Training program on engaging SHG members as Business Correspondence (BC) agents

BIRD, an organization was established by NABARD for meeting the capacity building needs of the client institutions like Commercial Banks, RRBs and Cooperative Banks, so as to make them financially strong, managerially efficient and organizationally vibrant on a sustainable basis for deepening rural credit.

Following were the project’s objectives:

• To train officers of regional rural banks and cooperative banks on potential of SHGs and their institutions (e.g., SHG federations) for becoming individual BC agents as well as corporate BC agents.
• Share challenges faced by SHGs and their institutions in becoming BC agents and solutions thereof.

Samavit conducted a one-day interactive workshop at BIRD Lucknow campus with the officers of RRBs and cooperative banks. The case study approach and open question and answer session was held so that the officers could take away real life examples of such SHGs and their institutions that became BC agents for a few banks and how did they serve the banking needs of the poor and under-privileged households (mainly women) in the rural India.

Samavit designed a training module and a brief PowerPoint Presentation for the project. Various handouts and exercises were also prepared so that the participants could enrich with the experiences of SHGs as BC models that were tested and scaled in Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh, India.