International Days of Importance

National and International Day / Week	Date	National and International Day / Week	Date
Oil Conservation Week	4-10 January	International Day of Zero Tolerance for Female Genital Cutting (FGC)	6 February
Memory of 1857 Martyrs	8 January	International Mother Language Day	21 February
Road Safety Week	10-16 January	National Science day	28 February
International Youth Day	12 January	8 United Nations Day for Women's Rights and International Peace	8 march
Animal Welfare Fortnight	14-30 January	Day of Action against Dams, for Rivers and, Consumer Rights Day- World Disabled Day	14,15 march
Army Day	15 January	World Forestry Day - International Day For The Elimination Of Racial Discrimination	21 march
Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose's Birth Anniversary- National Day of Patriotism, 25 India Tourism Day	23 January	World Water Day, Martyrdom Day of Bhagat Singh- World Meteorological Day	22, 23 march
26 Republic Day- International Customs Day	26 January	World TB Day	24 march
Martyrs Day, - National Cleanliness Day	30 January	Martyrdom Day of Chandrasekhar Azad	31 march
Prevention Of Blindness Week	1-7 April	International Day for Mine Awareness and Assistance in Mine Action	4 April
World Health Day	7 April	Handloom Week	7-14 April
Jallianwala Bagh Massacre,	13 April	Birth Anniversary Of Dr Ambedkar - Customs Day,	14 April
World Heritage Day / International Monuments and Sites Day	18 April	Earth Day	23 April
Education for All Week	24-30 April	World Day for Safety and Health at Work	28 April
Remembrance Day for Victims of Chemical Warfare	29	International Labour Day / May Day	1 may
World AIDS Orphans Day,	7 may	Technology Day	11 may
World Fair Trade day	13 may	International Day of The Family	15 may
World Telecommunications Day - International Day Against Homophobia- World Information Society Day	17 may	The World Day for Cultural Diversity for Dialogue and Development	21 may
International Day of Women's Action for Peace and Disarmament - Common-Wealth Day	24 may	Week of Solidarity with the People of All Colonial Territories Fighting for Freedom, Independence and Human Rights	25-31 may
World No Tobacco Day	31 may	International Volunteer Week	1-7 June
International Day Of Innocent Children Victims Of Aggression	4 June	World Environment Day,   River Day	5,11 June
World Day against Child Labour	12 June	World Blood Donor day	14 June
World day to combat desertification and drought	17 June	International Day in support of Victims of Torture - International Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking	28 June
Doctors' Day - World Nuclear-free Zones Day - Vanmahotsav Day	1 July	World Population Day, World Day for International Justice.	11,17 July
Breast-Feeding Week	1-7 August	Quit India Movement - International Day of the World's Indigenous People	9 August
International Youth Day	12 August	World Water Week in Stockholm	12-18 August
Independence Day	15 August	September National Fortnight on Eye Donation	23 - 6 August
National Nutrition Week	1-7 September	Teacher's Day	5 September
International Day Against the WTO and Trade Liberalization and for Peoples' Food Sovereignty	10 September	International Day for the Preservation of the Ozone Layer	16 September
Cancer Rose Day	22 September	SAARC Girl Child Day - World Heart Day	24 September
Right to Know Day	28 September	National Voluntary Blood Donation Day, - International Day For Elderly People - Wildlife Week	1 October
Mahatma Gandhi's Birthday - Anti-Leprosy Day	2 October	Prevention Of Blindness Week, Anti-Un-Touch ability Week	2 -8 October
World Animal Welfare	4 October	World Menopause Day - World Mental Health Day	7 October
International Mountain Day - National No Tobacco Day	11 October	International Day For Natural Disaster Reduction	13 October
World White Cane Day, World Food Day	15, 16 October	Day for Eradication of Poverty, Global Iodine Deficiency Disorder(IDD) Day	17,21 October
World Development Information Day	24 October	Disarmament and Development Week	24 - 30 October
International Day for Preventing the Exploitation of the Environment in War and Armed Conflict	6 November	International Week Of Science	9-14 November
Nehru's Birthday-Children's Day -World Diabetes Day	14 November	World Heritage Week	14 -20 November
World Day for Prevention of Child Abuse - National Integration Day	19 November	Quami Ekta Week	19 -26 November
Universal Child Rights Day	20 November	International Day of Elimination of All Forms of Violence Against Women	25 November
Constitution Day, National Social Justice and Action Day	26 November	16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence	25-10 December
World AIDS Day	1 December	2 National Pollution Control Day, - International Day for Abolition of Slavery	2 December
International Day of Disabled Persons- National Conservation Day- International Day of Solidarity with Political Prisoners and Prisoners of War	3 December	International Volunteer Day For Economic And Social Development	5 December
Flag Day - International Civil Aviation Day	7 December	Girl Child Day - SAARC Day - National day for Mentally Challenged	8 December
All India Handicrafts Week	8 -14 December	International Anti-Corruption Day	9 December
Human Rights Day	10 December	National Energy Conservation Day	14 December
International Human Solidarity Day	20 December	Kisan Divas [Farmers day	23 December

The Source of Problem - Communal Award 1932 ?

Communal Award of 1932 and Indian Muslims.

