since Bank Sakhi project incep-

tion. Even though she used to earn a living from tailoring

before this but she finds the Bank Sakhi job much better as

it gives her extra income and a lot of prestige. She feels like

a mobile bank manager and the respect she commands in

her family and village has increased.

Sakhi’s impact on village’s financial behaviour

Krishna Devi is happy that she is able to provide so many

services to her fellow villagers. People have a lot of faith in

her and look at her as a one-stop shop for all their financial

needs. People in her village now have bank accounts which

are so convenient to operate. With so much migration, par-

ents and families of the migrants can now receive remit-

tances in their accounts instantly.

Children in her village have started saving their pocket

money rather than spending it on junk food. They also buy

books and pay their fees from savings made from this ac-

count. This account is playing a very important role in in-

culcating savings habit at a very Out of 750 savings Bank

accounts opened in her Gram Panchayat, Krishna Devi

has enrolled 130 kids in the age bracket of 10-14 yrs. and

58 children in the age bracket of 14-17 yrs. With 25% of

her customer base being children, she is surely popular

amongst kids!

“Bachche jo dukaan bhagte the paisa milte hi, ab poochte

hain – ‘Chachi machine kab shuru karogi? Paise jama karne

hain’ Mela laga hai par bachche paisa yahan jama kar rahe

hain”- “Children who used to run to shops when they had

money, now ask her to deposit their money in bank ac-

count. There is a fair in the village but children are saving

with her rather than spending all the money”, says Krishna

Multiple services offered

Krishna Devi is also actively engaged in Business Facilita-

tion activities on behalf of the bank: she offers Solar Home

Lighting Solution loans as well as Kisan Credit Cards, she

opens Recurring Deposit accounts and she distributes non-

performing asset notices to customers. Through this she

has helped the bank to recover loans worth Rs. 2.5 lakhs.

She feels proud that she is playing a vital role in improving

the lives of so many people. She feels that getting into this

profession was one of the best decisions of her life. A so-

called low caste tailor woman now acts as the local bank

official for the village and also commands a lot of respect

from high caste people in the village. Krishna Devi believes

that this facility has great potential and her future is very

bright. She will soon be very successful and known in her

surrounding villages as well.

Krishna Devi doing transaction for a senior citizen in his house

17

ShGs aS BuSineSS correSpondentS changing the traditional style of banking!

Bank Manager’s profile

Mr. Ramanuja Verma is the Branch Manager of Unchgaon

branch of Gramin Bank of Aryavart in Unnao district of the

state of Uttar Pradesh. He is one of those progressive bank-

ers who believe that new alternative delivery channels can

change the face of traditional banking and get more and

more unbanked people under the banking fold. He is man-

aging this bank branch for last three and a half years and

is respected in the neighbouring villages. He narrates the

journey of this new model with a lot of passion. He believes

Branch Manager, Ramanuja Verma, outside his Unchgaon branch

“Har garib ka khata, har garib ko fayda” “Ab ghar

mein log bakse mein paise nahi rakhte.”- “Every

poor’s account is every poor’s benefit. Now peo-

ple do not keep money in boxes”,

says Ramanuja.

that this is a boon for him as it makes him feel good about

providing services to more and more people while keeping

the footfalls in the branch at a low level. It also gives him

and his staff extra time to think about new products that

can be offered for the betterment of the villages. He details

out with great enthusiasm, the following advantages of this

new model:

“Har garib ka khata, har garib ko fayda” “Ab ghar mein

log bakse mein paise nahi rakhte.”- “Every poor’s account

is every poor’s benefit. Now people do not keep money in

boxes”, says Ramanuja.

