Stand Up India Plan slowing Down: Only 6% of Bank Branches Gave Loans to SC/STs

tand Up India Plan slowing Down: Only 6% of Bank Branches Gave Loans to SC/STs

Every bank has been told that it will be your responsibility to ensure that wherever you have a branch, you have to give loans to two persons in the area — a youth who is a Dalit or an Adivasi, and a woman — to help them start a new enterprise, new business.

That’s what Prime Minister Narendra Modi said at the launch of the Stand Up India initiative in Noida on April 5, 2016.

Records show that 17 months after this assurance, barely six per cent of the 1.3 lakh bank branches have provided Stand Up India loans to Scheduled Caste/Scheduled Tribe individuals. And less than 25 per cent of the branches have provided loans to women in the general category.

This is according to data on loans obtained from the Department of Financial Services, Ministry of Finance, by The Indian Express under the Right to Information Act.

According to the data received, 21 public sector commercial banks, 42 regional rural banks and nine private sector banks have provided Stand Up India loans to 5,852 SC applicants, 1,761 ST individuals, and 33,321 general category women.The total loan amount sanctioned across banks is Rs 8,803 crore — so far, only Rs 4,852 crore has been disbursed.

Data shows that the 21 public sector commercial banks have together sanctioned Stand Up India loans to 38,111 individuals – 5,559 of them are SC, 1,653 ST and 30,899 general category women. The average amount disbursed to SC/St applicants is Rs 10 lakh while the average for women is Rs 12.27 lakh.

Six of these public sector banks have together provided loans to less than 100 SC individuals. And 16 banks have not sanctioned a single loan under the ST category.

Of the nine private banks, IndusInd Bank has sanctioned 184 Stand Up India loans to SC individuals while only 12 loans have been provided by the rest.

The data provided shows that these nine banks have together sanctioned such loans to only 196 SC, 76 ST individuals and 2,015 general category women.

Four private banks and 15 of 42 regional rural banks (RRBs) have not provided a single Stand Up India loan to any SC individual. The private banks are Axis Bank, HDFC Bank, South Indian Bank and The Nainital Bank.

Five private banks – Axis Bank, Federal Bank, ICICI Bank, The Nainital Bank and Yes Bank – have not sanctioned a single such loan to any ST person.

Of the 42 RRBs, 33 banks have not sanctioned even one such loan to any ST individual. In the case of SC individuals, 15 have not sanctioned any such loan while the rest account for 97. Karnataka Vikas Grameen Bank tops with 13 such loans.

The RRBs which have not granted a single loan to any SC individual are: Arunachal Pradesh Grameen Bank, Baroda Rajasthan Kshetriya Grameen Bank, Bihar Kshetriya Grameen Bank, Chaitanya Godavari Kshetriya Grameen Bank, Chhattisgarh Kshetriya Grameen Bank, Jharkhand Grameen Bank, Kaveri Grameen Bank, Kerala Grameen Bank, Langpi Dehangi Rural Bank, Pallavan Grameen Bank, Pandyan Grameen Bank, Punjab Grameen Bank, Saurashtra Grameen Bank, Uttar Banga Grameen Bank andUttarakhand Grameen Bank.

In all, the 42 RRBs have sanctioned Stand Up India loans to 536 people — 97 under the SC head, 32 in the ST category and 407 general category women. Three RRBs have not sanctioned a single such loan to general category women.

The stated goal of Stand-up India, according to the government’s website, is to enable bank loans between Rs 10 lakh to Rs 1 crore to at least one SC or ST borrower and at least one woman per bank branch to set up a “greenfield enterprise.” The loan — repayable in seven years — is at the lowest applicable rate of the bank for its rating category.

Source: I