Private Banks ignoring the SC entrepreneurs-NSCA

Private Banks ignoring the SC entrepreneurs-NSCA

Standup India was launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 5 April 2016 to support entrepreneurship among women and SC & ST communities. The scheme offers bank loans of between Rs 10 lakh and Rs 1 crore for scheduled castes and scheduled tribes and women setting up new enterprises outside of the farm sector. It provides Construction equipment loan, Commercial vehicle loan, Business Loans Group (BLG) and Rural Business Credit (RBC) etc.

“Private banks and other regional credit banks have mostly ignored the applications of the individuals of Scheduled Castes community seeking loans to start their livelihood under the Stand Up India scheme, said Paramjit Singh Kainth, President, National Scheduled Castes Alliance.

Kainth told, Punjab is the state with the largest population of Scheduled Castes community and the interest shown by the private sector banks and other financial institutions is discouraging and the rate at which this scheme is progressing shows no sign of improvement in the condition of budding Scheduled Castes entrepreneurs.

There are a total of 6308 bank branches in Punjab and out of them only 886 branches have included Stand up India as their product. In the year 2017, 313 Scheduled Castes people have been approved of Rs 44.19 crore worth of loans and 954 women were approved Rs 193.48 crore of loans. It is surprising to know that 7 Private banks have completely rejected supporting the initiative of Stand up India. This exclusion by certain banks is a testament to the meagre social development these banks indulge in and more lean towards their profit only oriented approach.

Kainth further told that “People should be aware of banks like HDFC, Kotak Mahindra, Axis Bank, Yes Bank, Federal Bank, Capital Small Finance Bank and Satluj Rural Bank etc who do not support the cause of Scheduled Castes community and Women by approving schemes like Stand up India.”

Following are the branches of various banks which have approved Standup India in Punjab;

Kainth said “Captain Amrinder Singh led Congress government should encourage such schemes which foster the sense of self reliance amongst the scheduled castes community and women. It should take stern action against the banks which are not participating in the scheme and further sanctions should be imposed on those who are not approving or accepting loans applications from both the scheduled castes community and women.

“The idea of equality can only be achieved if the oppressed and poor communities and women get economical self reliance from schemes like Stand up India.