History of India states that on 4^th August, 1932 the then British Prime Minister Ramsay Macdonald announced to grant a separate electorate to the Sikh, Muslims, Dalits ( then called as the Depressed classes or the untouchable ) communities of India. This announcement is popularly known as “ The Communal Award”. These stated separate representations were to be provided for the Muslims, Sikhs, Indian Christians, Anglo – Indians, Europeans, etc and the depressed classes were to be assigned a number of seats to be filled by election from special constitution in which voters belonging to the depressed classes only could vote.

This meant that the voters belonging to these special categories had to be given right and freedom to elect the representatives belonging to their religion and thus their communities. many leaders of the then Indian society had welcomed this step as they felt that a number of elected leaders will vocalize the specific needs of their communities and shall help in a better development of their community. 

Then came the open revolt against this Award by none other than Sri Mohan Das Karamchand Gandhi aka the modern day “Father of Nation”.  Gandhiji was against the move of the British Rule to carve as separate electorate for the oppressed classes ( the Dalits ) and to vocalize this he went on an indefinite hunger strike from the September, 20 in 1932. A mass upsurge was generated by the supporters of Gandhiji to save his life and Dr. Bhimrao R Ambedkarji, a supporter of this dual electorate, was compelled to soften his stand on this issue. A series of talks and negotiations resulted in a pact between caste Hindus and the depressed classes resulted in Poona Pact on 24^th. September, 1932 . On 25^th September, 1932 the resolutions were announced in a public meeting held at Bombay ( now Mumbai ) confirming that amongst Hindus none shall be regarded as untouchable by reason of birth and will have the same rights in all the social institution as the other Hindus have. A total of 148 seats were reserved for the depressed classes out of the general electorate seats through joint electorate.

It is highlighted that Poona Pact was a victory for the depressed classes to gain a higher social order in the Indian society and the tag of untouchable would become a part of history after 1932. This may be practically be true but the truth was that Poona Pact had adverse effect of all these communities that were a part of the Communal Awards.

The process of alienating these communities have continued till date in one form or the other and I shall consider the Muslim Community here for the purpose of clarity in putting this Pact as the fore father of all the ills that encompass India today.The last recorded Census based on the caste in pre-independence India was in 1931. Note this was the base of the Communal Award of 1932 and then the Poona Pact on 25^th September,1932 The outcome of this Census show the backward castes as the part  of the general castes.

History of Muslim rule in India stresses the invasion or coming of  Babur from 1526 which remained in various forms till the fall of Bahadur Shah Zafar in 1857 which means that we can safely assume that India was under the influence of Islam and Muslim rulers for more than three centuries. Then the Company rule and British Colony was established in Indian subcontinent comprising of present day India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal and Bhutan.

The Muslim Rule was influenced by the cultures and religion ( Islam ) of the people coming from Western Asia through the present day Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iran, Iraq, and  part of Euro- Asian belt. This admixture of food, clothing, rituals, cultures and religion reached India with an aim to control the resources in these areas. The benefits were mainly accrued through the natural resources, gold, agricultural products, animal, skilled craft persons and builders of an inter cultural standards. The cultural life around the temples and baudh vihars had already diluted in the North India and had shifted to further South and Eastern regions. The movements of the armies of these Muslim rulers were greatly hindered due to the topography of North and South divide of Indian peninsula. However the regents of these Rulers had control over the lives of Indians in a way that the local culture and religious fervor got intermingled to an extent which is still very difficult to separate and identify them as which is indigenous and which is not.

Without going into the details of these times we find that the system of jurisprudence was widely influenced and defined by the tenets of Holy Quran. The Court of law had separate channel of functioning which was independent to the status of the rulers often at crosshead with the ruling elites. The point to stress here is that the justice was delivered despite the pressures from the rulers in accordance with the Sharia of Islam and the needs of jurisprudence. Only the learned and the just courtiers were appointed from the non-Islamic backgrounds who were God Fearing and had faith ( Emaan ). The examples like Birbal are still exemplified.

Muslim rule in India is a part of our history and we have to realize that a nation has to go through all this, good or bad, best or worst phases of socio-cultural life. We seldom find exclusive details of the history in our libraries with could develop a sense of pride and a wider understanding of the life in Indian context. Most o f the books and Journals available today have been removed, burnt, modified and edited so as to suit the needs of the ruling classes over a large part of the history. The objective outlook is lost in the showcasing of the ruling and victorious. The defeated are removed from the shelves and part of the history. The viewpoints of an event are lost in the glorification and awards of the winners. No one cares to preserve the losers. This is a sad part of a history.

The rule of Muslims is seldom discussed in open and the stories of individual Kings and emperors have been made to represent the sum total of the ruling Class of Muslim rule in India. This does not represent the totality of the work that was done in more than three hundred years. A variety of system of ruling, jurisprudence, revenue collection, welfare activities, buildings and constructions and skill development took place which has been ignored to show that these are not important to learn or know today. It is difficult to conclude that that everything was not favorable for the native Indians ( Mul Nivasi ). The religions were adopted voluntarily through marriages, conversion through the religious peers and the aim to get closer to powerful people might have been some of the reasons to convert to Islam. The fact is that we find a majority of converted Indian Muslims removed far away from the seat of power even when the women from the Muslim elite ruled. 