18

decongestion of branch

Earlier, his branch was always very crowded as people had

to visit the branch for every petty issue. Now, there are 11

Bank Sakhis associated with his branch and people first go

to them. Only if something remains unresolved do they

come to the bank. Earlier, illiterate people, sick people and

people who had to deposit/withdraw small amounts, could

not do so because it took a lot of time and energy. But the

account opened with Bank Sakhi is helpful for all – villagers

now have access to so many services at their doorstep, bank

has fewer footfalls and can therefore focus on other impor-

tant things and it provides a source of livelihood to Bank

Sakhi. Overall impact on the branch business has been pos-

itive so far. With the help of Bank Sakhis, savings (low cost

deposits) worth Rs. 50 lakhs have been mobilised through

all savings accounts since May 2013 and nearly 90,000

transactions worth Rs. 1.5 crores have happened through

these 11 Bank Sakhis linked to the branch of Mr Ramanuja

in the same period. Earlier, more than 150 vouchers used

to be filled each day at the branch on an average. But now

it has gone down significantly to 90-100 vouchers a day.

Since many customers are now able to avail basic banking

services, particularly small transactions, through the Bank

Sakhi, they need not go to the branch. If someone wants

to do a high value transaction (more than Rs 10,000/-), then

only s/he needs to go to the bank branch.

“Koi 100 rupay nikalne aata tha, koi 200. Jo bada customer

hota tha, wo wait karta reh jata tha”- “Somebody used to

come to withdraw Rs. 100, someone else 200; and my pre-

mium customers would have to wait,” says Ramanuja.

Increased focus on loans, cross-selling and premium customers

Mr. Verma says that because of so much work at branch

earlier, not much attention could be given to other im-

portant things like credit expansion or credit monitor-

ing. He was left with very little time to spread awareness

about various products offered by his bank, go to the

field for survey, do background check on loan applica-

tions etc. But with doorstep banking service for the cus-

tomers, there are fewer customers to service at the bank

and bank staff can focus on their premium customers

who do high ticket size transactions.

The Sakhis have also supported the bank to make its prod-

ucts popular. They have started doing Business Facilitation

work like encouraging people to take Solar Home Lighting

System (SHLS) loan, open Recurring Deposit (RD) accounts,

pay off loans on time and avail of Kisan Credit Cards (KCCs).

Earlier, many villagers were not even aware of such facili-

ties available at bank. The accounts opened with Bank Sakhi

also provide an option to customers to receive various gov-

ernment payments like wages of MGNREGA, pensions etc.

in these accounts. It also facilitates customers to receive

remittances directly in their accounts. The customers, with

minimal documentation, can avail of overdraft facility up to

Rs.10,000/- with the help of Bank Sakhis. Recovery of Non-

Performing Assets (NPAs) has also considerably improved

because of Sakhis’ support in delivering delinquency no-

tices to defaulting customers’ residences.

More number of customers

While earlier only 10-12 accounts could be opened in a

month, now about 6,000 savings bank accounts have been

opened through Bank Sakhis between May 2013 and

March 2015. This growth can be completely attributed to

the support provided by this new delivery channel. Also the

number of female customers is rapidly increasing. The male

female ratio of clients enrolled by Bank Sakhis is 55:45 as

against the bank average of 62:38 before the start of Bank

Sakhi project. Also, he is getting a lot of children as his cus-

tomers, which he says would support financial inclusion in

a real sense in the longer term.

Stress free work environment

Earlier Mr. Verma used to lose track of time, after entering

the bank. He would not remember when it was long past

the lunch time and when it was time to go home. People

would hover around him throughout the day. It used to

make him sad to see old and sick people linger around the

bank, waiting for their turn. Also, his staff was not happy

with the workload. Now, everybody feels less stressed

and they greet their customers with more happiness and

energy.

