Women get only 3% of bank credit, says Chidambaram

Indian women own 10 per cent of business enterprises in the country, about 17 per cent are employed in the small scale sector and presently only 19 per cent of them have access to credits extended to them.

Also women are increasingly excluded from the formal and informal sector, they are even excluded from governance.

Addressing the 'Bizwomen 2005' meet organised on Saturday by the Small Enterprise Assistance Funds (SEAF), Washington and US Agency for International Development (USAID), Union finance minister, P Chidambaram, said "of the credit available, only about 19 per cent is extended to individuals, of which hardly one-sixth is extended to women." This is about 3 per cent of all bank credit.

"In fact, if you look at agriculture, industry or transport, banks have a very pronounced bias against women. Here, not more than 10 per cent of the credit is extended to women," he added.

The finance minister said the government has amended the succession laws to provide equal rights to women. "Today, women have started heading Panchayats because of government interventions," he said.

"Various ideas are being explored. For instance, we are looking into enlarging the size of the Parliament through one-third reservations. I have worked with Indiraji and now with Soniaji and I feel that women are better at multi-tasking, are clear and decisive. We need more women in the legislatures for good governance," he added.

The the issue of lack of women's empowerment is denial of credit. "The denial of credit, more than the denial of property, is the reason why women are not empowered," he pointed out. "This is despite the fact that the track record of returning loans among women is significantly superior to that of men."

Bringing to notice the approval of the Protection of Women Against Domestic Violence Bill by the cabinet, Chidambaram said the government has brought in several legislation's to empower women.

Though, banks may consider women as 'risk segment', the rising number of self-help groups (SHGs) functioning in rural areas vouch for the fact that women are the best in terms of credit risk, more than business houses, professionally run enterprises, co-operatives and SMEs. "The repayment record of the SHGs are as high as 98-99 per cent," he pointed out.