A Field Worker’s Diary – Part 59
It was the first week of May in 2005. I don’t think there is any need to tell all those people who have even a tiny bit of touch with Guntur district how hot it can get in the month of May in that place. In that scorching summer, all the staff in the Krosur mandal where I was working had to wander across all villages without a chance to sit in the shade.
Krosuru Mandal was in the Pedakurapadu constituency. In the 2004 Elections, except for Mr. Dhulipalla Narendra in Ponnuru constituency, all other seats of Guntur district were won by Congress party. Pedakurapadu was Kanna Lakshmi Narayana’s constituency. On May 10, we had received orders from our higher-ups that as part of Mr. Narayana’s tour to his constituency, women Self-Help Groups (SHGs) in Krosuru mandal were to be linked on a large scale with banks through loan disbursement. Based on that we had to talk to banks to give loans and get the cheques ready. That’s the reason for our running around under that blistering sun. The main reason among the many aspects that contributed to Congress party’s thumping win in that election was the guarantee of loan waiver and Pavala Vaddi scheme or interest subsidy scheme.
Ever since they heard about the loan waiver guarantee as part of the election manifesto, many of the women SHGs, which until then had paid back bank loans regularly, had stopped paying monthly installments and sat tight; thinking that why should they pay when loan waiver is in the offing. If we kept aside the question of how beneficial loan waiver had been to farmers and women SHGs, it had dealt a severe blow to the Rural banking sector. Unable to collect the bad loans, banks were in severe shortage of money. At such a time, we had to ask the bank managers to give pavala vaddi loans.
As far as I can remember, Andhra Bank was the lead bank in Guntur District at the time. Even though orders were given to all banks in the District Level Bankers Committee meeting, which was held under the aegis of this lead bank, to provide pavala vaddi loans to groups based on their eligibility, most of the banks were reluctant to do so as some of the SHGs had already defaulted on paying installments. Truth be told, women SHGs had run pretty disciplined since their inception. If any group had to receive bank loan, then they had to follow the Pancha (five) sutras, which include, conducting weekly meetings, doing regular savings, practicing small inter-lending, paying back those internal loans and maintaining proper books. Initially, we used to keep harping on about the sutras in the meetings and did a lot of hard work to make the groups that we were working with follow these Pancha Sutras.
We used to show the inter lending transaction records to the bankers and make them agree to lend out large sums. We also used to support the members in preparing plans for income generation activities with the bank loans and the community investment fund (CIF) released by our project. In fact, the provision of low interest loans was a great opportunity for the women SHG members. However, the election promises made by all the political parties had dealt a huge blow to the discipline of the groups. Because of this, bankers were reluctant to come forward to give loans. This made our life so hard while working on this program.
In order to reach the target we had set, our mandal level staff had prepared a plan. We went to the banks and got the details of the defaulter groups. Then, we went to their villages and sat down with the groups and negotiated with them successfully to pay back some of the amount by saying that if they were to pay back their loans, they would get pavala vaddi loans this time. We also not only made a list of those groups that had been following the Pancha Sutras with discipline and hadn’t received any previous loans and gave it to the banks, but also helped them in completing the documents. At last, we had managed to reach our target.
On May 10th, loans were disbursed to women SHG members on a large-scale in the program. Just after the successful completion of the program, I couldn’t even spare some time to take a breather, instead, I ran to the Sattenapalli station to board the train coming in from Secundrabad and went to Repalle, my hometown. My wedding was set to happen on May 18th that year. My mother had already been really worried about what my excursions in the sun would do to my already dark-complexioned skin. Moreover, I had not even gotten my wedding clothes stitched. So, without further delay I sped to my hometown. Though I had said that the program was successful, I have to mention that the local project staff had put in a lot of effort. It was just one of those instances highlighting how the shift in governments’ priorities can shake the foundations of people’s groups like village, mandal and district level federations that had been built over many years through the hard work of countless activists.
Bharathi Kode