The marginalized and the converted Muslims were removed to the periphery of the society motivated again by the religious identities and personalities who are mentioned in Holy Quran. The faith in Islam on enduring the present day hardships among the Muslims was cleverly interwoven into the fabric of religious piousness by the Maulvis  of that time. Various sub- castes have been formed and propagated around such personalities which decided their traditions, from birth till death, marriages and rituals although they were under a single banner of Islam. Marriages were used to control the leaders o f these sub-castes ( based mainly of the kind of menial jobs they were assigned in the hierarchy of Muslim rule ) . We still find strong remnants of these sub-castes in the present day old-cities of Delhi, Bhopal, Hyderabad, etc  in India.

When Muslim were controlling the Indian Subcontinent the Christian arrived here, first to propagate Christianity and then to rule. The fact may be disputed that why did Christians target India so late when they could have done earlier also ? The fact remains that the spread of Christianity was mainly followed by the trade links as these Churches were ( and still are ) sponsored by the traders, businessman, ship-owners, sailors and manufacturers. The military help was provided by the British to ensure the establishment of a colony for making routes for plunder of cheap labour, minerals, markets and favourable weather conditions for the manufacturing of for eg. indigo for the markets in Great Britain.

The enemy in the market economy was shown as the enemy of Christianity. Islam was put as the number one enemy in the Indian sub continent in order to gain sympathy of the Hindus in the region and gain power. The system of jurisprudence that was practiced for so long in India was  replaced by the British System. We find full attempts to tarnish the Muslims and Islam by replacing almost all the system we find in present day India. British Government replaced slowly almost all the laws related to governance, jurisprudence, education, revenue, tax collection, buildings, land records, classification of cultures ( tribal and Non-tribal, Hindus and non-Hindus ,etc.), census, religious bodies and the culture with imposing English as the pseudo- Official language.

Muslims were the prime targets of the colonial powers in India as they had to be removed from the minds of the majority of the Indians as the ruling class. Muslims had remained elusive in terms of – laws to govern them, educate them, rule them and had separate culture of their own. The convert to Islam were the privileged lot till the Muslims rule so it was difficult for them to adjust to the new rule of the British Government. The philosophy of Islam was targeted by the British and many new schools of though were promoted and funded by them to divide the unity of Muslims. The philosophy of Islam is so strong that the religious doctrines were doctored in favor of those who submitted to the British Rule. The pilgrimages to Mecca were started to be sponsored by the British for those who supported them. The books and schools were openly funded for the Muslims coming under their patronages.  Thus we find that all the institutions, historical events, monuments and personalities related to Islam and Muslims were either destroyed or made irrelevant by the British rulers. This made a serious impact on the mindset of Muslims under the British Rule which could never establish the supremacy of Christianity as a religion and Christians as a better alternative to Muslim rule.

We find this continuing in the present world where any thing related to Islam and Muslims is degraded. The Muslims still do not criticize the British Rule in open and they keep silent when confronted with the question on Islam and their culture. When the Muslims gain self-respect in their culture will is very difficult to answer but the results are not very encouraging for the modern world. We are seeing a removal of the ills from the Islam form of governance as can be seen in Egypt, etc where the autocratic rulers are being removed from power by the young people who understand where  they stand in the present day world.

The Indian Muslim Youth is not clear as to what is considered to be Modern and what is ritualistic. The old religious dogma are continuously being broken by the modern technologies and where can you find the Muslim- youth in chains ?  Almost every where in the world.

A golden opportunity was lost by the British rulers when the steps that would have benefited the Christian Rule in India through the Communal Award in 1932. The compromise done under Poona Pact never ever benefited the tribal and the dalits , who are also struggling for the Third Independence in India.

What should be done for SHG-Bank Linkage ?

When we have seen that the Central Government is controlling NABARD ( National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development ) in India we find that the governments at the States have done little to encourage the sustainability of the Self- Help Group ( S.H.G.) in the rural areas of India. We have some random examples of the governments of the South India where they encouraged Self- Help Group ( S.H.G.) but came down heavily on the micro-finance movement due to defaults, suicides and politicization of the micro-finance institutions.

When the Self- Help Group ( S.H.G.) are dependent on the funds from the subsidized programmes like SGSY, MGNREGA , tribal Sub Plan (TSP) and Backward Region Grants (BRG) where the State governments have not taken initiatives to help provide loans to the Self- Help Group ( S.H.G.) s. The financial condition is made very tough due to the apathy and loss of foresightedness in the State level machinery. The Self- Help Group ( S.H.G.) are now seen as a source of revenue by the State Governments looking at the continuation in charging the stamp duty fees for accessing Bank Loans, Court fees for the recovery of the Bank Loans through the department of revenues ( through Tehsildars, SDMs, Revenue Inspector and Bank Officials ) and taxes , octroi  and levies on all kinds of purchases of the inputs required by the members of Self- Help Group ( S.H.G.). There is no tax rebate available easily for the members of Self- Help Group ( S.H.G.) through a single-window clearance in the State level. The exemptions in taxes, duties, octroi and levies are charged as if these Self- Help Group ( S.H.G.) members are the members of industries of the organized sector. Even when there may be some rebates available to these IGA for Self- Help Group ( S.H.G.) the claim for rebates, exemptions, etc are so cumbersome, time consuming and full of corrupt practices that a majority of the Self- Help Group ( S.H.G.)/ Clusters /Federations / Implementer Organization opts  out of it. These expenses are not re-imbursed by any seed capital or grant-in-aid from the programmes of NABARD and thus these relief are not availed of.

