1. Case Studies from Unnao -
Uttar Pradesh
SHG Members as
Bank Agents
german
cooperation
DEUTSCHE ZUSAMMENARBEIT
National Bank For Agriculture
And Rural Development
Taking Rural India >> Forward

2. 2
Published By
Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale
Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH
Rural Financial Institutions Programme
Contact
Dr. Detlev Holloh, GIZ Programme Director
A-2/18, Safdarjung Enclave
New Delhi 110 029 / INDIA
Phone: +91-11-4949 5353
Telefax: +91-11-4949 5393
Email: detIev.holloh@giz.de
Homepage: www.giz.de
Responsible
Amit Arora
Authors
Abhishek Lahiri
Neetu Bansal
Yachna Srivastava
Support Team
Neeraj Pokhriyal
Mandeep Singh
Editor
Nitin Jindal
Design
Anshul Sharma/Artworkstudios.in
New Delhi, June 2015

3. 3
F
inancial Inclusion initiatives in India focus on
bringing unbanked population of the country
into the fold of mainstream, formal financial
services. Despite several innovative models
and pilots to provide doorstep banking, some
challenges remain unaddressed. The Business Corre-
spondent (BC) model has been on an evolving journey
globally with mixed success.
In India the BC story started as a part of Govt. of In-
dia’s formal policy in 2006. Sourcing BC agents (CSP-
Customer Service Points) locally who command trust
among the villagers and combating their high attrition
rate have been constant pain points.
Since early 1990s NABARD as the apex agriculture and
rural development Bank, has nurtured and grown the
SHG (self-help group) movement as an informal mode
of encouraging and inculcating habit of savings among
women. Today 73 lacs plus SHGs across the country
have proven that these women are a valuable human
resource network who can be leveraged by formal fi-
nancial institutions by acting as extended arm of banks
or as BC agents.
The GIZ-NABARD Rural Financial Institutions Pro-
gramme (RFIP) initiated a pilot project in the state of
Uttar Pradesh in May 2013 to find synergy between
SHG networks and Financial Inclusion. Today, select-
ed members of SHGs who are called as ‘Bank Sakhis’,
armed with capacity building training and project man-
agement support from the RFIP provide banking ser-
vices to their clients at their doorstep on behalf of the
partner bank.
Bank Sakhis provide basic banking services like Basic
Savings Bank Deposit Account (BSBDA) enrolment,
funds transfer, Recurring Deposit (RD), Fixed Deposit
(FD), solar home lighting system loan etc. Bank Sakhis
also facilitate all kinds of SHG-based banking transac-
tions by dual authentication application in the Micro-
ATM itself. This allows the Bank Sakhis to do all the
financial transactions of the group (from members to
group and from Group to members) at the village itself
without going to the bank branch. These Bank Sakhis
have broken the glass ceiling and have proven to be
trustworthy locally available human resource pool for
the bank.
We have tried to capture some of the success stories
from the field in the form of case studies. Each story
explains the journey of these Bank Sakhis, the chal-
lenges faced by them and the impact made in their lives
by this transition from a SHG member to a Bank agent.
The objective of these case studies is to share the in-
sights from the lives of these Bank Sakhis and learnings
from this project with all stakeholders engaged in the
Financial Inclusion ecosystem. We have also included a
case study of the Bank Manager which clearly demon-
strates the role of these Bank Sakhis in easing the day
to day operations of the bank branch.
We have also shared success stories on client satisfac-
tion, and how the Bank Branch is benefiting from these
Bank Sakhis.
Bank Sakhis have been able to perform better on mul-
tiple indicators as compared to other conventional BC
agents of the Bank. Percentage of dormant accounts is
less than 8% opened by the Bank Sakhis as compared
to close to 60% dormancy in bank accounts opened by
the conventional BC agent of the same bank. Similar-
ly, average quarterly balance per bank (Jan-Mar 2015)
account of clients enrolled by Bank Sakhis is INR 271
as compared to INR 78 balance per bank account by
conventional BC agents. Our experiences show that
the clients relate to and trust these Bank Sakhis well,
as they are members of existing SHGs in their villages.
Women who are first time users of banking facilities
come without any hesitation to these Bank Sakhis for
opening and operating Bank accounts.
This clearly indicates that a strong business case can
be built by the Banks based on this Bank Sakhi (SHG
members as Bank Sakhi) model.
Introduction

4. 4
Bank Sakhi helps SHGs
graduate to Micro-ATM
based transactions
It was in November 2009, that RGMVP staff first visited her
village and tried to mobilize the community to form Self-
Help Groups. Rajkumari who was already aware of SHG
concept was quite instrumental in the formation of groups
in her village.
Rajkumari as Bank Sakhi
Her life took a tremendous turn for better once she got
introduced to the GIZ-NABARD RFIP (Rural Financial In-
stitutions Programme) project team as a potential Bank
Sakhi for ‘’SHG members as Bank agent project” (Bank Hu-
mare Gaon). It was hard to believe then that one day she
will be running a small banking outlet in her village which
is a reality today and an inspirational success story.
It all started in August 2013 when she took induction train-
ing as a Bank agent. This was followed by an introductory
visit by the Branch Manager of Gramin Bank of Aryavrat,
Ucchgaon. Since then Rajkumari has never looked back.
Starting off with 331 banking transactions a month in No-
vember 2013, she achieved 2,240 transactions totalling
over Rs 5.5 Lacs in March 2015. Though during trainings,
she was only taught how to do individual transactions and
individual fund transfers but she extrapolated that if ac-
count to account fund transfer was possible, then the same
could be applied to SHG transactions also. Therefore in
October 2014, she convinced her SHG members to save in
their individual accounts and then transfer the amount to
group account through fund transfer. Once this was suc-
cessful, she further replicated the same in other
four SHGs of her Gram Panchayat.
Rajkumari narrates her experience of SHG
transactions through Micro-ATM - “Hume to
laga ki jaise koi jadu ki chadi mil gayi ho” (“I
felt like as if I got a magic-wand”).
This Micro-ATM did turned out to be a
magic-wand which solved their major
problem of going to the bank every month
for depositing their collective savings and
repayment instalments. The tedious task
of walking 5 kilometres to Ucchgaon, waiting in queues
Name of Bank Sakhi: Rajkumari Devi
Age: 35 years
Education: 8th pass
Husband’s profession: Agriculture
Village: Kodrabhagat Kheda, in Sum-
erpur block of Unnao district,
Uttar Pradesh.
Figure 1: Status of transaction count of Rajkumari since
start till 31st Mar 2015
Figure 2: Income growth chart of Rajkumari since start
till March 2015

