Samachar from Saath

Hello Fellow Paropkaars!
Miss you all like crazy from yesterday. How were the trips?
What a full on last 12 hours. I arrived at Saaath early afternoon to learn about a plethora of social enterprise projects. Their concept is one of helping people to access their services and pay for them rather than the pure charitable receiver model. I was so amazed to see all that they do and I keep thinking that I haven't yet even seen anything in action. The offices have a real buzz about them. Ok, so turning to the banks! Shocking fact for the day - informal money lenders (ie the black economy) lend money to slum community borrowers typically at rates of 200-300%! I just can't believe how exploitative that is. I've spoken loads with Divyang today who manages the micro finance project. We compared UK and US indebtedness and discussed saving loan ratios. Indians typically save about 30% of their monthly salary but slum dwellers are cut off from accessing finance because of a lack of credit history and the fact that private and public banks don't want to set up shop near slums. However, Saath's programme is really positive in that you have to be a saver for 6 months before you qualify for a loan, so the habit of saving is engendered. Anyway, more soon - I am visiting the branches tmrw and reading about cooperative banking regulation! By the way, ahmedabad is so garam - it's like walking through an oven. Been told to drink at least 4 litres of water again. And guess what, being Gujurat, the local radio plays garbas all year round. Stay smiling
Love Priya