A co-operative bank to empower widows and other marginalised women by supporting their self-employment and entrepreneurial ventures is to be set up in Kerala soon.
The Kerala Vidhava Sangham (KVS), an organisation which has over 16,000 widows as members, has already secured clearance from the Co-operative Department for starting the bank whose thrust is to empower women from marginalised sections, especially widows.
The institution, named as Widow Development Co-Operative Society (WIDCOS), will formulate schemes aimed at generating a large number of employment opportunities for widows, their wards and other hapless women through various schemes and entrepreneurship programmes.
The first branch of the bank would come up at Ollur in Thrissur district and more branches would be opened in other parts of the state in course of time.
"WIDCOS will be like any other bank in the co-operative sector. But widows and poor women will get preference in our service," KVS president Daisy Mathew told PTI.
She said the process of raising capital was already under way and major shares were taken by KVS members in Thrissur district.
Social activist P N Rajan, who chairs the advisory committee of KVS, said widows are one of the most marginalised sections in the society who need special care and backing. The bank was an attempt by widows to support themselves.
"The idea of starting a co-operative bank is one of the handful of empowerment programmes planned by KVS. Apart from normal banking functions, it would also extend credit support to self-employment and entrepreneurial ventures," Rajan said.
