Taking a cue from Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus of Bangladesh, who led an entire movement against poverty through his Grameen Bank’s micro-credit policy, women in Meghalaya have scripted a tale of success in the rural banking system based on the same concept.Taking off two years ago with just Rs 1,000 in its account, the North East Region Institute for Micro credit (NIM) — Banking Institution and Learning Centre of Excellence for Holistic Aspiration of Mothers (BILCHAM), an apex self help group (SHG) federation, today accounts for more than Rs 1.37 crore in its corpus.“At present, there are more than 1,100 SHGs, formed under twenty-five federations comprising ten community and rural development blocks spread across the West, South and East Garo Hills. The groups are required to form federations before registering under the banner of BILCHAM,” said Daniel Ingty, a rural development officer associated with the bank. “The formation of SHGs has tremendously improved the economic condition of the rural women,” he said. Ingty said, though this bank started in October 2006 in Garo hills, the system got underway with the formation of woman SHGs in model villages of West Garo Hills Community Resource Management Society .Currently, the key federation leaders of NIM-BILCHAM are actively engaged in taking this concept to every household of Garo hills. The institution is encouraging the concept with a vision to include at least one woman from every household in Garo hills with expected target of over 35,000 SHGs. To obtain loans, an individual has to be a member of SHGs. The interest rate is as low as 14 per cent. "It is difficult for villagers to obtain loan from financial institution, as they have to fulfill certain criteria. Now BILCHAM has provided us a oppurtunity for easier loans at a lower interest ," a women SHG member said.