Political Parties exploit the loanees – When the Bank loans are sanctioned the loanees are huddled into some public meeting named as the Bank Loan Mela, Rozgar Mela, Swa rozgari Sammelan, etc. where the idea is to get the maximum mileage out of the process of providing loans to the members of Self- Help Group ( S.H.G.). The local MLA, M.P., Leaders and workers of the ruling political party converge to these meetings boasting of the good work they are doing for the poor people. They deliver speeches abusive of the C4entral Government while the Funds that may have reached the Self- Help Group ( S.H.G.) through SGSY came from the Central Government’s Share in SGSY, PMSRY, etc. while confusing the loanee as to who is the final do-gooder for them !.

 Thus we find that the loanees  are forced to be a part of the political rally and do as per the wishes of the ruling party. The reports at the NABARD- Level will show that these Self- Help Group ( S.H.G.) have decided the IGA as per there meetings and self-determined what is good for them but the fact remains that the ruling party workers force the members to select the activities which they ( the Party ) wants. The implementer may also be a party to these forced IGA in the individual cases. Thus these new loanee get demotivated on the onset of the loan receiving time itself.

The IGAs then start with the intentions to satisfy the demands of the outside agencies and the profits thus the repayments drop sharply after the first cycle of the income generation. The loanee decides not to repay the loan feeling that the political party will one day declare a loan-waiver. so why repay ? After three ofr four years of default i.e. non-repayment of loans these laonees become a soft-targets of the ruling Political Parties and become “politically encouraged Bank-defaulters”. The Banks start stern warnings where they shout at the Branch Managers pointing to the rising NPAs ( non performing-assets ). Banks then target the women, SC, STs, minorities, economically poorer families for issuing the loan recovery notices. Those members who might have revolted from the pressure of the ruling political alliances they are targeted more. The notices are then followed by the court notices for the final settlement or “one-time-compromising” of loans. This shows a clear cut political vendetta in some of the most poorer and remote areas where the local workers of the ruling political parties have made a mockery of the rule of law.

The local moneylenders are associated with this system to an extent that they find many opportunities to exploit the needs of the loanee from the Self- Help Group ( S.H.G.). These events go unreported for the fear of the Banks , Implementer Agencies and the Political Workers. We have several cases where all the above three kinds of roles are found within on family of the village.

The defaulters of loans are organized to vote for the ruling political parties so that they could get “loan-waivers” as a bargain in the next government. The defaulters put all our effort to get the ruling party re-elected in the State Assembly elections, local self-governments and all kinds of municipalities. The farmers are organized in a way to win the Mandi ( Agricultural Market ) Elections. The elections are won by these false promises for the loan defaulters but as the day pass by we see the same process of court notices, defaulters disgrace and many kinds of disadvantages reach the house of these compulsive defaulters. The recent sandals for the adjustments of loans taken from the Cooperative Bank upto rupees fifty thousand is running into crores of rupees in just two districts of Madhya Pradesh which is , incidentally , being investigated by NABARD, Bhopal.

When the political parties are themselves complicating the game of loan, the Central Government Agencies like NABARD, SIDBI , IDBI and even RBI can hardly provide any kind of relief to the common families who have organized themselves into small Self- Help Group ( S.H.G.). These agencies have not served the purposes for which they were created.

What is the way out of this recycling of poverty ?

The centralized, top heavy , full of useless power and professional agencies have been targeting the ameliorating poverty in the rural India. NABARD, hence the RBI have failed to reach the poorer sections of the society either through Banks or through Self- Help Group ( S.H.G.) s to provide loans for them so that they can start some kind of productive and sustainable livelihood

Statistics provided by the website of NABARD ( www.nabard.org) exhibits that by the year 2009-2010 Self- Help Group ( S.H.G.) linked with Banks ( i.e. given loans through the local Branches of a Bank ) were 69.53 lakhs.

Now my calculation is

Even if we take an average of maximum 18 members in each Self- Help Group ( S.H.G.) this should become 12.52 Crores of Indians.

When we take a minimum of 5 members per Self- Help Group ( S.H.G.) then this figure should be around 3.5 Crores of Indians.

Thus, we can safely say that the Banks provided service loans in a range of 3.5 Crores to 12.5 crore Indian through Self- Help Group ( S.H.G.).

Again, more than 47%  of Indian are known to be BPL ( Below Poverty Line Level ) So out of a total of 112 crores we have 52.64 crores as BPL persons. Thus by 2010, Banks reached a mix of population equal to a maximum of 12.52 crores which is  about 10% of the total of 2012 Census . 

Thus a minimum of 5% and a maximum of 15% of Indians could get loans from the Banks under the able guidance of NABARD through the formation of Self- Help Group ( S.H.G.).

( These  figures  have been taken from the website and the question of validity and verifiability of the data lies with NABARD )

My question is this :

When NABARD has taken thirty years of time to reach a maximum of 15% of the total population in India what time period will it take to reach another 30% of the Indians through Self- Help Group ( S.H.G.) ?

In my assumption it could be well nearly another 70 years or so.

What will you do ? Wait for Banks and honorable NABARD to reach your door in a remote village in another turn of this century or die poor ?