5. 5
for hours and losing out on whole day has been con-
verted to just touch of one button “fund transfer”. It not
only increased the number of transactions of Rajkumari
but also promoted SHG members to save more and reg-
ularly in their respective individual accounts.
Successful fund transfer of savings of SHG members to
the group account was a big milestone which convinced
the RFIP team to look deeper at the backend data which
indeed reflected increase in number of fund transfers es-
pecially in meagre amounts of Rs.10/- per week or Rs.50/-
per month coming from SHG members.
Backed by this initial success, it was only recently in Febru-
ary 2015 that the bank integrated a ‘dual authentication’
application in the Micro-ATM (backed by financial assis-
tance from the NABARD) which allowed debits(including
fund transfer) from SHG accounts to comply with the need
of joint signatures/authorization required to debit SHGs
account. Since then, the number of transactions have been
increasing considerably. It has been just 2 months since
the launch of dual authentication application in the Micro-
ATM, thus providing debit facility to SHG members from
SHG account as well as savings deposit account, but these
initial results are still worth sharing.
Rajkumari shares, “Pahle loan ki kisht, bank jaane ke inte-
zaar mai ghar mai kharch ho jaati thi aur ab kisht ikathaa
hote hi SHG ke sadasya aakar jama kar dete hain” (“Earlier
loan instalments used to get spent in household expenses
in the process of waiting to go to the bank but nowadays,
SHG members deposit it as soon as it is collected.”)
Figure 3: Percentage composition of SHG transactions
out of total transactions in March 2015
Rajkumari doing transaction
for one of her customers using
Micro-ATM

6. 6
There has been a substantial increase in the income
of Rajkumari. She started with a monthly earning of
Rs. 414 (She gets Rs1.25/ financial transaction) but it
picked up in December 2013 due to opening of new ac-
counts on which she earned Rs.5 per account opened. In
initial days, major part of her income came from enrol-
ment drives but once it got saturated, she focused more
on commission from transactions.
In the process to increase her income through transac-
tion commissions, she started doing SHG transactions at
SHG meetings. Minimum 11 transactions used to be done
in just one meeting through fund transfer which also in-
creased once the dual authentication application got in-
stalled in the micro-ATM.
As per figure 2, we can see that Rajkumari has been earn-
ing average income of Rs. 1816 per month. It was for the
month of April 2015, data was analyzed and found that
(Figure 3) 20% of total transactions of Rajkumari are from
SHG transactions which involve savings of members, fund
transfer as well as withdrawals while 1% is just withdrawal/
debits through dual authentication transaction since this
facility has been introduced very recently only. At present,
Rajkumari has 72 SHG clients out of which 47 are now using
Rajkumari recording acknowledgment of transaction from her customer
their bank account for SHG transactions. It is from 47 SHG
clients, she is doing minimum 188 transactions per month
but if rest of the SHG members also use their bank account,
Rajkumari has the potential to do minimum 288 transac-
tions per month providing incremental transactional rev-
enue. She has further potential to increase this income also,
if the inter lending within the group increases. It’s is found
that earlier SHG members used to hesitate in going to bank
and withdrawing money as it involved investment of both
time and money but now, since this facility is within the
village itself, it is assumed that members will use their SHG
funds more for inter lending purpose which will not only
increase their SHG corpus with incoming interest but also
increase transactions of Bank Sakhi.
Bank Sakhis like Rajkumari have proved that banking is
not a rocket science. With sincerity, hard-work and dedi-
cation, they are ready to play a crucial role in financial
inclusion efforts.
SHG-Micro-ATM integration has already started add-
ing feathers in the caps of Bank Sakhis. The transactions
happening from the village are motivating both dormant
groups as well as non-SHG members to organize them-
selves as SHGs.

