Nashik based Kalyani Urban Credit Cooperative Society is example of how a small initiate can transform lives. This becomes all the more interesting as those whose lives get changed for better are all women.
Fully owned by women, Maharashtra based Kalyani Urban Credit Cooperative Society is empowering the women of the district in big way. It provides loans to the members to enable them to start their own small scale businesses. The small-scale businesses include selling of vegetables, cycle repairing shops, stitching work, small shops, milk booths, paper selling and others.
The loans are repaid by way of small saving- a very smooth process so far.
Besides, the Society is also focusing on creating legal awareness among the women. “We focus that the women in society should be legally aware which means they should know their rights and what is there in the constitution when it comes to women”, said its Chairperson Anjali Patil who is an advocate by profession.
Patil who is also heading the first ever Sister Society (a WOCCU initiative in Nashik) said, “More than 2600 women are the members of this society. The deposit is around Rs 40 crore and Loans and Advances of over Rs 28 crore. The Society earned a net profit of Rs 25 lakh in 2018-19 FY. Ours is women’s first credit cooperative society in Nashik”, she claimed.
Highlighting the future goals Patil said, “We as a women-centric credit cooperative society are also targeting to propose a concept like the APMC (Agricultural Produce Market Committee), where we would like to provide an open market space for small farmers by eliminating intermediaries or brokers to break through the typical supply chain.
The Society is also planning “Make in Maharashtra through Women Co-operative-Expo”. “We would like to introduce more than 100 businesses, offer Machineries, Technical know how, Financial support, Project Assistance based available software”, she stated.
“We are planning to provide recruitment of human resources for the potential business persons. We are intending to extend this expo to International level”, she underlined.
Kalyani Urban Credit Cooperative Society has four branches across Nashik and aims to open more branches in the near future.
Established in the year 1990, with an aim to bring financial and economic independence in the lives of women, the society is motivating women to form small saving groups so that they inculcate in themselves the habit of saving and become empowered. It is like tackling the poverty by its horns.