I have the following suggestions to make :-

1. Cut, edit and reduce the power of NABARD to regulate the already heavily-regulated markets for the Bank-loans to the rural areas.                                                         

The power that is vested in these Centralised Banks have degenerated into corrupt practices in Hugh numbers. The actions of the DDMs are supported by the Regional Offices of NABARD while they have lost control on the loan activities of several nationalized and private Banks. The Land Developemnt , Cooperatives and Some Private Banks follow the instruction of NABARD but many of the big nationalized Banks have been denying Bank Loans to the Self- Help Group ( S.H.G.) even after the recommendations of the NABARD. This situation is detrimental to the financial inclusion policy of the RBI and NABARD.              What is the benefit of giving more powers to these Structures when they are proving inefficient and ineffective to reach out to the majority of the Indians ? The executive powers of NABARD should be reduced if they are not able to generate compliance with the Banking system of India.

2. Penal Action through Punishment and reward Sytem be Started for Banks :

NABARD, and thus the RBI, has been reducing the flow of loans and grant in aid assistances to the implementors, even when the higher budgetary allocations are made available to them. Instead of reducing the non-budgetary expenses and the budget deficits they have been increasing their expenses on salaries and other benefits, travel bills and non-effective efforts to increase the percolation of the fund flow. They have given excuse of the high (imaginary and non-realistic ) salaries provided to the young energetic Managerial Staff of the private Banks. They fail to realize that they have an aged staff with increasing family liabilities, placed in Big places with inflationary pressures, have to maintain a Status equal ( sometime greater that the ) District Magistrate, are inefficient in plain terms and have shoddy decision making processes with no importance to transparency in their decision making processes.

The flow of loans should be regulated by the Central Governments through the Ministry of Finance and the grant assistance provided to the Banks and thus to the NABARD should be put on hold for another five years, unless the efficiency and professionalism is proved  by these conglomerates.

3. The preliminary conditions for the encourager, motivator, Implementers for the formation and sustenance of the Self- Help Group ( S.H.G.) should be relaxed :

 The Self- Help Group ( S.H.G.) organize themselves into Clusters and than into Federation of Self- Help Group ( S.H.G.). The Banks do not support these Structures which suitably help these Self- Help Group ( S.H.G.) to attain a profit making and economically viable entity. These organizations are not supported by any kind of financial grant assistance by NABARD. The rules for help to these organizations be relaxed and made profit making exercise for the members of these Self- Help Group ( S.H.G.). Initial three-years’ support must come from the NABARD and then followed up by the local Lending Bank Branches.

Instead of increasing the salaries of these managers who are inefficient and anti-poor it is worth taking steps to strengthen the micro-structures for the poor through their Self- Help Group ( S.H.G.) s. at the village level itself with low salaries of the service- providing staff members, efficient-accountants, low cost housing and low cost recovery of loans.

4. Budgetary Allocation for these top-heavy Bnaks like NABARD be reduced to anamount equal or less than the total amount of loan disbursed ( actually reaching the hands of the loanee) in that period.

The release of budgetary expenses for NABARD may be done on a quarterly basis so as to maintain a recorded pace of work and verifiable mode of work. The loan sanctioned and the loan disbursed should be similar and the budget than can match this achievement for that quarter of the year.

5. All and every kinds of subsidies, benefits, increase and bonuses to the Staff Members of the Nationalised Bank should be stopped  and ket oh-hold for the next five year or so.

The performance in terms of the outreach of the loans to the Self- Help Group ( S.H.G.), women, farmers and the youth of India should be closely monitored and then rewarded or punished for non-performances, under-cutting of loan figures, mis-reporting, inefficiency of Staff and under performances of the Branches. ( which can be done case by case )

6. Adopt micro level technologies that will help the people.

All possible modes of latest technologies are untied to reach out to the people of India. We need more and new numbers of Branches at micro level. The Business Associate Model is restricted to the wealthy and the relatives and friends of the permanent employees of these Banks. New person hardly get any chance to get the sponsorship for the new branches, BA Model and nano-Branches for the Self- Help Group ( S.H.G.). This has to change in the coming years as the load on these old stereotype ideas will increase manifold and new fresh ideas are needed to provide an opportunity for others to flourish.

The Banks are very slow in investing on the technologies and they are concentrating their services to urban centers of India. We hardly find ATMs, Credit Cards, Mobile Banking, Net Banking and PDA Based Banking in villages far away. The excuses are superficial as they do not want to invest on new technologies for the benefit of the people. They also fear that the corruption will decease due to IT based Banking processes. Many of the staff members are found lacking in the simple use of a laptop and IT enabled services in NABARD itself.( can be checked anytime by an online exam by an independent agency ) Why are they not penalized when the private bank would have terminated the services very long time ago. ?

7. Self- Help Group ( S.H.G.) Model is sustainable

More and more numbers of people should be encouraged to form Self- Help Group ( S.H.G.) in their localities, open Bank Accounts and Save money.This will increase literacy level for Banking procedures, mutual trust among the community, money will reach the Banks in form of Savings and the plans for the profit making IGAs will [percolate to the poor people through these Self- Help Group ( S.H.G.), Clusters and Federation of these Self- Help Group ( S.H.G.). The Schemes from the State and Central Governments will reach these members faster. Governments should design programmes which can provide tax benefits, exemptions, waivers, rebates, discounts and provide social service through these Self- Help Group ( S.H.G.).

The poor people of India have to go a long way in order to avail of the benefits designed for them.

The concept of Self- Help Group ( S.H.G.) can show us a sustainable way to fight poverty in an indigenous way, purely Indian in nature.