7. 7
From a
homemaker
to village
banker
Seema first joined a Self-help Group (SHG) in 2011 and
later on became the Village Organisation (VO) represent-
ative from her SHG. In 2013, she was selected as a Bank
Sakhi but she got her Micro-ATM (Hand Held Device) only
in January 2014.Till then she kept helping other Bank Sakhi
in the enrolment process.
Initially she faced lot of problems in convincing people to
do transactions through the micro-ATM machine but with
lot of efforts from her, they started doing it. In fact people
used to deposit money and immediately go to bank and
check it in their account.However,once the trust got estab-
lished, villagers gained confidence on transacting through
Micro-ATM. Now she has customers from all age groups
i.e. from school-children to old men and women. She says
“pahle log gullak mein paisa dalte the par ab seedha bank
mein dal dete hai” (Earlier people used to save in cash box/
piggybank but now they directly save in Bank).
There are customers who now receive money from their
near and dear in different cities like Ratlam, Delhi and
Ludhiana. There are beneficiaries of Samajwadi Pension
Scheme who get their money directly from micro-ATM as
well as beneficiaries of Janani Suraksha Yojna who get their
cheques cleared through the Bank Sakhi and are able to
withdraw money at the village itself using the BC channel
manned by Seema Devi.
Seema started with a transaction count of 337 in the
month of January 2014 which grew to 1,187 by March
2015. She started depositing collective savings of SHG
through the “fund transfer facility” in December 2014
which increased her transactions from 317 to 705 per
month. It again increased once the dual authentication
facility was launched in month of February 2015 which
led to increase in transactions from 756 to 1,187 in
Mar’2015. This has already prompted members to do their
group transactions from their respective bank accounts in
view of greater convenience and transparency due to such
facility of fund transfer option and dual authentication fa-
cility to debit group’s bank account in the village itself.
Seema Devi operating her Micro-ATM
Name: Seema Devi
Age: 33 yrs.
Education: Post Graduate
Husband’s profession: Grocery shop owner
Location: Kesrikheda, Sumerpur block in
Unnao district, Uttar Pradesh
Figure 1: Status of monthly transaction count of
Seema Devi

8. 8
SHG-BC integration using Micro ATM has resolved a ma-
jor problem of SHG members and office bearers of walking
5 kilometres to the bank, waiting in queues and tussling
with bank officials. It also resolved most of the conflicts
among SHG members for going to bank as no one enjoyed
this visit. She says, “Pahle bank jaane ke naam par ladai hoti
thi, koi bhi apna pura din barbad nahi karna chahta tha, par
ab machine se len den hone se asaan ho gaya” (Earlier there
used to be fight among SHG members for going to the
bank as nobody wanted to waste their whole day but now
this has become easy because transactions have started
happening on the machine).
There has been considerable increase in the income of See-
ma. Initially she earned mostly from the enrolment process
but later on as the transaction count increased and enrol-
ments got saturated, her income has been coming mostly
from transactions. It is also observed clearly in figure 2,
that from March 2014 the enrolments
slowed down and transaction count
started picking up. Though there has
been a dip in her income from Sep-
tember 2014 to December 2014 but
as the SHG transactions started, it
again increased from Rs. 396 in the
month of December to Rs. 1,381 in
January 2015 and it kept rising to Rs.
1,984 in month of March 2015. The
average income of Seema has been
Rs. 967 per month.
The data for month of April 2015 was analyzed and it has
been found that Seema has done 636 transactions in April,
out of which 9% of it is SHG transactions which involve
savings of SHG members, their withdrawals as well as re-
payment to the group and withdrawal/debits from SHG
accounts through dual authentication application. There
are 43 SHG members in Kesri Kheda who have bank ac-
counts while only 27 are using it for SHG transaction. At
present, minimum 54 transactions have been done but if
all 43 members use it actively, the transaction count will be
just double. At present, though transaction revenue is very
low, Seema is earning minimum Rs.160 for SHG transac-
tions per month from 27 SHG clients who use their savings
bank accounts in SHG meeting but if other members also
start using their savings bank account, she has the poten-
tial to earn minimum Rs.240 per month from SHG transac-
tions. There is also further potential of increase in transac-
tion, if inter lending within the SHGs increases.
Seema has got a new identity in her village as “banker didi”
and she is quite proud of it. The role of Bank Sakhi for See-
ma has given a direction to her life, to contribute in the
progress of her community and village. She has not only
earned respect but is now considered to be a role model for
other women of the villages.
Though it is too early to comprehend the impact of Micro-
ATM on SHG members but it is quite visible that, it will
lead to digitization of SHG financial transactions and will
add a different dimension to the ongoing SHG movement,
without frequent visits to the Bank!
Figure 2: Income growth in Seema Devi since start till March 2015
Figure 3: Percentage composition of SHG transactions
out of total transactions in month of April 2015

9. 9
A Bank Sakhi doing an SHG transaction

10. 10
Bank Sakhi
breaks
social
barriers
Financial empowerment along with
social empowerment
Sakhi’s profile
Uma Devi, 39 years old, mother of four kids, belongs to
a high caste Brahmin family. Coming from a small fam-
ily, she was not able to adjust to a large joint family after
her marriage and she left her house because of increased
work pressure. However, on being persuaded by her family
and getting support from her parents-in-law, she returned
back to her husband’s family. She herself tells this story
and explains how things have changed as she learnt how to
Uma Devi in a Block Level Association Meeting
as a Bank Sakhi in her village Jagatpur
“Jo mahila kal tak pallu ke bina kisi se baat
nahi karti thi, aaj wahi Bank Manager aur Gram
Pradhan ke bagal mein kursi pe baithti hai. Bank
mein jaate hain to log kursi khali kar dete hain.
Kehte hain – aap baithiye. Sab Namaste karte
hain. Bachche bhi jaante hain chachi ke paas
khata khulta hai” – “The lady that never used
to speak in front of anybody without a veil, now
sits alongside the Bank Manager and village
representative on a chair. People offer her their
chair to sit when she goes to the bank. Every-
body greets her. Even children knows that this
aunty opens bank accounts”,
says proud Uma Devi on her new role as a
Bank Sakhi.

