AIDWA members hold survey in Kothapatnam and other parts of Prakasam district
They will call on Minister for Indira Kranthi Patham V Sunita Lakshma Reddy
All India Democratic Women's Association (AIDWA) is bracing itself for protracted struggles both at the national and state levels to exert pressure on the Reserve Bank of India, the Union and State Governments to put in a comprehensive mechanism to regulate microfinance institutions (MFIs), which were holding in their clutches poor women debtors.
Informing this to reporters here on Sunday, AIDWA Andhra Pradesh State secretary Swaroopa Rani said the AIDWA had completed a State-wide with 30-point questionnaire in the wake of suicide by over 100 women in the State in the last three months due to forcible collection and arm-twisting by MFI agents.
“We will discuss the findings at our State committee meeting in Hyderabad on December 9. This will be followed by an AIDWA meet in New Delhi on December 18 to chalk out agitation programmes in support of the distressed women in the country,'' she said.
She said it was found by AIDWA members during the survey in Kothapatnam and other parts of Prakasam district that “taking loans from RBI at 8 per cent interest, the MFIs are charging as high as 48 to 60 per cent from poor women whose credit needs were not met by public sector banks''.
She said a delegation of AIDWA leaders would call on Minister for Indira Kranthi Patham V Sunita Lakshma Reddy and press for inclusion of certain clauses in the bill to replace the ordinance on MFIs during the winter session of the State Assembly.
Provisions should be made to regulate rate of interest charged by MFIs, increase the number of equated instalments and do away with collective responsibility of the entire group for any individual to meet her obligation, she said.
“Over one crore women members of Self Help Groups are in a precarious position not getting the ‘Pavala vaddi' promised by the Government,'' she lamented, adding that the continuance of the co-contributory pension scheme Abhayahastham also remained a big question mark.
She claimed that Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy seemed to be more preoccupied with political agenda of making Congress leader Rahul Gandhi as the future Prime Minister.
He had failed to win the confidence of women and other sections by addressing various issues facing them, she contended.
(Courtesy : The Hindu)
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