Publication: Self-Help Group Members as Banking Agents for Deepening Financial Inclusion
Date
2020-03
ISSN
Published
2020-03
Author(s)
Pinto, Alreena Renita
Arora, Amit
Roy, Sourav
Abstract
Due to the limited penetration of bank
branches across rural India, access to formal financial
services has been a pipe dream for millions of rural poor
for decades. However, with the advent of branch-less banking
channels and advancements in technology, this situation has
improved considerably over the past decade. In 2013-2014,
National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD)
and German agency for International Cooperation (GIZ)
jointly implemented a proof of concept entitled self help
group (SHG) members as Business Correspondent (BC) Agents
under the rural financial institutions programme (RFIP) and
successfully demonstrated that SHG members as banking agents
or customer service points (CSPs) could deliver last mile
banking services to the rural community in a cost-effective
and sustainable manner. It was in this context, that the
Bank Sakhi (female banker friend) model - a gender focused
variant of the traditional BC model, was adapted by National
rural livelihood missions (NRLM) and piloted in seven states
- via special funds made available under the dedicated
funding line created under the National rural livelihoods
project (NRLP) in 2015-2016. This pilot initiative was
scaled up by several State rural livelihood missions (
SRLMs), which charted different pathways to improve formal
financial access for rural women-led households, and
promoted linkages with public and private and non-bank
financial institutions.
Citation
“Pinto, Alreena Renita; Arora, Amit; Roy, Sourav. 2020. Self-Help Group Members as Banking Agents for Deepening Financial Inclusion. South Asia Agriculture and Rural Growth Discussion Note Series;No. 4. © World Bank, Washington, DC. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/34722 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.”