All-women co-op bank opens first branch in Pune

PUNE: At the age of 13 Laxmi Shelar's father abruptly pulled her out of 7th standard and married her to a 65-year-old man. Before Laxmi was 18, she was a mother of one, pregnant and widowed. Faced with an unenviable choice, she could see only two options open before her. One, she could give up - which was of course the easy way out. But, this strong-willed woman chose the second option. She decided to fight fate and make a life for her and her children.

In 2000, she became involved with Mann Deshi Mahila Sahakari Bank, vending her buffalo milk and attending agricultural training camps sponsored by the bank. She quickly volunteered to organize self-help groups (SHG) in a remote corner of Mhaswad village, a decision which proved to be a turning point in Laxmi's life. A firm believer in the benefit of microfinanace, Laxmi now works in the field, sells vegetables in local markets, rears her own buffalo, sells their milk door to door, and coordinates with the 10 SHGs she founded with the Mann Deshi Mahila Sahakari Bank.

Established in 1997 in Mhaswad village of Mann taluka in Satara, the bank is opening its first branch in Pune at Dhayari on May 27. Founder Chetna Shah says, "One of our main aims in coming to Pune is to get a bigger market for the rural women. It will be a challenge because the dynamics of urban and semi-urban areas are different from that of rural areas. Economic activities pursued by women in cities are different. The Pune branch of the bank will help Mann Deshi scale and expand its operations."

Next on the anvil is the Mann Deshi Chamber of Commerce for Women, which will also come up at Dhayari. This programme will have toll free assistance numbers, building women entrepreneurs association, forward and backward market linkages to women entrepreneurs and creating marketing platforms for entrepreneurs.

Shah envisioned Mann Deshi as a mission to provide women in impoverished areas with skilled vocational training, financial literacy and farming assistance that will give them the ability to thrive in today's market. The aim of the Mann Deshi Foundation, an NGO, is to better the lives of rural women by providing health awareness and encouraging joint ownership of their property. It aims to moving women towards rural economic empowerment.

Mann Deshi was the first bank to consider and provide doorstep banking services to vegetable vendors, goat and sheep rearers, basket weavers, photo frame making, paper cup making, running tea shops, selling pav-bhaji and milk vendors. Shah says, "When we began, we realised that women do want to save. But, what poses a hindrance is the fact that they have to travel to the bank to deposit money. For a rural woman, who has to do the housework and work in the fields as well as ply a trade, sparing time to travel to a bank is not feasible. It was then that we thought of our door-to-door concept. And, there has been no looking back."

About the initial hiccups, Shah says, "Our bank was India's first rural financial institution to receive a cooperative licence from the Reserve Bank of India. It was difficult though to convince the bank to give us the licence, as most of our clients were illiterate and used thumb impressions in stead of signatures."

Today Mann Deshi claims to be the largest microfinance bank in the state with over 1,40,000 clients. The Mann Deshi Mahila Bachat Gat Federation - a part of the Foundation - currently consists of more than 2,462 SHGs.