Microfinance Industry - Enduring support to the frontline workers & its customers through Community Development Initiatives

COVID 19 disrupted life and economies globally. In India, to keep COVID at bay, it was imperative to create mass awareness and provide relief across the country including the low-income rural households which comprised a significant part of the population. With operations pan-India and a strong connect with over 6 crore women, the Microfinance industry, comprising NBFC-MFIs, NBFCs, Banks, Small Finance Banks & Banking Correspondent, played a critical role in complimenting the efforts of the Government through its various community initiatives, some outlined below. These addressed the needs of different sections of the society including customers, the government officials, frontline workers like police and the medical fraternity, migrant workers etc. 

PMCares Fund: 35 organizations contributed Rs 3.39 crores to the ‘PMCares Fund’ through the joint efforts of over 54,034 employees.

Satin Creditcare Network contributed Rs 5 lakhs to the Assam State Health Department while the employees of CreditAccess Grameen contributed Rs 56 lakhs towards the ‘PM CARES Fund’ as a token of their solidarity with Government`s effort.

Relief Material: It is the collective efforts of the sector that resulted in Covid awareness & relief materials reaching across States & Districts.

Fusion Microfinance supported 3,82,000 rural populace, police department and district administration who benefited from the doorstep delivery of hygiene kits and distributed 2,08,000 masks, 28,300 sanitary napkins, 28,000 soaps and 2,600 Lt. of sanitizers across 6,500 villages of 17 states and UTs of India. Similarly, Ujjivan Small Finance Bank reached out to 3 lakh individuals through various relief measures and procured over 5000 PPE kits through its partner, GiveIndia Foundation, for hospitals across Mumbai which benefitted 40,000 government officials and healthcare workers.  SaGgraha Management Services provided hygiene kits to all police stations near its branches in Odisha and groceries in Bengaluru.

Besides this, CreditAccess distributed 9431 health kits, 8,919 grocery kits, 195 PPE, 350 thermal scanners, among 4,32,350 beneficiaries across 14 states of India while Satin Credit Care in co-ordination with the district administrations provided hygiene kits & ration across the states of Assam, Punjab, Madhya Pradesh, and Odisha. SV Creditline distributed blankets & clothes to 10,000 citizens including frontline workers across the states of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Punjab, and Uttarakhand.

Food packets were distributed to over 700 street-dwelling children & families in Kolkata  by Arohan Financial Services in partnership with Calcutta Rescue and Notun Jibon. Ration was distributed to over 15,000 families along with meals being provided to 5000 families across four states. 10,231 beneficiaries in Jharkhand & Uttarakhand were provided PPE kits, masks, disposable gloves, caps, and aprons. A mega relief camp distributing face masks to residents & passers-by was organised by Muthoot Microfin in Madhyamgram in West Bengal.

Medical Initiatives:

ESAF Small Finance Bank introduced a new initiative ‘Bandhu Clinic’ along with National Health Mission and Centre for Migration and Inclusive Development to support the migrant workers in Kerala, by arranging a mobile health clinic that travelled through various migrant labour concentrated areas and engaged in the primary screening of patients to identify Covid-19. Similarly, SATYA MicroCapital organized a digital OPD to provide free-of-cost, 24x7 medical consultation services via HealthAssure to over 4 lakh underserved customers, 1800 plus employees and their family members. SV Creditline launched ‘Swasthya Sewa for Customers’, to avail doctor’s consultation and prescription with just a phone call.