News

An Indian alliance to market mountain products

06.10.2014

Financial inclusion is being implemented in India with great vigor and vitality both by the previous Congress government and the present Modi’s government. Mountainous regions face special challenges to financial inclusion efforts because of their terrain, communication and transport difficulties and the tribal or indigenous nature of their populations.

In 2012, while working as the Economist of Indian Overseas Bank, I suggested to my good and respected friend, then Deputy Governor of Reserve Bank of India, Dr. K.C. Chakrabarty, who was spearheading the financial inclusion movement in the country, that I would try a pilot experiment in the Nilgiris among the Toda tribes. He readily agreed and Dr. M. Narendra, the Chairman and Managing Director of Indian Overseas Bank, was only too eager to join.

Normally, the lead bank of the district, Canara Bank in the case of Nilgiris, should take the lead. But an exception was made in my case. When some reporters asked why restrict the project to just one tribe, Dr. Narendra promptly extended the project to all the Primitive Tribes of Nilgiris.

When, later, Dr. Chakrabarty came to inaugurate the project, he was so impressed with the project that he announced an exclusive Rural Self Employment and Training Institute (Rseti) for the Primitive Tribes of Nilgiris to be set up at Kotagiri by Indian Overseas Bank. Normally, the lead bank of the district runs such institutes at the district headquarters, Ooty in this case. The Nilgiris is, perhaps, the only case where there are two such institutes.

Under the Financial Inclusion of the Primitive Tribes of Nilgiris, more than Rs.4 crores loans have been given. Seven Banking Correspondents, mostly tribals, have been appointed. In the last two years, the  Kotagiri Rseti run by Indian Overseas Bank has trained a number of candidates in a variety of self-employment opportunities. Then, a question was asked. How will these trainees, mostly women, be able to market their products viably?

We then came up with the idea of forming a Creative Alliance for Nilgiris (CAN) to impart confidence to the trainees that anybody ‘CAN’ do it. The Creative Shop is the first initiative under CAN.

The Creative Shop will promote all kinds of local products and services. It will also bring creative products from all over India so that local producers can learn how creative products are made in other parts of country. To start with we have ordered all racks from the Lantana Furniture produced by the Eco-development and Sustainable Livelihood Society at Moyar.

We hope to leverage the extensive network of the branches of Indian Overseas Bank through interested employees and retirees to identify creative products in different parts of the country. They will also be encouraged to launch similar Creative Shops so that eventually there can be network of such shops promoting the products produced by the trainees of Rsetis throughout the country.

We invite Mountain Partnership members and others to support or partner with us in this inclusive endeavour for mountain peoples. Contact by email