Banking for the Poor

 

Banking for the Poor

 

The idea of grain bank or Anaj bank is very old and time tested. As you travel through rural areas especially in the Northern part of India, you can experience many type of grain banks managed by the village communities. These are designed and developed by village communities in-order to deal with period of crisis.

In the recent past many Social organisations who found this idea convincing enough have started promoting Grain Bank among the marginalised communities. The idea of grain bank is simple that you save some grain during the harvest period and pool the same in to a community managed system. Those who have contributed to the grain bank can benefit from the bank when there is a crisis. I have seen grain banks of different size in different villages. The biggest grain bank I have ever visited was in a village called Mangaon in district Umaria of Madhya Pradesh. This grain bank was so big that the bank can protect the entire village population even if they face draught/flood for two years.

Of course the grain bank developed by the farmers will be very different from the type of bank developed by the poor people. The size and scope of the bank will drastically differ according to the socio economic situation of the people behind it.

Grain Bank idea was also very popular in Mahasamund area of Chhattisgarh. Village after village they have initiated children’s bank as well as grain bank. The idea of children’s bank received many awards and is now widely accepted as an important initiative of Ekta Parishad.

During my journey through Jhansi of Uttar Pradesh I found that many poor communities have set up their own grain bank and these grain banks are the backbone of the poor families. Members of these banks can borrow grain at the time of need and return the same with a small interest when they have regular income.

Because the local people have taken ownership of this process, it is rare that someone would try to cheat the bank. There is also community pressure on individuals as they know that the failure of one person can lead to failure of the very system that they were trying to promote as a security net.

With an initial support from outside an organised village community can begin a grain bank and also of a size according to the amount of money available. One should calculate at least 10 kg per person and multiply according to the number of poor people in a village. General experience is that the well to do families don’t borrow from these banks as they have their own arrangements to deal with crisis. So if there are 100 families in a particular village the grain bank can begin with 1000 kgs of wheat or rice according to the area of operation. The process can begin as soon as the village committee can identify a place for keeping the grain and a person to coordinate the operations. On a weekly basis the committee will verify all the accounts and transactions.

Promoting grain bank is something in which we have sufficient experience. The new dimension that we want to introduce here is the idea of Labour Bank.

As a daily wage earner the only asset I have in my control is my physical labour. I am willing to sell my body labour every day in-order to buy my ration to keep my family going. The problem begins when people who are willing to sell their physical labour find no market to sell it. If I don’t sell my labour today, I can’t keep it for tomorrow. My body energy of today can’t be reserved for tomorrow.

If you have money that you don’t want to use today can be deposited in a bank and you can draw when you need it. Can we see labour as money or wealth and allow him or her to deposit it in a labour bank? Can one deposit the body labour against grain so that the family will not go hungry?

This is a fact that the grain bank can’t provide work but it can guarantee food grain against the calculated labour of 8 hours and can provide food grain for an equal amount of money. (Say Rs 200/- is the cost of my labour for a day, so I can deposit it against 10 kgs of grain) and against an undertaking that when I am able to sell my labour I will return this grain to the Bank. This is also possible that a particular person has no work for a week and he/she would like to make an undertaking for a bigger quantity of grain with a commitment to return when work is available.

We are also exploring the possibility that the bank can generate work projects that can create community assets or the bank can at least keep a record of unemployed people and negotiate with projects where manual labour is in demand.

The important aspects are that

·       Shramshakti should be recognised as an asset.

·       Against shramshakti one should find enough food for the family.

·       Shram Bank should find work possibilities if individuals have difficulty to do it on their own.

·       Shram Bank should put an end to distress migration by providing food grain until some decent work is found.

If the government was serious enough about land reforms to address the problems of poverty and migration we could have continued on the Land Reforms track. In the absence of any willingness on the part of political parties whether from right or the left, it is important for us to develop new approach to deal with the problem of poverty related migration.

Shram bank, if properly organized can challenge the feudal system that still exists in many parts of the country, where the labourers are totally depended on the feudal system for their survival. In the long run we hope this shram bank idea may influence the state to redesign their anti poverty programs and policies.  This concept of Shram Bank can become popular not only nationally but also globally, as people are looking for new approaches that are practical and sustainable.

 

The steps proposed for any grain bank to be operational are the following.

a.      In the village there is an organized community.

b.      There is an experienced and committed leadership to coordinate this program.

c.       The community has already demonstrated their capacity to carry such programs.

d.      The community representatives have already participated in some nonviolent struggles to protect their land and resources.

As we know that the people who benefit from the shram bank are poor and migrant labourers, let us assume that they may not be in a position to return the grain within one month time (some may, some may not). The grain bank should be able to visualize an initial investment for a period of three months to keep it going.

 

This program will also be built around the concept of Dan (gift) proposed by Acharya Vinoba Bhave. During his bhoodan (land gift) movement. He spoke about the concept of dan to build an inclusive society at the bottom, which will include, shram dan (gift of labour), samay dan (gift of time), budhi dan (gift of intellectual capacity), sampathy dan (gift of property), etc. We will apply this concept where ever possible in building a grain/shram bank. We are sure that there are well meaning people everywhere and they will come forward to provide whatever Dan they are able to provide.