Under the loan scheme of Chhattisgarh Mahila Kosh operated by State Government's Women and Child Development Department, nearly Rs48.84 crore have been distributed as business loans to more than 27,000 women groups during the last 12 years, officials stated.
It is noteworthy that to provide loans on easy terms to women self-help groups (SHGs), the State Government is operating loan scheme under Chhattisgarh Mahila Kosh from 2003.
Under this scheme, women groups are first provided loans of up to Rs50,000 at nominal annual interest rate of 3%, whereas after recovery of this amount, they can avail loan of up to Rs2 lakh next time. Thousands of women have availed this scheme to become financially independent through small trades.
Women and Child Development Officials informed that loans of Rs4.97 crore were provided to 1,725 groups in 2013-14, and loans of Rs8.95 crore have been given to 2,454 women groups in 2014-15.
They said that the scheme has provision of recovering loan amount from women groups in 24 installments at the first time and recovery of second time loan is done in 36 installments. Recovery of loan begins from three months after the sanction of loan.