BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT IN
THE HILLS OF UTTARAKHAND
SEWA Bharat’s step towards Financial
Inclusion
SELF EMPLOYED WOMEN’S ASSOCIATION (SEWA) Bharat
ABOUT SEWA
The Self-Employed Women’s Association (SEWA) was founded by Smt Ela Bhatt
as a labour union in Ahmedabad in 1972, with just 600 head loaders, street
vendors and home-based stitchers. Since then it has grown continuously,
increasing in its membership and including more and more different occupations
within its fold. Today, SEWA has more than 17 lakh dues-paying members in 10
states of India.
SELF EMPLOYED WOMEN’S ASSOCIATION (SEWA) Bharat
ABOUT SEWA BHARAT
SEWA believes in the joint action of strength and development and has furthered
more than 112 co-operatives & worker organisations. Today, it is a banyan tree
forest of organisations where poor women workers are the owners, managers
and users
SEWA Bharat is a federation of SEWA member organisations with the mandate to
highlight issues concerning women working in the informal economy and to
strengthen the capacity of the organisations that serve the interests of these
women.
SELF EMPLOYED WOMEN’S ASSOCIATION (SEWA) Bharat
ROLE OF SEWA BHARAT
1. ORGANISING AND CAPACITY BUILDING: Organize women to increase their
bargaining power ensuring that their voices are heard and engineer trainings
and workshops for the purpose of honing their skills
2. MICROFINANCE: Help women in their work towards capital formation at the
household levels by providing them the necessary financial tools i.e.
continuous savings, credit etc
3. EMPLOYMENT GENERATION: Skill training, improved livelihood and market
opportunities for women workers and adolescent girls
4. SOCIAL SECURITY: Increased access of women workers to social protection
entitlements, including health, insurance, child care and pensions
5. ADVOCACY AND NETWORKING: Women workers’ concerns are brought to
the forefront with the ultimate goal of increased recognition of their rights
and entitlements by organizing campaigns visible to the public eye.
SELF EMPLOYED WOMEN’S ASSOCIATION (SEWA) Bharat
SEWA BHARAT IN UTTARAKHAND
More than 75% of its population of 1.01
crore* comes under the category of ‘rural’.
Women, who account for 41% of the
population, work tirelessly for 16 hours in
75 %
agricultural fields braving rough weather,
wild animals and the unleveled terrain.
With rampant alcoholism in the state,
women often have to resort to hiding
their earnings in order to be able to hoard
Map for indicative purposes only
* According to the 2001 Census
savings.
SELF EMPLOYED WOMEN’S ASSOCIATION (SEWA) Bharat
FINANCIAL SERVICES: CONSPICUOUS BY THEIR
ABSENCE
Owing to the high altitude, poor connectivity with roads, thinly spread population, bank
services in such areas are often very limited.
In order to bridge the chasm between rural areas and banking services, SEWA in
collaboration with the State Bank of India (SBI) began a unique initiative of financial
inclusion in 2009.
SELF EMPLOYED WOMEN’S ASSOCIATION (SEWA) Bharat
SEWA-SBI FINANCIAL INCLUSION MODEL
The SEWA-SBI financial inclusion model employs local women and provides linkages
between banks and previously unbanked areas. Women are appointed as Customer
Service Point (CSP) if they meet the following requirements pre-determined by
SEWA:
 In need of employment
 Must have Class Xth school education
 Comfortable with traveling to the bank of the and unbanked areas
SELF EMPLOYED WOMEN’S ASSOCIATION (SEWA) Bharat
SEWA-SBI FINANCIAL INCLUSION MODEL
State Bank of India issues a Business Correspondent Code to the CSP. CSPs provide a
spectrum of bank services like:
Opening of Zero balance account
Deposit savings
Cash withdrawal
Remittance
Loan application
Government schemes distribution
 MGNREGA
SELF EMPLOYED WOMEN’S ASSOCIATION (SEWA) Bharat
SEWA-SBI FINANCIAL INCLUSION MODEL
A Little World, the technology provider, then
generates a unique CSP ID and leverages a Point of
Sale (POS) Machine. With these machines, the CSPs
reach out to unbanked areas and through the medium
of these POS machines; the customer identification
(fingerprints,
Technology used in the SEWA-SBI Financial
Inclusion Programme
voice-recording,
and
customer
photographs) is recorded. Once the data has been
entered, it is linked to an account and subsequently,
the customer details are uploaded to the Mumbai
server through GPRS
SELF EMPLOYED WOMEN’S ASSOCIATION (SEWA) Bharat
SEWA-SBI FINANCIAL INCLUSION MODEL
After the pre-requisites are fulfilled, each
customer is issued a SEWA-SBI identity card
with her photograph and a unique customer ID
card enabling banking facilities.
Customer ID card
SELF EMPLOYED WOMEN’S ASSOCIATION (SEWA) Bharat
SEWA-SBI FINANCIAL INCLUSION MODEL
BASIC MODEL
SEWA BHARAT
WOMEN
WOMEN
WOMEN
Desired profile:
•In need of employment
•Must have class X school education
•Comfortable with traveling to the bank
and unbanked areas.
CUSTOMER SERVICE PROVIDERS (CSP)/ SEWA
BANK SAATHI
Services like bank a/c opening,
deposit savings, cash withdrawal,
remittance, loan application, govt
schemes distribution, MGNREGA
RURAL UNBANKED AREAS
SEWA-SBI FINANCIAL INCLUSION MODEL
OPERATIVE
TECHNOLOGY
SEWA BHARAT
CUSTOMER SERVICE PROVIDERS (CSP)/ SEWA
BANK SAATHI
DATA ENTRY IS THEN LINKED TO THE
CORRESPONDING A/C
DATA UPLOADED TO SBI’S MUMBAI SERVER THROUGH
GPRS; A/C REGISTERED
SBI issues a
Business
Correspondent
Code to the CSPs.
