Himalayan News Service

Palpa, May 26

Women living in the rural areas of the country can also make an important contribution to the development works of the country if they are united at the community level.

This is what the women of Koldanda Village Development Committee (VDC) of Palpa district have proved. Women of Koldanda VDC had been making regular economic savings after uniting themselves at the community level and seeking out income generating sources. They have also recently established the Koldanda Community Credit Development Bank. It has been learnt that the Bank will provide loans to women from within the groups and it is expected to help them run micro business as well as various other income generating programmes.

Chandra Kumari Aley, secretary of Pragati community credit development committee says, “We had a compulsion for going to big businessmen or money lenders in order to run a small business also. But after establishment of credit institutions in the village itself we no longer have to travel all the way to the district headquarters or to money lenders.” We have been running business with the money we saved for ourselves, she adds.

Their 11 committees like the Pragati community credit development committee in Koldand VDC alone apart from the Koldand community credit development bank. The Centre for Society Development and Research was responsible to unite women of this (Koldanda) with a predominant population of illiterate women and located some 20 km south of the district headquarters.

In the beginning we found it quite difficult to set a habit of saving money, says Tara Aley, chairperson of one of the committees in the VDC, adding that, we began with a saving of Rs. 5 monthly and after realizing it results and benefits the saving amount has now climbed to Rs 50 per month.

This Bank gives priority to productive programmes as a result of which women of this region have been carrying out various income generating programmes like cash crop, vegetable farming and animal husbandry, said secretary of the committee Chandra Aley.

Nabin Dhital, field assistant of the Centre said initially the men disliked the awareness raising campaign but presently they too have been joining the programmes and working together with their female counterpart in generating income for their family.

The concept of banking is very beneficial for women of this VDC that is very backward and remains far from the district headquarters, says the VDC vice-chairman Durge Saru.

Involving women is the socio-economic development of the society has had a very encouraging affect and this project will be expanded to other VDCs of the district as well, said programme coordinator of the Centre Narayan Bhattarai.