Bhubaneswar: For the first time in history, credit flow to Self Help Group (SHG)s in Odisha is all set to cross Rs.15,000 Crore, thanks to the overdrive of Department of Mission Shakti.
Secretary Mission Shakti, Sujata Rout Karthikeyan is spearheading the efforts to empower SHGs across the state.
She is impressing upon the Bankers to extend the level of credit to SHGs and due to her persistent pursuit, credit flow to SHGs have gone up.
This has crossed Rs 11,000 crore in 2022-23 – a quantum leap over a period of 8 years.
The average loan size has also seen a big jump from Rs 1.06 lakh in 2016-17 to Rs 3.01 lakh now.
This quantum jump was boosted by the State Government’s decision to provide zero-interest loans upto Rs 5 lakh.
In the past four years, Rs 587 crores has been reimbursed directly to bank accounts of more than 4 lakh SHGs with Rs 216 crore in the last year alone.
Unparalleled reduction has been recorded in NPA of SHG loans from 14.2% to 1.99% in the last six years. This is one of the lowest in the country.
For the first time, 1103 GPs in Odisha are NPA Free – a fact also praised by the Government of India.
Similarly, Odisha also recorded an impressive rise in the usage of Bank Accounts by women.
About 86.5% women in Odisha have a Bank or Savings account that they themselves use.
As per the National Family Health Survey (NFHS-5) report, in 90.2 per cent families in Odisha, married women are participating in taking household decisions against the national average of 88,7 per cent.
Previously, the NFHS – 4 of 2015-16 had shown 56.2% women in Odisha had Bank/Savings accounts that they use themselves.
To reach the unreached, Mission Shakti has placed more than 2318 SHG members as BCAs in unbanked GPs across Odisha having a business of Rs 1159 crore during last year with earnings of Rs 3.68 crore.
Powered by the Cabinet decision to provision Government goods and services worth Rs. 5000 crores from SHGs, Rs 4949.14 crore worth of Government business has already been facilitated in convergence with 20 Government Departments.