A silent revolution in Bihar

Amidst all the good beginning in Bihar there is yet another albeit, less known revolution is at work in the state, this is in the field of primary co-operative societies. They are primarily involve in credit delivery for practically all purpose to the villagers, they fund themselves from loans granted by upper institution like district cooperative societies, state cooperative and from NABARD. apart from it they also mobilize local savings. In nutshell they work like rural banks. In the middle of massive financial exclusion in rural India their presence is very important.

In the various studies conducted by the state and central government across India few common fact emerged and largely all were negative like hugely loss making, very weak organization structure, low recovery of loan, highly dysfunctional, moribund work culture, high burden of loan, weak networking etc, some committees even recommended scraping up of this structure altogether, but strongest positive thing of all, and that was well recognized by the successive committees was their deep penetration in rural hinterland, there sheer presence at such a ground level and its accessibility to almost every villager absolve these societies from the crime of dysfunctionality.

In Bihar alone there are more than 6600 PACS, before 2003 hardly any of them were profitable but gradual improvement in law and order and trust of people in governance led to increase in the activities of PACS, people started depositing money and more importantly started taking credit from it, as it was more convenient to them in terms of conditions etc.

A very vibrant model emerged in the district of Samastipur, here in SARAY RANJAN panchayat, chairman of PAC transformed the society from a moribund to a huge profit making organization, when he took over the charge, there was deficit of Rs 19 lakh and by now it has a profit of Rs 55 lakh society distributed credit of Rs 6 cr in the panchayat In this financial year alone and have a surplus of more than Rs 1 cr. And this is the story of one panchayat , this scale of achievement is unimaginable for any single financial entity and just imagine the scale of financial inclusion ! The chairman became a model and now imparts training to other PACS, today more than 200 PACS are running in profit.

How he did it, simple answer from him that he used the social connection and credibility to pursue people for deposits, rather than taking deposit first and giving return after some time he reversed it to gain the confidence, sheer dedication to work, identified the group for credit.

What matter most for village people is that there needs are taken care of, you trust them and they will trust you more and that can be the foundation for bigger programmes like in case of above panchayat, we don’t need to import technologies, answer lies in capitalizing the immense social wealth in rural areas.

It’s my way or highway

There is hardly any doubt about the merit of the institution of civil society in any country, in fact they strengthen the democracy and serve as a bridge between otherwise unrepresented social group and the decision making bodies, in countries like U.S. numbers of registered civil societies run into several thousands, they are well protected, having good source of revenue, have very strong lobbying and that’s why they exert very effective influence on policy making and have great contribution in deepening the institution of democracy itself. Quite importantly they also serve as a backwater for the political class and it is not ironical that countries having strong and influential civil societies generally have less chances of plunging into political crisis, although any country being completely immune from political disturbances is out of question.

In India civil societies have a very long history but that became buzz word especially after Anna hazare’s zantar mantar fast unto death exercise. Bending a reluctant government or political class for a just demand was something like a breeze of fresh air not really known by present generation which has remotely heard or reluctantly studied about Gandhian techniques. People cheered victory, crackers, congratulations, and the battle was won. But then, another fast by yet another prominent personality and story goes on.

Now there emerges some serious questions, like first -against whom the whole exercise is directed, when gandhiji did this it was directed against a regime which was unelective , superimposed by British to serve the imperial interest, but here, the case was just opposite. Secondly is it worth meeting all demands without compromising the position of some other institutions, thirdly how far is it feasible to translate every wish list into a sound , concrete policy at least in short run. Fourthly wouldn’t it create a perennial problem, if at every now and then civil society start using this technique to pressurize the government? Fifthly is it not possible that those who are publicity hungry may resort to the same technique used by the genuine one? Sixthly isn’t that civil society might be moving toward political blackmailing.

What would be the answer of above questions depend on how civil societies are going to get themselves identified, if they are  going to be noisy, destructive, coming across the way of every legislation, the answer would be negative but if they choose to be constructive rather than merely criticizing everything  then answer would be positive. The point is, we have to draw a line somewhere separating the crucial from mediocre elements otherwise , probably we will miss the entire objectivity in this vital rise of civil society.