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ANSA-SARAbout Project Four journalists stay in and report from the heart of rural India in a Governance Now and ANSA-SAR project to study the impact of sustained reportage on implementation of welfare schemes

 

Banking on the informal
In the CM’s constituency in Odisha, there is still some distance to be travelled before financial inclusion happens at the grassroots

Jagili Dakua in front of his hut Jagili Dakua in front of his hut A mural on a wall in Takarada village advertising bank services A mural on a wall in Takarada village advertising bank services
Sarthak Ray | SHERAGADA, GANJAM | March 15 2013

B

uilding a house has drained Tuna Patra off – he says as much. Patra, a migrant construction worker in Surat seven months a year and a farmhand in his village for the rest five, is painting his two-room, concrete house in Takarada village of Sheragada block of Odisha’s Ganjam district to save costs. After sinking Rs 35,000 of a Rs 48,500 (for Maoist-affected areas) grant under the Indira Awaas Yojana (IAY), received in a bank account he holds with the Sheragada branch of Andhra Bank, and another Rs 1 lakh he raised as a loan from the village moneylender, he is unsure if it was a good investment at all.

“I have three daughters to marry off. Besides, my son is still in school. I should have saved something for them. But instead, we have a house now,” he says. His neighbours console him saying that a pucca house would leave a favourable impression on the prospective in-laws of his daughters. One of them points at the ornate light-vents Patra has put up and there is soon a loud debate on the merits of having it at all. The soft-spoken new house-owner looks more beaten than proud. He looks at the vents and seems lost in a silent listing of all the “extravagance” that has gone into the less-than-modest dwelling of a labourer. “You can always mortgage the house to pay for your son’s education,” someone offers a well-meaning advice.  

The last breaks Patra’s reverie. “I am already in debt. Nakula (the moneylender) is charging Rs 2 per Rs 100 lent every month. The two tolas (1 tola = a little over 10 g but less than 11 g) of gold that my wife had got when we got married is with him, as mortgage,” he answers. A back-of-the-envelope calculation and one finds out that he has to pay a whopping Rs 24,000 every year as interest alone!

.....1 | 2| Read Full Story

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    sarthak
    Sarthak Ray
    Reporting from GANJAM


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