A Bankers Village Diary

8/9/2019 A Bankers Village Diary

1/15

A BANKERS VILLAGE DIARY

By Moin Qazi

An award winning poet, Moin Qazi holds a doctorate and is an

independent researcher and consultant who has spent three decades in

rural finance with State Bank of India, Indias largest bank, where he was

involved in microfinance as a grassroots manager and as head of its

microfinance operations in Maharashtra. He belongs to the first batch of

managers of commercial banks who were associated with the launch of

Indias microfinance programme. He writes regularly on development

finance and environmental issues. He was a Visiting Fellow at the

University of Manchester specializing in microfinance

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

----------------

When I decided to take up a rural assignment most of my friends thought I

was crazy. You cant possibly go and stay in a village for months and

years. Its good as a tourist but certainly not as one who could spend life

in villages for years. Youll certainly take to drinks, the toddy that is the

staple hospitality drink served by the villagers. Youll quickly decay in an

atmosphere that combines the ugliest features of the city slums .When

broken in mind and body you will creep back to the city, looking and

behaving like a tropical tramp off a banana boat. Rural India was being

seen as a dead weight on the Indian economy, a bastion of backwardness

embodied by the frequent suicides of farmers eking out livings from

sagging and arid fields, dependent upon fickle monsoons. Westerners had

begun to see Indias backwaters as killing meadows.

Most of us don't dream of beginning our careers in a village, so why blame

entrepreneurs? The very idea of an Indian village conjures up images of

tiny dusty hamlets, dry taps and oppressive heat and dust. Even for those

who don't mind it, there is the question of whether one can make 'serious

money' from rural markets.

1


2/15

I had the most snobbish, exclusive education in a big city and qualified

for a lucrative job. How is it possible that some people live in such

penury and we go through the best of education but dont give anything

back? . It was this combination of a prickling conscience and anger thatdrove me to seek a career in rural finance. It really didnt involve too

much of a sacrifice. The bank for which I was working paid almost the

same salary for a posting in metro and a village. The only difference was

that the employers didnt compensate for the discomfort and hardship

which a posting in a rural centre entailed. But even than the physical,

intellectual and emotional adventure that the assignment provided

appeared to be adequate compensation despite the monetary loss I

suffered. However this optimism was not shared by any of my colleagues

who felt that the management ought to compensate this sacrifice by way

of career rewards. I knew there were no rewards for working in villages. At

best you could lose out a few promotions and the management would be

least guilty about it. Also one had to suffer a bad image of being punished

by the management by being posted to God forsaken places as a rural

posting is rarely on grounds of efficiency ; it is more a weapon for

silencing you from regularly barking at the management .

I was going to an area where I was an outsider. I would never be able to

understand the area quite as well as a local person. But I also had a

special set of experiences and a critique of development processes born

out of varied experiences. I was born into a class which still remained

powerful and dominated decision making.

It was a mood of adventure and aspiration for serving the villagers that

inspired me as I took the bus for my first rural assignment. The bus had

disappeared around the bend, and all the villagers who had disembarked

with me had shuffled off to their homes. Night was falling, the cicada buzz

was rising, and I began to get that panicky feeling that the city-coddled

might experience upon finding themselves suddenly alone on the roadside

in a remote village. But my hosts were soon able to spot me and took me

to their humble dwelling where I spent the first night of my assignment.

2


3/15


4/15

had spent my entire career, including my days in school and college, in a

metropolis. I was professionally not suited for this work, but I was

convinced that I had the temperament that could make up for other

deficiencies.

Perhaps the hardest territory to colonize has been inside people's heads,

where superstition and stigma prevail. I began to view the village and its

environs more like a native than an outsider. Not only did I get used to

smells, dirt, dust, winds, noise, the insects and vermin and the lack of

privacy, I learned to distinguish good land from bad and the various

properties of the plants and trees commonly found in the area.

With every passing day at Bina, the seeds of such relationships were

taking root and sprouting .The canvas of the story was ready to stretch

wider, move further and include new friends like villagers from the

neighbouring village and a huge planet of development practitioners.

