A right step towards a New Beginning
>> Thursday, September 1, 2011
The tribal population who have been allotted one acre each of developed land in the Aralam Tribal Resettlement Project area were required to travel 5 to 10 km to reach the nearest bank branch. A lion’s share of the settlers were not habituated to savings and were depending on usurious money lenders for their emergent credit needs. Realising this felt need of the settlers, North Malabar Gramin Bank took a proactive step to open a satellite office attached to its Kak kengad branch in the Project area . The satellite office would initially be functioning for two days a week. Besides the settlers , the satellite office will also be catering to the banking needs of the employees and labourers of the Aralam Farm.
Kakkengad Farmers Club which has been partnering with NMGB in implementing many socially relevant interventions amongst the rural poor will be in the forefront in mobilising the tribal population of the resettlement area and inculcating in them banking habbits. With the vast experience gained in social mobilisation through formation and nurturing of Self Help Groups and Joint Liability Groups , the task will not be a difficult one for the Club. Though it is a challenging task, considering the socio political undercurrents, the Club considers it as a big opportunity to bring those at the bottom of the pyramid to the mainstream.
Another area of intervention by the Club could be for providing extension services and capacity building of the settlers for adopting good agricultural practices for earning a livelihood from the one acre plot allotted to each family, rather than continuing to remain under the clutches of the middlemen who have been exploiting them for ages together. The tribal settlers and labour force employed in the Farm have now got an opportunity to avail hassle free banking services at their doorstep and handholding by an experienced Farmers Club. The Club is also exploring the possibility of forming producer groups from amongst the settlers for aggregation and processing of directly without involving middlemen.
A few snaps taken on 08 July 2011 when the satellite office was formally inaugurated are covered in the slideshow.
