In a bid to promote the Self Help Groups (SHGs) in Orissa, the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) has declared four central cooperative banks under the Orissa State Cooperative Bank (OSCB) in the state as Self Help Promotion Institutes (SHPIs).
The central cooperative banks, which have been declared as SHPIs, include the banks in Berhampur, Balasore, Keonjhar and Sundergarh.
The SHPIs would promote the SHG movement in the state by motivating the people, basically women belonging to weaker sections of the society, for formation of SHGs and to extend necessary credit linkage to the groups through various banks and financial institutions.
"Orissa is the front runner in formation of the SHGs, but many groups are not linked with the financial institutions so far" said a NABARD official.
The apex rural bank was setting up SHPIs to promote the SHGs in the state and also to link the groups with the banks, he added. The Orissa government has given much emphasis on women SHGs in the state to make them economically self sufficient.
The state government has launched a programme named Mission Shakti, targeting to link at least one lakh SHGs run by women with the banks.
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According to sources, as many as 30,659 SHGs were linked with the primary agriculture societies (PAC) and central cooperative banks under OSCB in the state by the end of June this year, with financial linkage of about Rs 77.89 crore.
The outstanding loan amount stood at Rs 44.21 crore with the 19,886 self-help groups (SHG) out of which over due was only Rs 2.21 crore, sources added.
As many as 5,560 SHGs were linked with the central cooperative bank, Koraput with Rs 8.54 crore, followed by 5,030 groups in Balasore with linkage of Rs 16.51 crore and 1,870 groups in Berhampur with a credit limkage of Rs 7.74 crore. Under the SHPIs, the Central Cooperative Bank in Berhampur has been set a target to form an additional 360 SHGs by the end of February 2010.
"We have already formed about 100 SHGs and we hope to achieve the target", said Maheswar Khillar, the secretary of Central Cooperative Bank of Berhampur.
The SHPI at Berhampur was NABARD’s latest institute in Orissa and the apex rural bank has provided Rs 5.06 lakh to the institute to promote the groups in its jurisdiction in Ganjam and Gajapati districts.