A Little World
(ALW), technology
provider,
generates a
unique CSP ID and
issues them POS
machines.
Identity of the
community
members,
through
fingerprints,
voice recording,
is recorded with
the POS
machines.
SEWA-SBI FINANCIAL INCLUSION: UNIQUE MODEL
The uniqueness of this programme stems from the following:
 Through this programme, the bank comes to the customers instead of the
customers having to go to the bank investing time and money.
 Unlike most Business Correspondents, SEWA finances the POS machines;
transaction deposit amount in Bank pays them an assured salary and expenses.
SEWA does not take security deposit from them. This is the only way the poor
supports the poor.
 SEWA is providing livelihood to such women who connect thousands of villagers
to the Banking services. She is available to collect a sum of Rs 10/- too.
 90% of our ‘No Frill Accounts’ are active and not idle. So these accounts are
fulfilling the needs of the poor.
At an average, a CSP links 750 people with the financial services of this
programme.
SELF EMPLOYED WOMEN’S ASSOCIATION (SEWA) Bharat
SEWA-SBI FINANCIAL INCLUSION: ASSOCIATED BENEFITS
The rural population of Uttarakhand primarily consists of the elderly, women and
young children. Men regularly venture out to the cities looking for better
employment opportunities. Agriculture, albeit difficult, alongside animal husbandry
have been the main occupations of these women. For long, the state has struggled
retain these people through local employment and income generation. Through
this unique model, employment generation for women has grown manifold and
the gap between financial inclusion and financial stability has narrowed.
SELF EMPLOYED WOMEN’S ASSOCIATION (SEWA) Bharat
ACHIEVEMENTS OF SEWA-SBI FINANCIAL INCLUSION
PROGRAMME
Working in 16 blocks of the 4 districts of Almora, Bageshwar, Pithoragarh and
Champawat, 2012 saw 5524 new accounts being opened out of which:
 3, 571 were POS accounts, 1, 706 manually opened
 91 were RD accounts
 156 were FD accounts
 104 loan (96 agriculture loan) accounts with Rs 73 lakhs disbursed.
Total 28 bank saathis were employed for this.
ACHIEVEMENTS OF SEWA-SBI FINANCIAL INCLUSION
PROGRAMME
PARTICULARS
NO OF A/C*
AMOUNT*
(Figure in Rupees)
Total Deposit
Total Advances
Total
Transaction
15701
43552944
232
18337500
15933
61890444
380781
*As calculated on the 31st December 2012
ACHIEVEMENTS OF SEWA-SBI FINANCIAL INCLUSION
PROGRAMME
The Vodafone Foundation, in association with the Digital Empowerment
Foundation launched the Women & Innovation for Mobile (WIN) Award, in
2011, to honor and recognize innovative mobile applications and solutions
benefitting women users in the category of Education, Health, Family
Welfare, Economic Empowerment and Entrepreneurship.
The Grand Jury deeply appreciated the innovations of the SEWA-SBI Financial
Programme and the positive impact it had on the women workers and
emerged as the Finalist of the awards.
SELF EMPLOYED WOMEN’S ASSOCIATION (SEWA) Bharat
ACHIEVEMENTS OF SEWA-SBI FINANCIAL INCLUSION
PROGRAMME
In March 2013, a landmark achievement came in the
form of successful pension distribution through the
channel of this programme. Without having to liaison
with concerned departments tirelessly, beneficiaries
directly had their pension sums transferred to their
SBI bank accounts.
A total of Rs 1, 50, 000 was transferred to 25 such
accounts.
PENSION DISTRIBUTION THROUGH BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT
MODEL
1
For
the
elderly,
Pension
shoulders
the
responsibility of ensuring a decent standard of
living. Pivotal for their survival, pension schemes
are often caught in red tape delaying its timely
delivery making the situation grim for the elderly.
In March 2013, Joint Magistrate, Ranikhet,
2
Dr Ahmed Iqbal inaugurated the pension
distribution routed through the Business
Correspondent Model of SEWA-SBI.
PENSION DISTRIBUTION THROUGH BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT
MODEL
3
Pension Distribution was, then, facilitated
by opening zero balance accounts and
transferring pension directly to their
accounts
Without running from pillar to post,
pensioners are assured of timely delivery
of their pension scheme helping them
lead a secured life.
4
ACHIEVEMENTS OF SEWA-SBI FINANCIAL INCLUSION
PROGRAMME
With the success of the recent pension distribution service, SEWA-SBI Financial
Inclusion Plan will also be used for the purpose of Direct Benefits Transfer of
Central Government Schemes in the districts of Bageshwar.
WAY FORWARD: SEWA-SBI FINANCIAL INCLUSION
PROGRAMME
Apart from making financial services accessible to the rural poor, the SEWA-SBI
Financial Inclusion Programme aims to act as a channel for easy, swift, graft-free
route of cash transfer for over 300 schemes like those of widow pension,
MNREGA, Jan Shikshan Sansthan, handicap pension among several others. The
recent disbursement of old age pension through this model is a humble beginning
to a long drawn journey.
SEWA-SBI Financial Inclusion Programme aims to maximize benefits and
minimize inconveniences for its members.
SELF EMPLOYED WOMEN’S ASSOCIATION (SEWA) Bharat
SEWA-SBI FINANCIAL INCLUSION PROGRAMME
Thank you!
www.sewabharat.org
https://www.facebook.com/SelfEmployedWomensAssociation