11. 11
handle bigger responsibilities. Her husband is a farmer and
earns hardly enough to take care of the expenses of raising
four kids (three of them are girls). One of her daughters got
recently married in January, 2015.
Her journey as a Sakhi
After 18 years of being a housewife, Uma Devi joined an
SHG promoted by Rajiv Gandhi Mahila Vikas Pariyojana
(RGMVP). As she was fairly educated, she was made the
treasurer of the SHG and so, she started visiting bank to
do the financial transactions for the SHG. She got in touch
with the Branch Manager of Gramin Bank of Aryavart and
got to know about the “SHG as a BC” project and expressed
her interest in joining the same. She was found suitable as
per the eligibility criteria and was appointed as a Banking
Correspondent (BC) agent. Her fellow SHG members also
extended full support for her selection as she is very hard
working. She has been a very good performer ever since.
She has opened 624 accounts by April 2015 and has done
transactions amounting to over Rs. 2.24 million. This is
higher than the average enrolment of 393 done by other
CSPs of the bank and even higher than overall average fig-
ure of 449 by all Bank Sakhis.
She serves four villages in her Gram Panchayat and on an
average, does more than 500 transactions in a month. This
is higher than the average of 372 transactions done by
other CSPs of the bank and even higher than overall avg.
figure of 386 by all Bank Sakhis till date. Earlier, it took a
lot of convincing for people to open accounts but now be-
cause of her efforts and word-of-mouth publicity, people
know her and come to her for opening not just their own
accounts, but of all their family members.
The challenge: caste barriers
Casteism is a major problem in her Gram Panchayat. Peo-
ple have very conservative thinking and still believe in the
traditional caste system. About 50% people of her village
belong to Scheduled Castes. Coming from a place where
so-called lower caste people are not even supposed to
come in front of others, Uma Devi never hesitated in trans-
acting with the so-called lower caste people, even though Uma Devi with Naziya Bano and other customers
Customers’ Testimonials
“Inka Kaam bhi achchha hai, swabhav bhi
achchha hai. Koi chhoot-achhoot ka vichar nahi
hai. Raat beraat zaroorat pade to phone kar
dete hain, ye machine leke aa jati hain, Manager
thodi na aate hain!” – “Her work and nature are
very good. She never thinks about caste. If we
need banking services even in odd hours, we
just call her; she comes at our doorstep with
her machine. No Bank Manager will do that”,
-Naziya Bano, a Muslim customer of Uma Devi.
“Chahe gareeb ho chahe ameer ho, apne bara-
bar samajhti hain. Kauno unch-neech ka vichar
nahi” “She considers poor and rich equal. There
is no discrimination”-Pyarelal, another so-
called lower caste customer of Uma Devi.
“Bahar jaate hain to saas poochti hai kitna leke
ja rahi ho, chachi ghar aake le jati hain to koi
kuch nahi poochta”- If we go out to deposit
money, mother-in-law asks how much are you
taking with you. Sakhi comes at home, so no-
body asks anything”, says one of her customers.

12. 12
her husband and family did not approve of the same in the
beginning. She faced a lot of problem in convincing her
own family to provide banking services to them. Despite
the social difference, Uma Devi facilitated account opening
for them by going against the social norms. She convinced
her family about the importance of her work and how she
is instrumental in changing the lives of the so-called low
caste poor people. Because of all her hard work, she is now
able to break the age old barriers between the so-called
lower and upper castes.
New changed set-up
People from the so-called lower castes now come to her
house any time of the day and she also visits them for con-
ducting banking transactions. With continued efforts, she
has been able to win the support of not just her family
members, but also her customers. This work has changed
her image in the family. She is now considered to be a very
knowledgeable family member and no major decision
is taken in her house without consulting her. Her family
members seriously consider her opinion before taking any
important decision.
What helped Uma Devi bring this
change?
She feels being a woman she is in a better position to do this
job as she does not hesitate to visit people at their home.
People also trust women more as they feel that women will
not run away with their money. She feels this account is a
great help to villagers who have to spend both money and
time to visit bank branch for small value transactions. She
is especially a big help to women who cannot save as they
are not allowed to go out of the house.
“Uma Devi bahut hi confident mahila hain. Unka
koi kaam atak jaye to haath ke haath phone
karke keh deti hain theek karwao. Jaise ki POS
machine mein koi problem aayi, to turant Anwar
sahab ko phone kar deti hain. Manch pe jake
bolna hai ki hamari ye samasya hai, to koi aur
nahi bol pata, ye bol deti hain. Pehli CSP thi jo
seedhe laptop taang ke nikal padi Enrolment
karne”– “Uma Devi is a very confident woman.
If any of her work gets stuck, she straightaway
calls and asks it to be straightened out. If it is to
be said on a platform about any problem they
are facing then nobody else can do it except
her. She was the first CSP who hung the laptop
on her shoulder and went out to do enrolment”,
says her supervisor Rajneesh.
Uma Devi is very happy playing the role of a Bank Sakhi.
She feels proud that she can provide banking services to
people who are not able to manage a regular bank account.
Also, she has become a catalyst in promoting savings hab-
it in villagers. In addition to the social service, she is also
able to generate a monthly income and receives timely
payment for her services which helps her manage her
household expenses.
To know more about Uma Devi’s journey as a Bank Sakhi,
please see the video at
http://www.aryavart-rrb.com/financial_inclusion.html

13. 13
From ignominy to
popularity
Journey of a Bank Sakhi’s empowerment
Sakhi’s profile
Bindeshwari got married in 2007, but she stayed at her par-
ents’ place for another 2 years to finish her education. She
was always a very good student and her teachers used to
tell her that one day, she would do something great. She
completed her Bachelor of Arts in 2009 but was not able
to do anything meaningful after that. She then gave birth
to her first child in 2011 and started remaining busy with
household work. On and off, she would help her husband
Balram in his business but even then, there wasn’t much to
do. Bindeshwari later joined a Self Help Group (SHG) under
Rajiv Gandhi Mahila Vikas Pariyojana (RGMVP) for saving
some money.
Tough journey as a Sakhi
When she heard about the ‘SHG as a BC’ project, she got
very excited. She thought that this was an opportunity to
use her knowledge and education for the betterment of her
“Ye sochte the ke bas yeh hi sab kuch hain, aur
main kuch nahi kar sakti. Ab inko bhi samajh
aata hai ki hum kandhe se kandha mila kar inke
sath chal sakte hain. Is kaam ke baad poore pa-
riwar ka mere liye swabhav hi badal gaya hai”-
“My husband used to think that I cannot do
anything. Now he has realised that I am capable
and can support him to manage household
expenses. After becoming a Sakhi, behaviour
of entire family has positively changed for me,”
says Bindeshwari
Bindeshwari with her husband in her village
Gobraha in Sumerpur block of Unnao District

