As many as eight public sector banks, including SBI, have failed to meet the March 2004 deadline for earmarking 5% of their net bank credit (NBC) for lending to women, according to the findings of the Parliamentary Committee on Empowerment of Women. As per the first report of the committee tabled in Parliament during the Winter Session, eight of the 27 public sector banks failed to achieve the target of lending 5% of NBC to women, especially to Self-Help Groups (SHGs), as prescribed by the Reserve Bank of India on July 26, 2001. The banks that failed to reach the target were State Bank of India (3.19%), State Ban of Saurashtra (1.32%), UCO Bank (3.4%), Oriental Bank of Commerce (3.58%), Dena Bank (3.38%), Corporation Bank (3.64%), Central Bank of India (4.63%) and Bank of India (4.31%). "This only exhibits the utter lack of seriousness to implement the recommendation of the committee made on recognising problems being faced by women," the committee, chaired by Lok Sabha MP Krishna Tirath, said in its report.Recognising the problems being faced by women in getting access to the formal banking system, the RBI had issued instructions to the banks to earmark 5% of NBC for lending to women within three years - i.e March 2004. The report also observed that the banks were giving only 3.5% interest to SHGs on the money deposited by them, but were charging up to 12% interest on loans to them. It pointed out that the rate of interest on loans to SHGs was high despite easy and almost full recovery of their loans. "Further, the existence of the low-interest rate regime strengthened the case for reducing the rate of interest on loans to SHGs," the committee said. "The committee feels that unless the credit needs of women are adequately met on easy terms, the SHGs would not develop sufficiently. Banks need to play a pro-active role in facilitating women to fulfil their credit requirements," the report said.
