Tuesday, January 29, 2019

Slum Women come together for Economic & Social Empowerment

Annapurna Pariwar celebrated its 26th Annual Rally at Pandit Farms, Karve Nagar, Pune on 25th January
More than 8,000 women attended the Annual Rally of Annapurna.
On this occasion 21 women were felicitated for their entrepreneurship while 8 women were felicitated for their contribution to social change & 21 women were honored as Ideal Mothers.   


Starting a small work of wafers packaging at home with the loan of seven thousands rupees from Annapurna Pariwar, Ms. Subhadra Suryawanshi from Pune is now running a successful business in wafers packaging along with other food products. Now, she is doing business with loan of INR 98,000/- annually and providing employment to 8-10 other womens from the slum.

Similarly, Ms. Rekha Kamble, another women entrepreneur from slum. Who had started flowers business 10 years ago with the loan of ‘Ten Thousand’ has flourished in such a way, there are 7 other womens working with Ms. Kamble and running flowers business in Khadki.

Many such women entrepreneurs were felicitated at Annapurna Pariwar’s annual rally which was recently held at Pandit Farm, Karve Road, Pune. Where more than 8,000 thousand members were present, on this occasion, Ms. Manisha Gupte, renowned social activist and co-founder of Mahila Sarvangeen Utkarsha Mandal (MASUM) was the Chief Guest and Mr.Thomas Miranda (Asst. General Manager, Indian Overseas Bank) was the Guest of Honour.

Annapurna Pariwar is a group of 5 Developmental Organizations working in Pune and Mumbai with an aim of empowering poor women and their families in terms of finance, education, health and child development.

During 2018, Annapurna Group gave micro loans of around Rs.200 crores to the poor women and has collected savings to the tune of Rs.60 crores. Loans are given without any collateral or security and yet the repayment rate is 100%.  Over Rs.1.70 crores were distributed to help the poor and their families at the time of sickness and deaths among the members by its micro insurance wing.  Educational sponsorships of Rs.25 lakhs were distributed to 988 poor children in this year.
In the function Dr. Medha Purao-Samant, Founder Chairperson of Annapurna mentioned that this year Annapurna has begun making cashless disbursements with members as their bank accounts have now been opened with great efforts. Loans ranging from Rs.30,000 to Rs.2 lakhs are given without  any collateral. Health insurance claims benefit range from minimum Rs.1,700 to a maximum of Rs.30,000.  She also appealed to them to enroll themselves in the Adharpurna scheme brought to them by Annapurna and to take loans only if necessary.

Major decisions announced in the meeting included:

Declaration of dividend of 12% to members;
Higher loan slabs for existing members and old members who suffered during demonetization - first loan size of Rs.30,000/- to a maximum of Rs.5 lakhs;
Interest on fixed deposit, recurring deposit schemes raised to 10%, 11% and 12% for 1, 2 and 3 years respectively;
No rise in the contribution of Community based Health, Life Insurance but the amount of financial assistance has been increased;
Special scheme has been launched for loyal members – preventive health checkup package @ Rs.575 per year per one family member to be reimbursed.

A small play was presented by Annapurna Staff to educate women on the micro credit services of Annapurna. The event which began with a prayer sung by Annapurna Day Care Centers’ young slum children ended with an oath taken by all the members to stay united and fight against injustice towards women and saving the girl child.  The rally ended with the National Anthem sung in unison.

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