Recognizing and Responding to Opportunities

Nikita Dhone, initially a Bank Sakhi, and who later became a Business Correspondence Sakhi, has been successful in linking SHGs with bank credit, in the process also becoming a strong support for her family.

The journey of Nikita Dhone from a housewife to an actively working BC Sakhi of her community is one fulfilling example speaking volumes about the success of this intervention. It all started with her becoming a member of Umed’s self-help group, which brought to her increased awareness, knowledge, exposure, thoughtfulness and skill, eventually urging her to take right actions for herself and her family.

The SHG membership made her learn about the forthcoming opportunity of Bank Sakhi. For 2 long years, she worked with the bank, learning and rendering services of Bank Sakhi for her community SHG women. In one of the instances, she facilitated credit linkage of 85 SHGs in one working day. Her sincere work as Bank Sakhi and willingness to gain good name and income for her family motivated her to apply for the position of Business Correspondent Sakhi. Though her previous job as Bank Sakhi skilled her in the banking processes, but its honorarium (INR 3000/month) did not suffice for her family’s requirements. Today, she is serving 128 self-help groups operating under 2 Village Organizations and looking forward to serve additional 5-6 SHGs, which are presently under formation. Just 3 months of her BC Sakhi service and its corresponding commission earning is bringing up to her a steady income of INR 10,000/ month. Within this short span, she has also adequately managed repaying five instalments of her initial BC point equipment loan. This economic and social graduation was not an easy engagement for her. It was marked by challenges like strong village level competition among the community peers for the BCA position and adaptability to new technology. In addition to training, practical demonstrations and initial loan for BC point equipment’s, constant handholding support provided by Umed prepared her to take the needful actions.

The nationwide/ statewide lockdown period witnessed her delivering last mile door to door service to around 250 SHG women of her sub service area, disbursing them the instalments (INR 500) of Central credit relief package under Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana and completing overdraft facility related individual transactions up to INR 5000 for them, provisioned for Jan Dhan Account holders.

Source : Inspirational Stories of Aatmanirbhar Rural Women