 Will we give an opportunity to the ourselves ,WE , the people of India ?

Why NABARD will NOT provide loans to the Self- Help Groups ( S.H.G.s )

Why NABARD will NOT provide loans to the Self- Help Groups ( S.H.G.s )

Background : When we form a Self- Help Group ( S.H.G.) in the rural areas we usually aim for the socio- economic upliftment of the members of the Self- Help Group ( S.H.G.). The savings generated by the members are slow and not sufficient enough to trigger the economic upliftment of the members. The concept of business and trading is not applicable to the typical Self- Help Group ( S.H.G.) as the members a re generally motivated by the earnings ( profits ) our of any activity which may  provide subsistence and help them in entering the next cycle of income generation thus sustaining the livelihood for the family members. Each individual member aims to earn profit, enjoy a share for her own free will and repay the loan in small repayment installments.

The profit will increase when every member makes an individual effort to sustain the activity provided by the shared capital of the Self- Help Group ( S.H.G.) thereby purchasing raw material, inputs for production and technologies required for this while applying a shared knowledge and labour for combined profit through individual IGA ( Income Generating Activity ). This is different to the business activity that is managed by an individual or an organization as these Self- Help Group ( S.H.G.) s are unorganized, scattered in rural settings, far away from their markets, susceptible to changes in demands of products and generally ill-equipped to package their products. The capital required for the  IGA ( Income Generating Activity ) varies wit the individual capacity of the family of the member of the Self- Help Group ( S.H.G.). The sum total of the capital generated from the group savings and / or the loans from the outside agencies, the capital reaches individual as per the capacity to repay and the total fund ( savings, loans and other income ) of the Self- Help Group ( S.H.G.) is re-allocated with this view point for the individual member. The total sum of the capital required for the micro-enterprise may vary from a few thousand to sum of two lakh of rupees. The example of backyard poultry may vary from as low as rupees five thousand to more than three lakhs for the 300 birds. The variance makes the calculations very clumsy and challenging.

The implementer NGO ( Non- Government Organisation ) / mFI ( micro –Finance Institutions) / FI ( Financial Institution ) cannot and does not enter into these calculations and they simplify the calculations by terming these IGA ( Income Generating Activity ) in terms of “ Unit- Cost”. All the calculations are based upon a fixed number of units to be manufactured / produced/ reared under a fixed number of shed/ farm/ factory under a fixed cost of production by a fixed number of  labour for a fixed sales price generating a fixed profit leading to a fixed repayment installments. So you see every individual step and process is  “fixed”.

When each step and process for setting up an enterprise to the installments of the local amount is “fixed” we find that everything gets “fixed”. The complications in each calculation provide an opportunity to the manager of the loan-provider agency susceptible to demand favors and manipulations are then common. This leads to the financial corruption which may start as early as the opening of the account in the branch of that agency. The middle men here the financer / facilitator / NGO/ mFIs / Self- Help Group ( S.H.G.) may have to promise a share or a “cut” as a percentage of the loan amount sanctioned by the manager. This may be followed by a series of meetings, preparation of loan application supported by an assortment of documents, photographs, quotations, plans, budgets, minutes of the meetings of the Self- Help Group ( S.H.G.), decisions of the Self- Help Group ( S.H.G.) to take loan, and further opening of separate loan account in the same branch.

Please remember that these procedures are binding for the Self- Help Group ( S.H.G.) when we see that they are semi-literate,  illiterate,   rural , coming from backward community having no experience in taking loans from the market  and members of the Self- Help Group ( S.H.G.). The age of these members may have crossed the limit where they can change the thought-process and the facilitator has to fill up these forms, provide documentary support asked for, submit fees for the documentation of the application, convince the members to put their signatures on the loan application, provide photographs of the groups and the Bank Account operators, meet the manager in the Branch and not claim any service charge for doing all this either from the Bank or the Self- Help Group ( S.H.G.) .The completed Application form reaches the table of the manager of the loan-provider where they have a habit of providing a series of suggestions, remarks, comments , changes and some negative remarks on poverty of the Self- Help Group ( S.H.G.) members. Then a Field Officer may visit the spot where the Self- Help Group ( S.H.G.) holds a special meeting for again “fixing” some answers to some pre-fixed questions on their loan-application.

The facilitator agency may feel uncomfortable by the series of queries related to their organization regarding the – registration, Income Tax returns, compliance with the Registrar Office Rules, Audit and Annual Reports, Record related to the Governing Body Meeting, Status of property owned by the members and the organization, reputation of their work, office and staff persons and then decides separately on the loan that may be sanctioned to the Self- Help Group ( S.H.G.). It is ridiculous that the promoter or the facilitator agency, here the NGOs in the forefront, have no part in accessing and usage of Loan but their papers are scrutinized minutely, as if they are taking loans and they will repay the loan.

The time for approval of the loan-application is not “fixed” and may take weeks’ time or remain “pending” for years. The ombudsman agencies for Banks seldom intervenes in the delay of loan and it depends on the information relayed by the loan-provider agencies. The status of loanee is mostly like a beggar and Self- Help Group ( S.H.G.) looses its self-respect in this process.