At first I was highly disappointed taking up an assignment in these remote

villages. I found the change - the slow pace of life, the stillness and

silence, the smokey fire, the stones in the rice and the domestic chores -

just as hard to adapt to as our Western visitors. It appeared to be a bitter

medicine, but I guess I needed it. I'm convinced that the only thing that

kept me going was that I loved what I did. It was an exhilarating and

enriching experience, something akin to a spiritual journey. One of the

earliest lessons that we learn in school is that every work is noble. But

we never actually grasp its real meaning and live our days unhappy and

unproductive waiting for the noblest job to come. But that noble job neverarrives. When we realize that every work is noble and the worker,

irrespective of the type of work he does, is also noble then only we begin

to enjoy the thrill, challenge and satisfaction of work, then only we will

become noble people.

Living in the village was not a hardship to me and it was not a sense of self-sacrifice that kept

me there so long. The people, the countryside, the tranquility, the simplicity of the way of life

and the importance of our work made up for any lack of comfort or convenience. I felt

4


5/15

privileged to have such an opportunity though on many occasions I felt inadequate in face of

the challenges that presented themselves. If I honestly consider how much we achieved it is

not a great deal and it is as much our failures that come to mind as our successes. The

villagers' world remains much the same.The roots of rural poverty can be traced

to the low per capita incomes that accrue to this section of our population.

As a result, most houses in villages are no more than four low-level mud

walls and a thatched roof over them. Drinking water is from a hand pump

or, occasionally, an overhead tank, but there are still a number of villages

where people have to trek a few kilometers to draw water from a well or a

lake. The open countryside is the toilet, so one dare not speak of

sewerage or drainage facilities. Many babies are still delivered at home,

not in a hospital. Many illnesses are still treated by quacks.

Their life consists of unremitting hard physical work, carrying heavy loads - be it water from

the well or stream, paddy from the fields or wood from the forest - and walking long

distances, all on a basic, unvarying and inadequate diet. And there is the ever-present threat

that things will get worse because of illness or death in the family, or because of storm or

drought or theft. Rural credit programmes were long notorious for being

subverted by the local rich, who had the collateral needed to secure loans

and the political clout required to default successfully on their loans.

The perception that the poor do not have skills or would not be able to

survive on their own is a myth. All you have to do is to provide them

access to capital and opportunity and see them take off. During all these

years of my association with the rural sector, I have come to know that

development is fuller when put in womens hands, especially the poor,

who know best how to use the little money they have. Over the course of time I

came to understand that just as poverty did not simply signify the lack of material things, nor

could its cause be found in the people's ignorance. What the poor lacked was justice and the

power to control their own lives.

Contrary to the commonly held opinion that village India has given herself

up solely to religious meditation and philosophical speculation, it has

made many valuable contributions to practical arts, music, ship-building,

architecture, textile industries, etc. It must be kept in mind, however, that

India's industrialism of that period was the natural outcome of Indian

5


6/15

character molded by her religious ideals and determined by her material

and regional resources. One of the discouraging features of Indian

democracy is the politicization of rural society. A decade back, villages

had a very remote link with political parties. Those who contestedpanchayat elections were elected on the strength of their electoral merits,

irrespective of their ideological stripes. Cast did remain a wild card, but

the candidates character played a critical role. The growing tendency of

village groups to seek outside political support for solution to local

development issues has ruptured the traditional social structure. Each

leader in a village has a political master in the nearest town. All these

developments have made the village social structure highly complex and

confusing. In the coming years rural assignments for officials of

government and banks are going to become hazardous on account of the

growing criminalization of villages. The new roads and highways that

provide a fast passage not just to towns but also to metros have

demolished the concept of village republics.