14. 14
society and to prove her real worth. Though Balram and his
family did not approve of this much as they felt that this
is not a stable job, Bindeshwari had taken a decision for
herself and there was no looking back. But still family sup-
port was lacking which pinched Bindeshwari a lot. Once, a
government scheme was announced, to avail the benefits
of which the villagers needed to have bank accounts. So,
the local Bank Manager told Balram that he should let his
wife work as Bank’s BC agent to help the fellow villagers in
this as she is an educated lady. This made him feel proud
of his wife and changed his attitude towards her work. Af-
ter that he started supporting her. Bindeswari is currently
earning an average amount of Rs 2,426/- per month which
has made her family’s life very comfortable. This is higher
than the average commission figure of Rs. 1,442 earned
by all CSPs other than Bank Sakhis of the bank. Earlier
there were no such earnings and maximum portion of
the income used to be spent for meeting daily household
expenses. Bindeshwari has opened RDs for her husband
and for herself. All the family members are now insured
and save a handsome amount monthly. Bindeshwari adds,
“Pehle kuch bachta hi nahi tha, jo aata tha wo pati ke busi-
ness or ghar ke kharcho me hi chala jaata tha. Par Bank
Sakhi banne ke baad humne bachat ki aadat daali hai or is
se humko bahut surakshit mehsus hota hai.”- “Earlier there
used to be no saving at all, whatever we used to earn was
spent on my husband’s business or household expenses.
But after becoming a Bank Sakhi we have inculcated a
habit of saving and this makes us feel very secure”. All this
has solidified their relation. Bindeshwari feels she is an em-
powered woman now.
It was not an easy task though. Initially Bindeshwari was
hesitant to meet people. Like other women in her village,
she also used to cover her face. When she had to distrib-
ute cards to her customers, she had to ask others for help.
Gradually, she gained confidence. Now, after finishing her
household chores, Bindeshwari leaves her daughter with
her family and sets off on her bicycle to help people with-
draw and deposit small amounts at their doorsteps. Now,
more than 46% of her customers are active account users.
This is significantly higher than the average active account
usage of only 7% of client base enrolled by all CSPs other
than Bank Sakhis of the bank as on March 2015. Recently,
she also won the first prize for achieving the maximum
number of unique customer transactions. She receives very
good feedback from the villagers. According to her female
customers, upon becoming a Bank Sakhi she was able to
convince people to inculcate a saving habit. Women are
more hesitant to come out of their homes. Villagers appre-
ciate that a woman is supporting them in livelihood activi-
ties. The Branch Manager of Gramin Bank of Aryavart also
tries to help her in her endeavours.
Her vision and dreams
She feels sad that so many men in her village spend all
their income on alcohol, leaving their wives with little or
no money to run the house. When these women try to de-
posit some money in bank, they are even beaten up by their
husbands. Also, there are many widows and old people for
whom it’s not easy to open and maintain a bank account.
One day, Bindeshwari hopes she would be able to address
all these issues through empowering these people by open-
ing their bank accounts as savings can be their best protec-
tion. She wants the turnaround time in account opening to
be shorter and better service. It’s still a battle to win, but
Bindeshwari is confident that she can now do anything.
“Ab humara aatmavishwas bahut badh gaya hai, koi
kaam karne mein sankoch nahi hota, kahin bhi jane ke
liye boliye, hum tayar rehte hai. Yeh sab is naye project
ki wajah se ho paya hai”- “Now my confidence has
increased tremendously and I am not afraid to do
anything. You ask me to go anywhere and I am ready.
All this is because of this new project.”
- says a confident Bindeshwari
Bindeshwari starts her daily trip for serving
customers in neighbouring villages

15. 15
Bank Sakhi promotes savings
Inculcating savings habit among tiny tots
Sakhi’s profile: from tailoring to
banking
Krishna Devi is a 45 year old lady staying in a small village
called Mubarakpur in Sumerpur block in the state of Ut-
tar Pradesh. She lives with her husband and four children.
When she first heard about ‘SHG as BC’ project, she did not
believe it to be true
“Bank ka kaam koi mamuli kaam nahi hai jo ghar baithe hi
kiya ja sake. Aisa kabhi dekha suna nahi, aisa laga, zaroor
kuch gadbad hai” – “Banking is not an ordinary work that
can be done sitting at home. Had never seen or heard any-
thing like this, so I thought that there is something fishy
about this concept”, says Krishna Devi.
“Log humse poochte hain ‘kya milta hai?’ Hum
kehte hain kamaai bhi hoti hai aur izzat bhi milti
hai. Hum Lodhi hain, par Thakur bhi samman dete
hain!” – “People ask me, what do you get as re-
muneration? I tell them that I earn some money
along with a lot of respect. I belong to a so-called
lower caste but even the so-called higher caste
people give me a lot of respect now”,
says Krishna Devi.
“Bada beta to bahut khush hai. Kehta hai ‘Mummy
Manager ban gayi hain.” – “My elder son is
extremely happy. He says that I have now
become a bank manager”,
says Krishna Devi.
Kids throng Krishna Devi’s desk to make
savings

