Here, women deal a ‘biz’ blow to dry spell

........Manndeshi Mahila Sahkari Bank, which was started in Mhaswad in 1997, has been able to transform thousands of lives in rural Satara. The bank is the first micro-financing initiative in India and tends only to women. Riding on women power, the Mhaswad-based bank has now reached Vaduj, Gondavale, Dahiwadi, Satara and Lonad along with two mobile branches. Each branch has “Rural-B schools” which helps women learn various skills and encourages them to form self-help groups for better sustainability. Despite economic slowdown across the globe, this women bank has grown to Rs2.25 crore from an initial capital of Rs6 lakh. Women are managing finance better than men. “Our repayment rate is 98%. As women are programmed to save more and manage better than men, we were sure about the success of the bank though our application had been rejected by RBI initially,” says Chetna Gala Sinha, the founder of the Mann Deshi Mahila Bank, who gathered all illiterate women of Mhaswad to launch this bank in 1997......

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