In a move to improve banking facilities to the doorstep of remote rural households, work is in progress to provide doorstep banking services in every Panchayat by training the Didis of Sakhi Mandal as Banking Correspondent (BC) Sakhis in the State. So far, 4620 women of Sakhi Mandal are providing doorstep banking services to about 3137 Panchayats as BC Sakhis.
Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Jharkhand State Livelihood Promotion Society (JSLPS), Nancy Sahay said this on Thursday at the launch of the initiative to promote digital banking through Banking Correspondent with Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI). The online launch programme was attended by Secretary, Ministry of Rural Development, Government of India as the Chief Guest, NN Sinha.
Sahay shared in detail the efforts to take the expansion of banking services to all the families of remote villages through Sakhi Mandal.
Addressing the launching event, Sahay praised the expansion of banking services in rural areas through Banking Correspondent (BC) Sakhis in Jharkhand. She said that the initiative of digital banking through BC Sakhis by SIDBI would get a new dimension and soon the Didi Banking Sakhi of Sakhi Mandal would be able to provide facilities at doorstep in every Panchayat as Correspondent.
Speaking on this occasion Sinha described the initiative as encouraging digital transactions. Praising the BC Sakhi, he said that during the time of lockdown, these BC Sakhis of the Country did about Rs 6000 crore transactions and made banking services accessible in rural areas. Sinha congratulated SIDBI for this new beginning and appealed to the Farmer Producer Company and other entrepreneurs of Aajeevika Mission to cooperate in the coming days.
On the occasion of online launch of SIDBI Digital Banking Support Program, SIDBI CMD, Sivasubramanian Ramanna said that SIDBI State Livelihood Mission will provide technical assistance to Jharkhand, Bihar and Assam for expansion of digital banking. I hope this initiative will prove to be a milestone in the coming days, he added.
The initiative of JSLPS under Rural Development Department to provide banking service to the sisters of Sakhi Mandal in the form of BC Sakhi will be provided technical support through SIDBI. SIDBI will provide its services in digital training material, MIS dashboard and capacity building for the BC Sakhi initiative. There is a non-financial partnership between SIDBI and JSLPS.