Date:29/06/2007 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2007/06/29/stories/2007062959641000.htm

Tamil Nadu

Micro-Finance Bill will kill SHGs: Brinda Karat

Staff Reporter

BANGALORE: The Micro-Finance Sector (Development and Regulation) Bill, 2007, which the Centre proposes to introduce, is an “astra” in the hands of Union Finance Minister P. Chidambaram to kill the Rs. 3,000-crore self-help groups phenomenon, Brinda Karat, MP and vice-president of the All-India Democratic Women’s Association (AIDWA), said here on Thursday.

She was inaugurating a convention being attended by over 1,000 representatives of self-help group federations from all over the State to highlight “terrible consequences” that would follow if the Bill became law.

The Communist Party of India (Marxist) Central Committee had already decided to fight the proposed Bill “tooth and nail”, Ms. Karat said. “I suggest Mr. Chidambaram change his tinted glasses to plain ones, so he can see the sacrifices these four crore women make to save Rs. 50 a month and in turning micro-finance into a Rs. 3,000-crore sector,” she remarked.

Main demands

The SHG sector’s main demands are: better linkage with banks; interest at 4 per cent or less on loans; a special scheme or mechanism to revive and strengthen SHGs of Dalits, Adivasis and landless labourers, which have disintegrated because the members could not afford to sustain them; and training and assistance in marketing.