16. 16
Excellent performance
But then she learnt more about the project from the lo-
cal bank branch and started working as a Bank Sakhi with
a lot of enthusiasm. She joined the ‘SHG as BC’ project in
August, 2013. Since then, she has opened 750 savings bank
account till 30th April 2015, which is more than 50% of the
total population in her Gram Panchayat (1376, as per Cen-
sus 2011). This is higher than average enrolment of 393 by
all other CSPs (other than Bank Sakhis) of the same bank.
She has also done over 16,000 transactions of savings bank
account holder till April 2015. On an average, Krishna Devi
has conducted 1,124 transactions/month in last six month
till April 2015. She tries to spend as much time as possible
to visit all the villages in her allocated area so that she can
provide doorstep service to the people.
She is now the primary bread earner in her family and her
husband and kids support her in this work as well. Earlier
her husband used to be the only bread earner and used to
earn Rs. 1,500-2,000/- monthly. As a Bank Sakhi, she earns
an average of INR 2,416 per month. This is higher than the
overall average commission of INR 1,560 made by all the
Bank Sakhis in last one year. This is also higher than aver-
age commission of INR 1,442 of all other CSPs (other than
Bank Sakhis) of the bank since Bank Sakhi project incep-
tion. Even though she used to earn a living from tailoring
before this but she finds the Bank Sakhi job much better as
it gives her extra income and a lot of prestige. She feels like
a mobile bank manager and the respect she commands in
her family and village has increased.
Sakhi’s impact on village’s financial
behaviour
Krishna Devi is happy that she is able to provide so many
services to her fellow villagers. People have a lot of faith in
her and look at her as a one-stop shop for all their financial
needs. People in her village now have bank accounts which
are so convenient to operate. With so much migration, par-
ents and families of the migrants can now receive remit-
tances in their accounts instantly.
Children in her village have started saving their pocket
money rather than spending it on junk food. They also buy
books and pay their fees from savings made from this ac-
count. This account is playing a very important role in in-
culcating savings habit at a very Out of 750 savings Bank
accounts opened in her Gram Panchayat, Krishna Devi
has enrolled 130 kids in the age bracket of 10-14 yrs. and
58 children in the age bracket of 14-17 yrs. With 25% of
her customer base being children, she is surely popular
amongst kids!
“Bachche jo dukaan bhagte the paisa milte hi, ab poochte
hain – ‘Chachi machine kab shuru karogi? Paise jama karne
hain’ Mela laga hai par bachche paisa yahan jama kar rahe
hain”- “Children who used to run to shops when they had
money, now ask her to deposit their money in bank ac-
count. There is a fair in the village but children are saving
with her rather than spending all the money”, says Krishna
Multiple services offered
Krishna Devi is also actively engaged in Business Facilita-
tion activities on behalf of the bank: she offers Solar Home
Lighting Solution loans as well as Kisan Credit Cards, she
opens Recurring Deposit accounts and she distributes non-
performing asset notices to customers. Through this she
has helped the bank to recover loans worth Rs. 2.5 lakhs.
She feels proud that she is playing a vital role in improving
the lives of so many people. She feels that getting into this
profession was one of the best decisions of her life. A so-
called low caste tailor woman now acts as the local bank
official for the village and also commands a lot of respect
from high caste people in the village. Krishna Devi believes
that this facility has great potential and her future is very
bright. She will soon be very successful and known in her
surrounding villages as well.
Krishna Devi doing transaction for a senior
citizen in his house

17. 17
SHGs as Business
Correspondents
Changing the traditional style of banking!
Bank Manager’s profile
Mr. Ramanuja Verma is the Branch Manager of Unchgaon
branch of Gramin Bank of Aryavart in Unnao district of the
state of Uttar Pradesh. He is one of those progressive bank-
ers who believe that new alternative delivery channels can
change the face of traditional banking and get more and
more unbanked people under the banking fold. He is man-
aging this bank branch for last three and a half years and
is respected in the neighbouring villages. He narrates the
journey of this new model with a lot of passion. He believes
Branch Manager, Ramanuja Verma, outside his
Unchgaon branch
“Har garib ka khata, har garib ko fayda” “Ab ghar
mein log bakse mein paise nahi rakhte.”- “Every
poor’s account is every poor’s benefit. Now peo-
ple do not keep money in boxes”,
says Ramanuja.
that this is a boon for him as it makes him feel good about
providing services to more and more people while keeping
the footfalls in the branch at a low level. It also gives him
and his staff extra time to think about new products that
can be offered for the betterment of the villages. He details
out with great enthusiasm, the following advantages of this
new model:
“Har garib ka khata, har garib ko fayda” “Ab ghar mein
log bakse mein paise nahi rakhte.”- “Every poor’s account
is every poor’s benefit. Now people do not keep money in
boxes”, says Ramanuja.