“4-5 baj jate the shaam ke, pata hi nahi chalta tha

lunch time nikal gaya. Ab thoda saans lene ki fursat

19

milti hai.” – “Every day I had to skip lunch because

of workload, now I get some time to breathe,” says

Ramanuja.

bank Sakhis act as his additional support

Mr. Verma feels that women are better at savings than

men. They also have better convincing ability and when

given responsibility, they are more accountable. He says

that Bank Sakhis appointed under this project are very

hardworking and committed to their work. They are very

sincere and perform their duty with enthusiasm. In case

they need clarity on something, they approach him and

he is more than happy to help them. It is like he has got

extra The Bank Sakhis have helped the Bank branch to

achieve the following numbers as of 30th April, 2015 in

addition to the 6, 000 Savings bank account opened and

being serviced:

◗ 141 RD Accounts (Sep’14-Mar’15)

◗ 37 SHLS Loans

◗ 77 KCC/GCC by 7 Bank Sakhis

◗ 102  NPA recovery notices issued to account holders

(by Bank Sakhis)

◗ 8 FD and OD accounts

overall experience

Mr. Verma feels that working at the bank is both interest-

ing and challenging at the same time. His position com-

mands respect from society, but it has also feel put a great

responsibility on his shoulders. Now, with the ‘SHG as BC’

project, this responsibility is being largely shared by Bank

Sakhis who are playing the role of a catalyst in all the major

functions of a bank – savings, credit, remittances and G2P

payments. He feels that going ahead, all the banks should

adopt a similar model as this is the only way government

can achieve complete financial inclusion.

20

GovernMent to perSon (G2p) payMentS at

the doorStep

Customer profile

‘A penny saved is a penny earned,’ this quote can be aptly

applied to Pyarelal who is a daily wage labourer in Nan-

mau village in Sumerpur block of Uttar Pradesh. He and

his wife have 5 children. They both work as wage labour-

ers and spend what they earn to meet their daily expenses.

They belong to a Scheduled Caste and live in a small house

while their parents live with Pyarelal’s brother in the near-

by house.

not so good experience with previous bank account

Pyarelal has an account in the Unchgaon branch of Gramin

Bank of Aryavart, where he used to receive payments under

Pyarelal with his family, outside his hut

21

NREGA (National Rural Employment Guarantee Act). He

used this account for withdrawing his NREGA payments

and also to deposit small savings. But in order to do so, he

had to spend almost a day which proved to be very costly

because of the opportunity cost involved.

Introduction to bank Sakhi

He came to know about banking at doorstep service

through Uma Devi, the Bank Sakhi in his village. She con-

vinced him to open a bank account with her. Since he has

opened an account with her, he prefers using this account

over his other bank account as it gives him a lot of flex-

ibility. This account can be used 24x7 unlike regular bank

accounts which can be operated only on weekdays and that

too within specific hours. He says that this account can also

be used to withdraw during festivals and other holidays as

the Bank Sakhi stays in the same village. He tells proud-

ly that he was able to save only Rs. 600/- in his previous

bank account in last 2-3 years, but he managed to save Rs.

1,800/- in this new account in just 1 year. He says that now

he understands the importance of saving small amounts at

a regular frequency.

nreGa payments made easy

Now, Pyarelal is also getting his NREGA payments in this

account. He used to withdraw the entire amount received

under NREGA wages from his previous account, but now

he withdraws as per his need and maintains some balance

in his account as he knows that it is now very easy to make

a withdrawal through the Bank Sakhi.

As he has a big family, money is never enough. So he could

not deposit much in his bank account but with the Sakhi,

he makes it a point to deposit regularly, even if the amount

is small. After all, it’s not how much you earn, but how

much you save that counts!

“Pehle to NREGA ka poora paisa ek sath nikal

leta tha, kuchh to kharcha zyada tha aur kuch

bank se nikalne ka kasht. Ab is naye khate mein

bahut aaram hai, jab jitna man karta hai, nikal

leta hoon, bachat karna bhi bahut assan hai.

Agar ye suvidhaa pehle hoti to meri bachat bhi

zyadaa hoti”- “Earlier, I used to withdraw the

entire NREGA wages as my expenses were high

and also withdrawing money from bank was

painful. But this new doorstep service is very

convenient. I withdraw in small amounts as

needed. Saving is very easy in this new account.

If this facility was available earlier, I would have

a bigger corpus of savings,” says Pyarelal.