The loan application usually gets approved at the Branch level as the demand for amount of loan by the Self- Help Group ( S.H.G.) is usually  not very high .The sanctioned loan amount is then transferred in the loan account of the Self- Help Group ( S.H.G.) that may have been opened in the same branch of the Bank. This loan amount could be in the range of the double amount of the money saved by the Self- Help Group ( S.H.G.) upto four times the total fund with the SHG. It is very rare that the Banks sanction the loan amount on a 1:4 ratio. The loan amount sanctioned and  transferred in the loan account is monitored by the Bank Staff and they wait for an opportunity to receive their share in the loans. It is usually seen that the first loan is easily accessed by the Self- Help Group ( S.H.G.) but the next dose and increase in the limit may be very difficult to achieve.

The amount of loan sanctioned by the branch of a Bank is reported to the Head Office of the Bank which gets refinanced from the NABARD ‘s Central- Pool.

NABARD calculates the amount of loan reaching the people living in the rural areas through the data provided by the Banks who “sanction” the amount of loan and transfer that amount in the loan account of the Self- Help Group ( S.H.G.) s. Our experience and data shows that this is a misleading data churned out by NABARD and reported to the Ministry of Finance. The amount of loan that is finally made available (sanctioned, disbursed and withdrawn from the Bank Loan Account ) to the loanee Self- Help Group ( S.H.G.) is far less than the amount of loan “sanctioned” by the Bank.

The loan reaching the Self- Help Group ( S.H.G.) is again reallocated to each member based upon three major factors :-

1. The savings and previous loan-repayment behavior of the member ,

2. Amount of capital required in the kind of IGA planned by the member and

3 The final capacity of the member to repay the loan that is to be taken now.

Thus, we see that there is a lot of wrong reporting by the Banks to the Ministry of Finance which further leads to some or most of the following complications for the rural people in India.

1. The Amount of loan provided to the Self- Help Group ( S.H.G.) is inadequate, rather miniscule to reach a profit-making limit for any Income Generating Activity (IGA):

The loans finally reaching the hands of  ( not the sanctioned amount of loan )   members of the Self- Help Group ( S.H.G.)s may be as low as a few hundreds to a few thousand of rupees when they would have required a loan nearing fifty thousand rupees or more. This small loan is useless for the member and may not support the financial need to start an IGA

2. The Procedure followed to access Loan from a Bank / Loan Provider is still cumbersome.

The access to loan is not without the lengthy procedures in the form of the filled  Application form, documents, verifications, notaries, non-judicial stamps, photographs and no-dues certificates in most of the nationalized Banks adhering to norms that flout the zero-balance and KYC Norms also. This problem may increase when the total amount of loan sought is more and second or third dose , the physical distance between the locations of the Self- Help Group ( S.H.G.) and Bank increases and there is an absence of a facilitator in the form of a Cluster of SHGs/ Federation / NGO / mFIs.

3. The leaders or the active members of the Self- Help Group ( S.H.G.) also claim a necessary amount of expenses that further leads to erosion of trust on the SHG Concept. SHG has no extra fund to spend on the preparation expenses of loan application. The loan application demands repeated visits, phone calls, sometimes a Project Report, Documents, Photographs, travel expenses and related unforeseen expenses. The chances are that even when they may get help from the facilitator in the preparation of these documents there is no guarantee to get the loan sanctioned by the Bank. The loss in making these efforts is seldom redeemed by any financer or funding agency. NABARD has never been empathetic to this need of the Self- Help Group ( S.H.G.) in India. The expenses are borne by the poor members of the Self- Help Group ( S.H.G.) s. Thus we see that even when there is lot of talk on encouraging the concept of  SHG- Bank Linkage Model there is no thought on how to compensate the financial losses incurred by the Self- Help Group ( S.H.G.) in pre-loan access activities.

NABARD does not provide any kind of financial help to the facilitators for the loan-facilitation expenses. It may provide assistance to the facilitator after it sanctions a Project-based procedure for SHG- Bank Linkage Model. The release of such grants are at the mercy of the Project Implementation Unit ( PIU ) comprising of the DDM of NABARD, the representatives of the District Lead Bank ,The Branch Manager and One person from the facilitator- Agency. The meeting of this PIU is expected every month which is not possible due to failure to reach a quorum, which recommends the release of grant after putting all reports in the pre-determined Formats and discussing the issues. The majority are from the Bank side so the facilitator is at the mercy of these big-brothers. NABARD has been sanctioning and providing Grants only to the well-reputed   ( read financially sound , Big and previously overflowing with Funds - NGOs/ Trusts / Banks/ Companies, etc. ) implementor which means again that the new NGOs/ Clusters or Organization formed by the Self- Help Group ( S.H.G.) members themselves are thrown out  of this scheme by the difficult procedures and norms unless and until they themselves become “well-reputed” as per the unwritten norms in NABARD.

The Grant in aid provided by NABARD can be withdrawn and recovered during and after the Project period. This one clause makes a mockery of providing assistance to those who really need this most. This has been misused by NABARD in many cases in our notice where the PIU of the Projects have not honoured the reports submitted by the facilitators and the verification sat the DDM level was never done on time. The DDMs are busy in reporting false data to their offices where they have no interest to cross-check the data provided by the small NGOs/ VA s working in the remote rural areas. The Annual Reports of NABARD for the last ten successive years, published on its official website , clearly shows hardly any positive change in the BIMARU States with respect to the SHG- Bank Linkage efforts. They have failed to bring any change in the rural economy in the States of Madhya Pradesh, Chattissgarh and Odisha. The data is also not reliable in the terms of loan sanctioned by Banks and the amount which is finally reaching the members of the Self- Help Group ( S.H.G.).  New facilitators are neither interested in this programme nor approaching NABARD as they are aware about the shoddy behaviors of the personnel at NABARD and the faulty implementation of the SHG- Bank linkage Model. Even the established NGOs are now avoiding partnership with NABARD due to their poor and autocratic behavior.