18. 18
Decongestion of branch
Earlier, his branch was always very crowded as people had
to visit the branch for every petty issue. Now, there are 11
Bank Sakhis associated with his branch and people first go
to them. Only if something remains unresolved do they
come to the bank. Earlier, illiterate people, sick people and
people who had to deposit/withdraw small amounts, could
not do so because it took a lot of time and energy. But the
account opened with Bank Sakhi is helpful for all –villagers
now have access to so many services at their doorstep, bank
has fewer footfalls and can therefore focus on other impor-
tant things and it provides a source of livelihood to Bank
Sakhi. Overall impact on the branch business has been pos-
itive so far. With the help of Bank Sakhis, savings (low cost
deposits) worth Rs. 50 lakhs have been mobilised through
all savings accounts since May 2013 and nearly 90,000
transactions worth Rs. 1.5 crores have happened through
these 11 Bank Sakhis linked to the branch of Mr Ramanuja
in the same period. Earlier, more than 150 vouchers used
to be filled each day at the branch on an average. But now
it has gone down significantly to 90-100 vouchers a day.
Since many customers are now able to avail basic banking
services, particularly small transactions, through the Bank
Sakhi, they need not go to the branch. If someone wants
to do a high value transaction (more than Rs 10,000/-), then
only s/he needs to go to the bank branch.
“Koi 100 rupay nikalne aata tha, koi 200. Jo bada customer
hota tha, wo wait karta reh jata tha”- “Somebody used to
come to withdraw Rs. 100, someone else 200; and my pre-
mium customers would have to wait,” says Ramanuja.
Increased focus on loans, cross-selling
and premium customers
Mr. Verma says that because of so much work at branch
earlier, not much attention could be given to other im-
portant things like credit expansion or credit monitor-
ing. He was left with very little time to spread awareness
about various products offered by his bank, go to the
field for survey, do background check on loan applica-
tions etc. But with doorstep banking service for the cus-
tomers, there are fewer customers to service at the bank
and bank staff can focus on their premium customers
who do high ticket size transactions.
The Sakhis have also supported the bank to make its prod-
ucts popular. They have started doing Business Facilitation
work like encouraging people to take Solar Home Lighting
System (SHLS) loan, open Recurring Deposit (RD) accounts,
pay off loans on time and avail of Kisan Credit Cards (KCCs).
Earlier, many villagers were not even aware of such facili-
ties available at bank.The accounts opened with Bank Sakhi
also provide an option to customers to receive various gov-
ernment payments like wages of MGNREGA, pensions etc.
in these accounts. It also facilitates customers to receive
remittances directly in their accounts. The customers, with
minimal documentation, can avail of overdraft facility up to
Rs.10,000/- with the help of Bank Sakhis. Recovery of Non-
Performing Assets (NPAs) has also considerably improved
because of Sakhis’ support in delivering delinquency no-
tices to defaulting customers’ residences.
More number of customers
While earlier only 10-12 accounts could be opened in a
month, now about 6,000 savings bank accounts have been
opened through Bank Sakhis between May 2013 and
March 2015. This growth can be completely attributed to
the support provided by this new delivery channel.Also the
number of female customers is rapidly increasing.The male
female ratio of clients enrolled by Bank Sakhis is 55:45 as
against the bank average of 62:38 before the start of Bank
Sakhi project. Also, he is getting a lot of children as his cus-
tomers, which he says would support financial inclusion in
a real sense in the longer term.
Stress free work environment
Earlier Mr. Verma used to lose track of time, after entering
the bank. He would not remember when it was long past
the lunch time and when it was time to go home. People
would hover around him throughout the day. It used to
make him sad to see old and sick people linger around the
bank, waiting for their turn. Also, his staff was not happy
with the workload. Now, everybody feels less stressed
and they greet their customers with more happiness and
energy.
“4-5 baj jate the shaam ke, pata hi nahi chalta tha
lunch time nikal gaya. Ab thoda saans lene ki fursat

19. 19
milti hai.” – “Every day I had to skip lunch because
of workload, now I get some time to breathe,” says
Ramanuja.
Bank Sakhis act as his additional
support
Mr. Verma feels that women are better at savings than
men. They also have better convincing ability and when
given responsibility, they are more accountable. He says
that Bank Sakhis appointed under this project are very
hardworking and committed to their work. They are very
sincere and perform their duty with enthusiasm. In case
they need clarity on something, they approach him and
he is more than happy to help them. It is like he has got
extra The Bank Sakhis have helped the Bank branch to
achieve the following numbers as of 30th April, 2015 in
addition to the 6, 000 Savings bank account opened and
being serviced:
◗ 141 RD Accounts (Sep’14-Mar’15)
◗ 37 SHLS Loans
◗ 77 KCC/GCC by 7 Bank Sakhis
◗ 102 NPA recovery notices issued to account holders
(by Bank Sakhis)
◗ 8 FD and OD accounts
Overall experience
Mr. Verma feels that working at the bank is both interest-
ing and challenging at the same time. His position com-
mands respect from society, but it has also feel put a great
responsibility on his shoulders. Now, with the ‘SHG as BC’
project, this responsibility is being largely shared by Bank
Sakhis who are playing the role of a catalyst in all the major
functions of a bank – savings, credit, remittances and G2P
payments. He feels that going ahead, all the banks should
adopt a similar model as this is the only way government
can achieve complete financial inclusion.

20. 20
Government to Person
(G2P) payments at
the doorstep
Customer profile
‘A penny saved is a penny earned,’ this quote can be aptly
applied to Pyarelal who is a daily wage labourer in Nan-
mau village in Sumerpur block of Uttar Pradesh. He and
his wife have 5 children. They both work as wage labour-
ers and spend what they earn to meet their daily expenses.
They belong to a Scheduled Caste and live in a small house
while their parents live with Pyarelal’s brother in the near-
by house.
Not so good experience
with previous bank account
Pyarelal has an account in the Unchgaon branch of Gramin
Bank of Aryavart, where he used to receive payments under
Pyarelal with his family, outside his hut

