Institute Started By Rural Bank To Teach Entrepreneurs Ropes Of
Micro-Business Makes Headlines
Abhay Vaidya | TNN
Mhaswad (Satara dist): It began when the chairperson of the microfinancing
Mann Deshi Mahila Sahakari Bank (MDMSB) ran into one of her rural customers.
Aruna Gaikwad, a familiar face at the branch, “was bursting with energy and
wanted us to tell her everything about wholesale vegetable vending,” the
bank’s founder and World Yale Fellow, Chetna Gala Sinha (46) recalled.
The bank helped her set up the business in 2005 and, in the process,
realised that enterprising women like Gaikwad needed more than just credit
at concessional rates to run their micro-businesses. Thus was born the idea
of a B-school for rural women, or micro-schooling.
Today, the Mann Deshi Udyogini (MDU) located in the chronically
drought-prone Mann taluka (Satara district) of western Maharashtra is
attracting rave reviews in the international media. The Financial Times
ranked it alongside Harvard and Chicago-GSB for running one of the best
executive educational programmes worldwide. Lately, the Economist, too, has
mentioned it prominently in its May 25 report. MDU has been mentioned
alongside top rankers as Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business, Harvard
Business School and University of Chicago’s Graduate School of Business
(GSB). The only other Indian institute mentioned in the FT list was Duke
Corporate Education’s affiliate programme with IIM-Ahmedabad.
What makes the MDU unique is that it lays no educational or age
criterion for enrolment; has “anyday admissions” and offers courses ranging
from two days to three months with fees from Rs 25 to Rs 1,200. Founded in
December 2006 with a Rs 7-lakh grant, it encourages and empowers rural women
by offering courses to help them run independent enterprises as vendors,
screen printers, photo-laminators, efficient goat de-wormers, bag-makers and
computer operators.
Thus, an unlettered vegetable hawker like Aruna Gaikwad now uses a
cellphone to source supplies from the wholesale market at Karad 100 km away
to make profits at the weekly market in Vaduj. Vanita Pise is yet another
example who has set up a successful milk-vending business with the help of
MDU. She uses paper cup-making machines for her operation and earns about Rs
4,000 per month. (In 2006, Pise received the CII-Bharti Woman Exemplar Award
by PM Manmohan Singh).
Since December 2006, nearly 180 women have taken courses here to launch
micro-business like selling cellphone recharge coupons, increasing fat
content in milk from milch cattle or selling pav bhaji and Chinese food.
Sinha says the biggest challenge that her team now faces is developing a
curriculum and training programme to suit various requirements. Udyogini’s
executive director Padma Kuber says the course material has to be highly
practical and visual-driven with hand-drawn graphics to overcome the
semi-literacy barrier.
Sinha is now keen on expanding Udyogini’s activities. She has received
funding from Gururaj Deshpande’s (co-founder, Sycamore Networks, USA)
Deshpande Foundation to open a micro-business school on wheels in northern
Karnataka.
Village lessons for the Richie Rich
Founded in 1997 by Chetna Sinha, a former Shetkari Sanghatana activist, the
Mann Deshi Mahila Sahakari Bank Ltd (MDMSB) at Mhaswad is well-recognised
for its innovative micro-financing initiatives. It is distinguished as India’s
first rural financial institution run by and for women with a co-operative
license from the Reserve Bank of India.
Sinha, a 2002 World Yale Fellow and the bank’s chairperson recalled that
in 2006 she was invited by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation at Seattle
for a presentation on her micro-finance initiatives. Besides, the Gates
couple and Gates Sr. (Bill’s father), the legendary investor, billionaire
Warren Buffett was also present. “The Gates were curious about our loan
scheme for poor women to purchase gold,” Sinha said, adding that she had to
convincingly explain that gold, in howsoever small a quantity, is a liquid
asset for rural women in India. “Unlike cash, it is not easily snatched away
by their husbands or sons. Most Indian men respect the gold on their woman’s
body,” Sinha recalled having told her distinguished audience.
One person who was visibly impressed with the bank’s philosophy and
approach was Warren Buffett. “At that time, I didn’t know who Warren Buffett
was,” Sinha said, laughing at her own ignorance.
Run entirely by rural women, the Mann Deshi Bank today has three
branches and an extension counter; 6,000-plus members, share capital of Rs
1.75 crore and deposits of over Rs 12 crore, 70 per cent of which has been
given out as advances. The average loan-size of the bank is Rs 5,000-6000.
TNN
Founder Chetna Gala Sinha guides students at the Mann Deshi Udyogini at
Vaduj in Satara district