Punjab: Harassed by microfinance companies for instalments, Moga women lay siege to offices
Nearly 100 women from different villages of Moga protested outside the offices of microfinance companies in the city on Thursday. They gheraoed the offices, raised slogans and demanded that the government resolves their problems. The protest continued for the second day on Friday, with nearly 500 people, mostly women gathering near the Deputy Commissioner's office.
Women in Moga protesting outside a microfinance company
As COVID-19 pandemic and lockdown continues to affect various sectors, putting lakhs of jobs at peril, small traders and artisans are at higher risk due to limited access to big markets. However, finance companies hardly care about the hardship their customers are facing, with their main focus being on the recovery of loans.
In Punjab's Moga, microfinance offices that extended loans to women to run small businesses are now putting pressure on them for EMIs, going so far as to harass and threaten the family.
The recovery agents of the microfinance visit the homes of the women, allegedly threatening them to sell the household items to recover the loan amount. Hounded by the companies, women in Moga decided to take the matters into their own hands and came out on streets, even laying siege to the offices of the companies.
Nearly 100 women from different villages of Moga protested outside the offices of microfinance companies in the city on Thursday. They gheraoed the offices, raised slogans and demanded that the government resolves their problems.
The protest continued for the second day on Friday, with nearly 500 people, mostly women, gathering near the Deputy Commissioner's office. Some women even came out with their toddler children.
One of the protestors said there is a network of microfinance companies who are putting pressure on people for the recovery of loans. As all the businesses are already closed due to the lockdown, they demand that the loans given to the women must be waived.
"All businesses are closed due to coronavirus lockdown. We demand that the loans given to the women must be waived," a woman protester said.
They alleged that even though the government has given relaxation on EMI payments till August 31 due to the lockdown, the agents of microfinance companies are coming to the homes of women and threatening them.
The women said that they had taken loans on sewing machines and other essential items. Since the business has stopped for the last few months, they are unable to put food on the table, let alone pay EMIs. But the finance companies are hounding them and threatening to take away household items.