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Surekha Kadapa-Bose

The Shatabdi Mahila Sahakari Bank Ltd in Thane, Maharashtra, is a bank for women that believes in gender-sensitive policies.

About a year after it opened its doors to women borrowers and depositors — who include domestic help as well as entrepreneurs — the Shatabdi Mahila Sahakari Bank Ltd (SMSBL), an urban cooperative bank in Thane, Maharashtra, has more than justified its existence. Today, its deposits are worth Rs 1.05 crore.

"My association with banking made me realise that despite the existence of the government's women-friendly bank policies, small-time women entrepreneurs have been unable to reap the benefits and continue to be dependent on moneylenders. That is when I thought of starting a women-friendly bank to solely service women clients," says Dr Madhu Gupta, the bank's chairperson.

Among the entrepreneurs who have availed of SMSBL loans is Rekha Raval, who shifted her residence in Mumbai from Ghatkopar to Thane. "I didn't know any one to ask for a bank loan to set up an electrical goods shop. Some of my friends suggested SMSBL as it is supposed to be a women-friendly bank. Though it took nearly a month to get the loan sanctioned, I got Rs 4 lakh without much of a problem and with a lot of help from the all-women staff," Rekha says. The bank provides loans only to those women who live within the Thane Municipal Corporation limits; which is why Rekha set up her shop in Thane itself.

Madhu's knowledge of banking operations goes back to the 1980s; her company (which she ran with her husband Naresh) had developed accounting software and other banking solutions for about 100 banks in India, including many in Thane. In 1998, she began to build a team of women who shared her dream of starting a bank for women. And in the following year, a team of 13 women was ready with a proposal.

To fulfil Reserve Bank of India (RBI) stipulations for an urban cooperative bank, the team had to show a share capital of Rs 1 crore, at least 2,000 women members, and a minimum of 11 women on its board of directors. The team's targets were achieved during the first 10 months of 2003, and that November, the bank became operational.

Many of the bank's initial shareholders were self-employed; and of these, 20 women who bought shares worth Rs 1,000 worked as domestic help.

Today, the bank has 2,508 shareholders and a fund of Rs 50 lakh, with another Rs 55 lakh invested in various schemes. While men can open and operate an account in SMSBL, only women get loans. Take Kalavati Gholap, a sweeper with the Thane Municipal Corporation; her husband is a daily wager. "I wanted to build the top room of my 10 sq ft kholi (house) where I live with my husband, four children and a brother-in-law. But I didn't want to fall into the clutches of the local moneylenders. And when I approached Shatabdi Bank for Rs 50,000, I was sanctioned the loan. With that, we rebuilt almost my entire two-level home," she says. SMSBL insists that borrowers have to be shareholders too. To get a loan sanctioned, women are required to furnish specific plans, and in the case of women entrepreneurs, they must have a clearly viable project.

"So far, we have disbursed Rs 23 lakh in loan money, from a minimum of Rs 20,000 to as much as Rs 4 lakh — and we have not had a single defaulter," explains Uttam Gadade, the bank's Chief Executive Officer.

Gadade is the only male face in the bank; and this, because SMSBL was unable to find a woman with the requisite qualifications (according to RBI rules) to head a co-operative bank.

Significantly, urban cooperative banks (UCBs) occupy a unique slot in the country's financial system. The deposits of UCBs, which were a meagre Rs 153 crore in 1967, grew to Rs 93,000 crore by 2002 and accounted for 8.5 per cent of the aggregate deposits of commercial banks. And of the total deposits with cooperative banks in the country, Maharashtra accounts for nearly 60 per cent.

All-round help

SMSBL goes out of its way to help its borrowers — in preparing project reports, and seeking the opinion of its panel of experts on the feasibility of a project. The bank does not charge any fee for services, says Madhu, and in its effort to be friendlier than other banks, it provides a home banking scheme.

For instance, if a depositor is unable to visit the bank, she can use the services of the bank's agents to deposit cash or cheques and to withdraw money. The bank has neighbourhood information centres and housewives work as agents; an agent receives a two per cent commission on every new deposit.

SMSBL also has a gold loan scheme under which a woman can buy jewellery and forward the receipt to the bank. The jeweller is reimbursed by the bank, which holds the ornament until the loan is repaid. "This scheme has received good support from low-income families with daughters of marriageable age," says Madhu.

The bank also seeks to be different from other banks. Instead of paying dividend to its shareholders, it organises cardiac and gynaecological check-ups, career enhancement and counselling sessions (in addressing childcare-related problems), and workshops on spirituality.

Madhu adds that cooperative banks have a future, provided they are made increasingly member-driven, have autonomous bodies, are governed by elected representatives of their members and are managed professionally. Unlike other banks, she says, a bank for women has to be gender sensitive; its ambience must make the customer feel at home.

Women's Feature Service

Picture by Shashi Ashiwal

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