Pyarelal doing transaction with Bank Sakhi

22

doorStep delivery oF reMittanceS lead to a lot oF SavinGS

Customer profile

Rama Devi is a mother of four but for the last 17 years, she

has been living in her village, Kodrabakt Kheda with her

youngest son and only daughter. Her husband and other

two sons are working in Mumbai as daily wage labourers.

She expresses her inability to live with her family in Mum-

bai as the cost of living and education there is very high and

she also has to look after her small piece of land.

Besides taking care of her small plot, Rama Devi also works

as a labourer in others’ lands to augment her income. Her

family in Mumbai send her money as and when they have

some savings. Earlier, they used to send money through

other villagers coming back from Mumbai. It used to take

many days for Rama Devi to receive this money and it was

not very safe also. Therefore, for meeting immediate needs,

she sometimes had to take short term loan from other vil-

lagers or the local goldsmith at interest rates as high as

10% per month!

Her previous banking experience

She also has a bank account in which she used to receive

her payments under the National Rural Employment Guar-

Rama Devi standing outside her house

23

antee Act (NREGA). But she says that it was a nightmare to

withdraw money from that account as she is not literate

and had to depend on others to fill her withdrawal form

and wait for long hours for her turn. Even after waiting in

the queue, if there was any mistake in the form, the teller

would make her go through the entire process again.

In order to visit the bank branch, she also had to forgo a

day’s earning as well as spend money on transport. This is

the reason, she was scared to save and transact at the lo-

cal bank branch. She preferred saving at home so that she

could have easy access to cash.

Introduction to bank Sakhi

She came to know about this new doorstep banking ser-

vice through Bank Sakhi Rajkumari as they are distant rela-

tives. When others in her village started opening accounts

through Rajkumari, she also followed them. Her family in

Mumbai now send her money in this account, which is now

received the same day. Rama Devi now feels very happy and

relaxed as she does not have to worry about any emergen-

cy for money as the Sakhi stays in the vicinity and there is

no hesitation in interacting with her. She can now pay for

her expenses on time and does not need to borrow money

from anybody. She does not need to keep money at home

either. This account not only provides interest on her sav-

ings but is also saving a lot of money which she was un-

necessarily paying as interest on short term loans taken to

meet her emergency needs.

Rama Devi finds it easy to discuss her queries regarding

banking facilities with the village Bank Sakhi i.e. Rajkumari

as she is easily approachable, available and a female SHG

member from her village only. Rama Devi does not find it

difficult to interact with a female bank agent and feels mo-

tivated, convenient and comfortable to avail banking ser-

vices from her even at odd hours.

Inculcating savings habit in kids

Her kids have opened their own accounts too and instead

of spending their pocket money, they prefer saving in this

account for future use. She is extremely happy as her chil-

Rama Devi with her youngest son and cattle

“Line lagaye raho. Mil jaye to mil jaye, nahi to

lage lage bank band hi ho jaye! 2-3 baar laut

aana pada. Bahut akadte the sahab, zara sa

galat ho jaye to. Hum kehte hum to padhe nahi.

To adhikari kehte – To hum toka padhai den

kya!” – “Keep standing in the queue; if you are

lucky you will get it else the bank will close

for the day. I had to return 2-3 times from the

branch without doing the transaction. The

officer used to behave very arrogantly, if there

was any mistake in the bank withdrawal form. I

used to say that I am not educated and the of-

ficer would say, ‘Now do I have to teach you?’”

- Rama Devi on her experience with operating

bank account in the neighbouring bank branch

dren are also learning the importance of savings at a very

young age, which she says will help them throughout their

life. With a smile on her face, she says that the Bank Sakhi

is a “panacea for all her problems”.

24

A Bank Sakhi doing enrolments and transac-tions using her Micro-ATM.

Seema Devi tallying her cash balance and updating transaction register at day-end

KYC! Rajkumari seems to know her customers well

26

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