21. 21
NREGA (National Rural Employment Guarantee Act). He
used this account for withdrawing his NREGA payments
and also to deposit small savings. But in order to do so, he
had to spend almost a day which proved to be very costly
because of the opportunity cost involved.
Introduction to Bank Sakhi
He came to know about banking at doorstep service
through Uma Devi, the Bank Sakhi in his village. She con-
vinced him to open a bank account with her. Since he has
opened an account with her, he prefers using this account
over his other bank account as it gives him a lot of flex-
ibility. This account can be used 24x7 unlike regular bank
accounts which can be operated only on weekdays and that
too within specific hours. He says that this account can also
be used to withdraw during festivals and other holidays as
the Bank Sakhi stays in the same village. He tells proud-
ly that he was able to save only Rs. 600/- in his previous
bank account in last 2-3 years, but he managed to save Rs.
1,800/- in this new account in just 1 year. He says that now
he understands the importance of saving small amounts at
a regular frequency.
NREGA payments made easy
Now, Pyarelal is also getting his NREGA payments in this
account. He used to withdraw the entire amount received
under NREGA wages from his previous account, but now
he withdraws as per his need and maintains some balance
in his account as he knows that it is now very easy to make
a withdrawal through the Bank Sakhi.
As he has a big family, money is never enough. So he could
not deposit much in his bank account but with the Sakhi,
he makes it a point to deposit regularly, even if the amount
is small. After all, it’s not how much you earn, but how
much you save that counts!
“Pehle to NREGA ka poora paisa ek sath nikal
leta tha, kuchh to kharcha zyada tha aur kuch
bank se nikalne ka kasht. Ab is naye khate mein
bahut aaram hai, jab jitna man karta hai, nikal
leta hoon, bachat karna bhi bahut assan hai.
Agar ye suvidhaa pehle hoti to meri bachat bhi
zyadaa hoti”- “Earlier, I used to withdraw the
entire NREGA wages as my expenses were high
and also withdrawing money from bank was
painful. But this new doorstep service is very
convenient. I withdraw in small amounts as
needed. Saving is very easy in this new account.
If this facility was available earlier, I would have
a bigger corpus of savings,” says Pyarelal.
Pyarelal doing transaction with Bank Sakhi

22. 22
Doorstep delivery of
remittances lead to a
lot of savings
Customer profile
Rama Devi is a mother of four but for the last 17 years, she
has been living in her village, Kodrabakt Kheda with her
youngest son and only daughter. Her husband and other
two sons are working in Mumbai as daily wage labourers.
She expresses her inability to live with her family in Mum-
bai as the cost of living and education there is very high and
she also has to look after her small piece of land.
Besides taking care of her small plot, Rama Devi also works
as a labourer in others’ lands to augment her income. Her
family in Mumbai send her money as and when they have
some savings. Earlier, they used to send money through
other villagers coming back from Mumbai. It used to take
many days for Rama Devi to receive this money and it was
not very safe also.Therefore, for meeting immediate needs,
she sometimes had to take short term loan from other vil-
lagers or the local goldsmith at interest rates as high as
10% per month!
Her previous banking experience
She also has a bank account in which she used to receive
her payments under the National Rural Employment Guar-
Rama Devi standing outside her house

23. 23
antee Act (NREGA). But she says that it was a nightmare to
withdraw money from that account as she is not literate
and had to depend on others to fill her withdrawal form
and wait for long hours for her turn. Even after waiting in
the queue, if there was any mistake in the form, the teller
would make her go through the entire process again.
In order to visit the bank branch, she also had to forgo a
day’s earning as well as spend money on transport. This is
the reason, she was scared to save and transact at the lo-
cal bank branch. She preferred saving at home so that she
could have easy access to cash.
Introduction to Bank Sakhi
She came to know about this new doorstep banking ser-
vice through Bank Sakhi Rajkumari as they are distant rela-
tives. When others in her village started opening accounts
through Rajkumari, she also followed them. Her family in
Mumbai now send her money in this account, which is now
received the same day. Rama Devi now feels very happy and
relaxed as she does not have to worry about any emergen-
cy for money as the Sakhi stays in the vicinity and there is
no hesitation in interacting with her. She can now pay for
her expenses on time and does not need to borrow money
from anybody. She does not need to keep money at home
either. This account not only provides interest on her sav-
ings but is also saving a lot of money which she was un-
necessarily paying as interest on short term loans taken to
meet her emergency needs.
Rama Devi finds it easy to discuss her queries regarding
banking facilities with the village Bank Sakhi i.e. Rajkumari
as she is easily approachable, available and a female SHG
member from her village only. Rama Devi does not find it
difficult to interact with a female bank agent and feels mo-
tivated, convenient and comfortable to avail banking ser-
vices from her even at odd hours.
Inculcating savings habit in kids
Her kids have opened their own accounts too and instead
of spending their pocket money, they prefer saving in this
account for future use. She is extremely happy as her chil-
Rama Devi with her youngest son and cattle
“Line lagaye raho. Mil jaye to mil jaye, nahi to
lage lage bank band hi ho jaye! 2-3 baar laut
aana pada. Bahut akadte the sahab, zara sa
galat ho jaye to. Hum kehte hum to padhe nahi.
To adhikari kehte – To hum toka padhai den
kya!” – “Keep standing in the queue; if you are
lucky you will get it else the bank will close
for the day. I had to return 2-3 times from the
branch without doing the transaction. The
officer used to behave very arrogantly, if there
was any mistake in the bank withdrawal form. I
used to say that I am not educated and the of-
ficer would say, ‘Now do I have to teach you?’”
- Rama Devi on her experience with operating
bank account in the neighbouring bank branch
dren are also learning the importance of savings at a very
young age, which she says will help them throughout their
life. With a smile on her face, she says that the Bank Sakhi
is a “panacea for all her problems”.

24. 24
A Bank Sakhi doing enrolments and transac-
tions using her Micro-ATM.
Seema Devi tallying her cash
balance and updating transaction
register at day-end
KYC! Rajkumari seems to
know her customers well

26. 26
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