Since nationalisation, banks were directed to function not merely as deposit collectors and lenders, but much more. This add-on was required to change the traditional image of a banker “as one who lends an umbrella when the sun shines and takes it back when it rains.”
Different tasks are given and targets fixed by the government to ensure that banks play a more proactive role in enhancing national welfare.
Menace of Unemployment
While poverty eradication is one of the major components of the state’s ambitious programmes, the growing unemployment remains a stumbling block. Banks’ lending formats have been simplified to ensure the flow of credit to the small industries and the unorganized sector to generate more employment of skilled and unskilled labourers. However, the menace of unemployment, both in rural and urban areas, continues unabated.
The Bankers’ Initiative
A couple of banks have taken the initiative, without being prompted by the government, to set up an agency to create self-employment, by training the youth and then financing, wherever necessary. Two South Canara banks took the initiative to set up Self-Employment Training Institutes for imparting training to unemployed rural youth. In 1982, both Syndicate Bank and Canara Bank, ably guided by Shree Dharmasthala Manjunatheshwara Education Trust (SDME Trust) set up Rural Development and Self-employment Training Institute (RUDSETI) at Ujire, near Dharmasthala. The two banks and the Trust funded this. Training in various vocations was given free of cost, including boarding.
Initially, the programmes were confined to sericulture, beekeeping, poultry farming and tailoring. Later they included advanced digital photography, digital filmmaking, and servicing of digital television and digital electronic devices. The duration of each programme is fixed based on the intricacies of the selected topics tailored to the absorption capacity of the trainees. Besides the external experts invited to train the young trainees, some of the past trainees who have been successful in establishing themselves in some of these vocations as trainers. Training is arranged in batches. Boys and girls are trained separately.
RUDSETI gains national acceptance
Since 1982, 27 RUDSETI institutes were established in 19 states. The contribution made by these institutes to rural employment generation attracted the attention of the Government of India, which adopted it as a national programme. In 2009, all the public sector banks were instructed to establish such institutes in their lead districts. There was a small change in the names of such institutes as Rural Self Employment Training Institutes (RSETI), deleting the word ‘development.’ Besides the financial support of Rs. One crore from the Centre and state governments were made to grant land for construction of the institutes. Public sector banks, private sector banks and gramin banks have started establishing these institutes across the country. Among them, there are four gramin banks – Tripura Gramin Bank, Meghalaya Rural Bank, Assam Gramin Vikash Bank and Arunachal Pradesh Rural Bank and one cooperative bank-Bidar District Central Cooperative Bank. In Jammu and Kashmir, the private sector bank, Jammu and Kashmir Bank Ltd has ventured into this arena. From the group of new generation banks in the private sector, Kotak Mahindra Bank Ltd and ICICI Bank Ltd has also started such programmes.
Achievements
Now, there are 576 RSETIs functioning in more than 600 districts across India. In the remote Lakshadweep islands also there is one of them, sponsored by Syndicate Bank. Silently these institutes are training the unemployed youth and instilling in them the determination to stand on their own.
Since their establishment, the RUDSETIs have trained 4,47,113 people, and the number of trainees settled is 3,27,354. Of this, the number of trainees availing bank finance for starting self employment ventures is 1,44,808. More of the trainees 1,49,717 could rely on owned funds, supported by families. The number of trainees opting for wage employment is only 32,839.
When compared with the voluminous data of unemployed youth, this achievement may look very small. However, as the old saying advice, ‘if there is darkness around, instead of blaming it, light a lamp.’
