The Hindu Business Line : Keeping investment secrets of women

At 63, she canvasses for Post Office saving schemes and has raised over Rs 3 crore in the last two years. Meet Rajam Venkatraman, an enthusiastic agent who cycles her way to her clients' homes.

She would be any investment company's dream agent for garnering savings. At the age of 63, she enthusiastically cycles her way to her clients' homes if the distance is only a couple of kilometres, explains the various options that the post office savings schemes provide for investors, and quietly channelises the money lying idle in people's savings bank accounts into the Post Office coffers.

Rajam Venkatraman of Chennai has been doing this for 12 years; carrying out literally a door-to-door campaign to patiently explain to people the need to get optimum returns on their money.

So does she get the door banged on her face sometime?

"Not at all; in all these 12 years, I have never encountered a single person who has been rude to me. On the contrary, they are interested in listening to the options they have in investing their money in a safe savings instrument. Of course, it requires a lot of talking and convincing."

And she must be good at it, because in the last two years, she has raised over Rs 1.5 crore a year for the various Post office saving schemes. "In fact, rather than being rude, people are so nice. Most people don't know how to save or invest their money. They have so much money; they don't know what to do with it. In Chennai alone, there are huge numbers of such people," she says.

Till 1992, when Rajam's husband was posted at Neyveli at the Neyveli Lignite Corporation, she was content to be a good Samaritan and social worker. But once she came to Chennai, a friend suggested that she look at raising deposits for post office schemes and she has never looked back since then.

Most of Rajam's clients are elderly people who are looking for a steady stream of income from a source that will not put their capital at risk. She has as many male as well as female investors and says the psychology of women investors is rather different from that of men. "Women like to get the maximum returns and many of them keep the very fact that they are saving a secret from their husbands. These are mostly working women, who like to keep aside some money for their personal needs, and I always keep their confidence on how much money they are saving," she says.

Warming up to the subject, she adds, "Take my own case; nobody knows how much I save from what I earn. I think that is my business entirely!"

The safety aspect is very important for women investors, who have a lot of misconceptions on the risk to their money. "But once I explain that this is the Government of India who they can trust, then it is very easy to get deposits from them."

It is interesting to note that Rajam is able to persuade not only working women, who are anyway conscious about saving something, but also housewives, "who definitely save something from the household expenditure and invest this money wisely. Many of these women do not like their husbands to know that they are saving and ask me to come when they are not at home! Some women like putting small amounts into recurring deposit (RD) schemes; but I don't do RD. In this scheme one can save even Rs 10 a month, and there are even beggars who save regularly through this scheme."

But don't women want to spend their money on gold jewellery, silk sarees and the like?

"Yes, they do. But a time comes when they get fed up of it all and want to just put aside their money in savings. But the rumour that the government is going to reduce the interest rate from 8 per cent is really worrying the elderly and women investors who invest regularly in Post office schemes," she says.

Has the job given her self-confidence?

"Well, I was always a very confident person, but this job has given me more self-confidence."

But doesn't she find it rather tiring — particularly in the summer months when Chennai can get very hot? "On the contrary, I enjoy this work immensely and so I don't feel the heat at all. As for the cycling, I checked with a doctor and he said: `Continue with it; it is good for your health'."

She adds proudly, "Do you know there are more than 10,000 women raising money for the post office, but very few are over 60!"

Apart from giving her a good income — she earns more than Rs 10,000 a month — it keeps her "busy and happy. I leave my house at 8.30 a.m. in the morning, return home for lunch, leave again after an hour and come back at 6 p.m. If the distance is long, I take a bus and then an auto rickshaw. I can't afford to take auto rickshaw all the time; I don't get any pension, so I have to be very careful how I spend my money!"

Needless to say, Rajam herself invests in the post office.

Does she ever splurge?

"Oh yes, but only on my grandchildren. And, I also have to save for the future because I don't know how long I can go on working like this."

Picture by Bijoy Ghosh

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