Prime Minister Narendra Modi had launched Stand Up India on April 5, 2016 in Noida. (PTI)
Prime Minister Narendra Modi had launched Stand Up India on April 5, 2016 in Noida. The initiative was launched to support entrepreneurship among women, Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe communities. Under this, every bank has given a responsibility to ensure that wherever they have a branch, in their area, they have to give loans to two individuals – Dalit or an Adivasi, and a woman – in order to help them to start a new enterprise, new business.
According to the government’s website, the stated goal of Stand-up India is to enable bank loans between Rs 10 lakh to Rs 1 crore to at least one SC or ST borrower and at least one woman per bank branch to set up a greenfield enterprise. The loan is at the lowest applicable rate of the bank for its rating category which can be repaid in seven years, reported the Indian Express.
But nearly after one and a half years of the assurance, the data on loans obtained from the Department of Financial Services, Ministry of Finance, by The Indian Express under the Right to Information Act, shows a different picture. Here is the reality check:
• According to the data received by the Indian Express, 21 public sector commercial banks, 42 regional rural banks and nine private sector banks have provided Stand Up India loans to 5,852 SC applicants, 1,761 ST individuals, and 33,321 general category women.
• So far, only Rs 4,852 crore has been disbursed from the total loan amount of Rs 8,803 crore that was sanctioned across the banks.
• As per the records, after 17 months after the assurance, only six percent of the 1.3 lakh bank branches have provided Stand Up India loans to SC/ST individuals.
• Data shows less than 25 percent of the branches have provided loans to women in the general category.
Public Sector commercial banks
• 21 public sector commercial banks have together sanctioned Stand Up India loans to 38,111 individuals. Out of which, 5,559 of them are SC, 1,653 ST and 30,899 general category women.
• The average amount disbursed to SC/St applicants is Rs 10 lakh.
• The average amount disbursed to women is Rs 12.27 lakh.
• As per the data by the Indian Express, Six of these 21 public sector banks have together provided loans to less than 100 SC individuals.
• However, 16 banks have not sanctioned a single loan to individuals belonging to the ST category.
Private banks and Regional Rural Banks
• Of the nine private banks, IndusInd Bank has sanctioned 184 Stand Up India loans to SC individuals while only 12 loans have been provided by the rest, as per the data.
• These nine banks have together sanctioned such loans to only 196 SC, 76 ST individuals and 2,015 general category women.
• Five private banks have not sanctioned a single such loan to any ST person. These banks include – Axis Bank, Federal Bank, ICICI Bank, The Nainital Bank and Yes Bank.
• Four private banks and 15 of 42 regional rural banks (RRBs) have not provided a single Stand Up India loan to any SC individual. The private banks are Axis Bank, HDFC Bank, South Indian Bank and The Nainital Bank.
• 3 banks out of the 42 RRBs, have not sanctioned even one such loan to any ST individual. In the case of SC individuals, 15 have not sanctioned any such loan while the rest account for 97.
• Karnataka Vikas Grameen Bank tops with 13 such loans.
•42 RRBs in all have sanctioned Stand Up India loans to 536 people — 97 under the SC head, 32 in the ST category and 407 general category women.
• Three RRBs have not sanctioned a single such loan to general category women.
