‘Marathwada’ region in Maharashtra state is considered and rightly believed to be one of the most backward – socially and economically – region of the state. The parent organization of Savitribai Phule MFI (SPMBT), RDC (Rural Development Corporation, an NGO) addresses a large gamut of issues. The most prominent are Human Rights, Economic empowerment of Dalit, Land encroachment, Child right, gender equality and social justice, political participation and partnership in governance. RDC have set up SPMBT to address the need for access to formal banking sector for the impoverished through micro finance.
Well, of course, Microfinance is not a solution all the above mentioned problem – but we wanted to focus on the region to identify the working poor and establish a process to screen the neediest and the poorest.Our advisor, Lalit Khandare, put us in touch with Eknath Awad, who has initiated the Savitribai Phule MFI (SPMBT). The overall mission of SPMBT is to sensitize organizations and mobilize their actions towards betterment of the rural poor in Marathwada region who earn their livelihood by selling their labor. We were quite impressed by some of the goals they had set up for themselves, like:
- Initiating multiple developmental interventions (to reach the widest possible range of beneficiaries) as a tool to ensure the rights of the socially and economically backward community.
- Building peoples structures and enabling them to take charge of their own destinies.
- Actively involving women and youth to demand for the rights of the poor people.
- Advocating policy reform with the government, so that the measures instituted get legal support.
- Networking with the government, which has a widespread infrastructure that can be leveraged for better reach and impact.
Our interaction with SPMBT made us believe that they are equally passionate about their goals on the field, not just on paper. We needed a field partner with such kind of energy. Some of the results in last couple of years of operations for SPMBT are as follows:
Land |
Statistics
|
| Encroachment promotion and its Outreach to Villages | 1100 |
| Hectares of Gairan encroached | 30,217.35 hectors |
| Ultra Poor families directly benefiting | 24607 |
| Land repair completed | 1500 hac. In 85 villages |
| Water | 7000 hectors |
| Villages reached through water source development activities | 150 |
| Number of SHGs promoted | 2500 |
| Number of women reached through SHGs and IGPs | 4920 |
| Number of Trade Unions [TU] Promoted | 14 |
| Number of people reached through TUs | 8400 |
In all these numbers, one glaring disadvantage was the rate of interest the beneficiaries are paying on micro finance. It is around 22% annually. The reason behind such a high rate of interest is the source of money which is nothing but commercial banks and foreign investment. They charge 15-16% interest rate to the SPMBT and with the operations cost and everything, the beneficiary ends up paying 22% rate of interest on the micro loan.
For 30DF SPMBT was the most appropriate choice for number of reasons including their expertise in domain and common objectives of engaging poors in self employment. Through 30df, with the help of international social investor community we aim to reduce this high rate of interest to something very reasonable and affordable.
