Financial activities of cooperative banks towards Shgs of West Bengal

The prosperity of a nation lies on the factor of inclusive growth and eradication of social as well as financial inequalities. In order to alleviate poverty and empower women, National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) initiated the concept of Self-Help Group (SHG) in mid-80‘s and in 1992 started Self-Help Group Bank Linkage Programme (SBLP) to link the SHGs with banks to provide financial assistance at an affordable cost. At present this programme is considered as the largest microfinance movement of the world. Cooperative Banks are one of the major banking agencies of our country and are playing very important role in rural economy since long before independence. These banks are performing different financial activities towards SHGs as part of SBLP in all over India. In this paper an attempt is made to observe the financial activities of cooperative banks of West Bengal towards SHGs in last few years.The study reveals that average savings of the SHGs have been increased though the number of SHGs linked with savings account has been decreased during the study period. The number of SHGs obtained loan as well as the amount of loan per SHG has been increased significantly during the same period. The overall recovery rate of outstanding loan is also better compared to national level. The study concludes that the cooperative banks are providing financial assistance to SHGs quite satisfactorily and are performing a vital role in rural economy of West Bengal.