4. NABARD is misleading the country: The data on the loan sanctioning and the amount finally reaching the poor people of India is one such example which I have elaborated here. There are three major areas that the reporting by the Highest Office of NABARD can be said to be under black spot for the country –

1. Number of beneficiary reported through NABARD are not very reliable: . The numbers quoted by NABARD on its website are provided by the Banks and the implementing NGOs / other facilitators which may have been inflated for getting loan-reimbursements and grant in aid. Even when we assume that these figures  are correct we see that the total number of poor people ( registered as Below Poverty Line Level )  covered by NABARD is still less than 10 % of our total  population. When we have more than 47% people living in an BPL situation, NABARD took almost thirty long years to reach only 10 % of Indians. To reach the rest 37 %  Indian ( poor ) will require another 300 years or so and for 70% rural people they will need 600 years at the present pace. Do we allow this fallacy to continue ?

2. NABARD is autocratic, NOT  autonomous:    When NABARD can mislead the Members of Parliament on the restructuring of its agenda of work who will believe that they are not autocratic? ( See www.dnaindia.com  dated 02^nd. May 2012) . They act in their own ways, whims and fancies. The DDM in the district level hardly find time to hold regular meeting s with the NGOs, Individual Social Workers, Peoples’ representatives and Bank Managers. They usually file false bills for travels and meetings as many NGO have reported to us and which can easily be verified through the RTI Applications in their Office. They do even encourage the RTI Applicants to apply at the District level they ask them to report and apply at the State or Regional Level. The plans prepared by them at the district level are not shared with the common persons for whom they are supposed to address.

3. NABARD does not fight poverty, they help is sustaining poverty level and numbers :  The Self- Help Group ( S.H.G.) are the best alternative for the poor to sustain and survive in the given harsh conditions in India. We have been advocating formation of Self- Help Group ( S.H.G.) for a long time now. But the policies, implementation and wrong dates have shown how the poverty and the inflation is increasing. The wrong amount of loan, no tax rebates for the poor, heavy quantity of documentation and dictatorial attitudes of the Banks have been supported by NABARD. They never encourage poor people, unorganized Sector, Social Sector Activists and Decentralized Banking Operation to flourish. The terms of “financial-inclusion” is a misnomer as  they are including all those who are financially sound in the system which they do not need. The socially and financially under privileged need help from NABARD which they are not getting today.

What do we do ?  Wait for another 300 Years for NABARD ( National Bank for Agriculture And Rural Development ) to reach you doorstep ?

 The Day has come where we need to look into the way our national –level organization function.

I am writing on the solutions and will update them on my Blog. Can you suggest some ways out of this status quo ?  

Please reply. Thank you. 

www.parvezameer.blogspot.in 

Did Gandhi betray Muslims of India ?

Did Gandhiji betray Muslims in India ?

The Communal Award of 1932 was supportive of many other communities other than Muslims but the leaders of the Independence Movement in India could identify Muslims as the only community which was getting the benefits or so called benefits from the Communal Award.  The case for the present day dalits (Scheduled Castes or the SCs ) and the tribal communities was understood by Dr Bhimrao R. Ambedkar ji . He raised the issues of biasness and favored the treatment that was meant for these backward communities. We find that there was total absence of Muslim leadership in advocating for the causes of Muslims community.

The indefinite hunger strike started by Mohan Das Karamchand Gandhiji to press for the complete withdrawal of the Communal Award was the turning point in history of events that have alienated the Muslims communities from the mainstream of the independent India.

When the right of dual-electorate was awarded to the Muslims in 1932, it was an alternative whereby the common Muslim was encouraged to participate in the election process and they could have got ample representations in the elected bodies of the independent India. Their representatives could have come forward to solve numerous local problems specific to the community at the village or social level. We could have seen many women and young leaders from these communities, whether literate or illiterate, rural or urban, modern or stereotypical and men or women had the process of dual-electorate started. Gandhiji cut short this political awareness among the Muslims and prevented even the local leadership among the Dalits and tribals to participate in active politics.

Islam , as a religion , promotes  active participation of women in all  social and political processes of the society but we find that the powerful people and communities have always stood in the path of their sociopolitical empowerment. The youth could have got a chance to mould a better future for themselves and tried to become better leaders doing better work for the society. We could have seen more numbers of political-parties forming to cater to the needs of the Muslim community and the bigger national level  political-parties would have performed better, while delivering results for the Muslims.

The hunger strike by Gandhiji was a step which threw the Muslim community into the deep trench of injustice, hatred for them and a feeling of being left out in the process of getting freedom that would have been more just, equal and encouraging. This was happening as early as 1932 when there were no concrete proposal for the creation of Pakistan.

What we have seen is that this alienation of the Muslims has been continued as an agenda for the development of a particular community while also sidelining the tribals, other religious communities and the Dalits of Modern India as well.
 The question still remains valid - Did Gandhi betray the Muslims of India ?