Ranjana had a bank account, but it stayed unused as her bank was too far. She had heard of Customer Service Centres (CSCs) but she was hesitant to visit them and not sure what she would need to do there to operate her account. After the Swadhaar training, she met other women who faced similar issues – with support from this peer group and helped by Swadhaar’s trainers she began to visit the CSC to make small deposits in her savings account, slowly building her confidence in engaging with the financial ecosystem.
Ranjana had a bank account, but it stayed unused as her bank was too far. She had heard of Customer Service Centres (CSCs) but she was hesitant to visit them and not sure what she would need to do there to operate her account. After the Swadhaar training, she met other women who faced similar issues – with support from this peer group and helped by Swadhaar’s trainers she began to visit the CSC to make small deposits in her savings account, slowly building her confidence in engaging with the financial ecosystem.
22 years, Daily Wage Labourer
Hasiyani had got a life insurance policy for her husband and herself but was not able to find details on her premium payments despite several attempts. Frustrated by these challenges and intimidated by the bank, Hasiyani had nearly given up on being able to avail the benefits if needed. At the Swadhaar training she learnt about customer grievance redressal and visited the bank along with Swadhaar’s trainer to raise a complaint and have her premium payment details updated. This gave her the confidence to continue visiting the bank and become an engaged customer.
Rekha dreams of sending her daughter to college and wants to put money aside for her daughter’s education. Other than a small daily wage income of her own, she is able to save some money from the monthly remittance sent by her husband to cover household expenses. She attended a Swadhaar training and heard about the Sukanya Samridhi Yojana (SSY), a long-term savings scheme. She was not sure however that her husband will agree to opening this and wondered how to convince him. Luckily, she had met Sarita didi at the training, an older SHG leader in the village who came home to help her talk to her husband about taking the SSY scheme. At the next Swadhaar product camp she opened the SSY account and now deposits money in it every few months.
Rekha dreams of sending her daughter to college and wants to put money aside for her daughter’s education. Other than a small daily wage income of her own, she is able to save some money from the monthly remittance sent by her husband to cover household expenses. She attended a Swadhaar training and heard about the Sukanya Samridhi Yojana (SSY), a long-term savings scheme. She was not sure however that her husband will agree to opening this and wondered how to convince him. Luckily, she had met Sarita didi at the training, an older SHG leader in the village who came home to help her talk to her husband about taking the SSY scheme. At the next Swadhaar product camp she opened the SSY account and now deposits money in it every few months.
Champa had a bank account that she used occasionally and didn’t have any other financial products. She wanted to save for her son’s upcoming wedding but was overwhelmed by the idea of going to a bank to ask about products. Her SHG group asked her to come along for a Swadhaar training and she was intrigued to hear about fixed deposits that would allow her to put money aside as well as earn interest on it. She visited a local bank with the Swadhaar trainer and her SHG group members and they all set up fixed deposits for their accounts. When her deposit matured in a year she reached out to the Swadhaar trainer and went back to withdraw the maturity amount, ready to plan for and celebrate the family wedding.
Sundarbai, a daily wage labourer, is number literate but unable to read and write fluently. This made her nervous and hesitant about banking processes and she rarely used her savings account that she had opened to receive a government direct benefit transfer during the pandemic. Her young neighbour convinced her to attend a Swadhaar training and meet others like her who had started traveling together to the nearby Customer Service Centre to make transactions in their accounts. With them, Sundarbai faced her fears and started to make small deposits slowly building the confidence to transact independently.