This elite has found ingenious methods of evading ceiling laws and

tinkering land records. The patronage of the powerful is the dominant

feature of public life. It is this daily experience that explains why the poor

lack confidence in any government sponsored institutions. The biggest

threat that a development worker faces in a village is from this elite. In

rural India, political clout depends heavily on caste dominance. The caste

system is well entrenched in villages and permeates every part of life. The

dominance of the higher castes over the lower ones is overpowering.The

upper castes enjoy wealth and power in some form or otheras

landowners, as traders, or in the form of education. Needless to say, the

lower castes comprising the large number of landless labourers, weavers,

potters, leather workers, and other crafts people are economically weak.

Besides the caste hierarchy, a few families who own productive land and

assets like water enjoy enhanced power in a village. The rest of the

families depend on them for their livelihoodworking their lands, helping

at harvest time, performing all kinds of agricultural and even domestic

chores. In adverse times, the poor borrow from the landlords, pledging

6


7/15

their silver, their small piece of land, and sometimes even their children.

The position of being both employer and moneylender is one of great

power, affording ample opportunities for exploitation .

Rural development takes place in a much more stringent environment.

Unlike in private business, those who undertake the work have no

personal stake. The infrastructure is underdeveloped and problems for a

rural development worker include the lack of safe drinking water, poor

health and schooling facilities, and so on.

Management, no doubt, requires competence, and higher levels of this

attribute are obviously needed to tackle complex projects. Development

in underdeveloped rural areas is far more difficult that doing business in

big cities. But when it comes to deployment of trained and efficient

manpower rural areas get the least priority.

During my career as a development journalist I always travelled with a

camera. Photo journalism was a specialized field by itself and I had

developed enough expertise to get by lines as credits for my pictures. My

skills as a photographer strengthened my standing as a journalist. It was a

major contributor to my success as a travel writer. During my rural

assignment this skill further helped me ingratiate myself to the villagers.

One of the basic requirements of a bank account is a photograph.

Every individual was required to submit three copies of his photographs

for opening a bank account. I found this requirement the biggest

bottleneck for villagers, particularly women. A person had to travel at

least ten km to visit a studio in the town to get himself photographed.

Apart from the travel costs and the expenses on photographs at the

studio, an additional expenditure had to be incurred for the person who

was required to travel to collect the photo prints after three days. That

was the time it took for processing and printing of the photo rolls. The

worse plight was of dairy farmers. When an animal died, a photographer

had to be contacted. The insurance company required a close up photo of

the dead animal in a pose that would display the insurance tag latched to

7


8/15

the earlobe. The photographers would literally fleece the poor villagers. At

times, the borrower would surrender his claim if he was not in a position

shell out the required amount. Our camera relieved our customers of

many of these problems. Colour photography had just been introduced,and it was a great novelty. In those days colour photo rolls were sent to

Mumbai for printing. A lab had recently opened at Nagpur and it was

offering substantial inaugural discount to attract customers. The printing

process had a technique that produced four passport size prints on a

single postcard sized paper. The cost was therefore kept to the barest

minimum. We retained three copies for the banks use and returned the

extra copy as a complimentary memento to the customer. My staff would

also visit the farms to photograph dead animals for insurance claims; this

token service won us lot of laurels. The Bank already had a provision in its

operations manual for reimbursement of expenses of such photographs.

We used this provision to purchase photo rolls and defray the expenses of

the processing lab. Since we were regular client providing both business

and publicity to lab ,the lab gave us one complimentary roll with one time

free print of the entire roll as part of a new promotion campaign. We

screened close up portraits of 35 poorest households in the village. They

were photographed in the backdrop of their mud hovels and cattle. We

gave these printouts mounted in attractive frames donated by the lab as

a gift on Independence Day. This grainy memento still adorns the houses

of many families renewing their memories of their association with the

bank.

Improving rural womens economic status and helping them build an assetbase contribute to breaking down gender stereotypes. Eliminating the

barriers that prevent women from getting access to fundamental assets is

crucial for broad-based economic growth and poverty reduction. When

you connect with a purpose greater than yourself you are fearless; you

think big. Its chief premise is that grass-roots initiatives are the ultimate

drivers of prosperity: Small entrepreneurs create wealth, and together,

they can do more to end poverty than all the top-down welfare programs

combined.

8


9/15

The years that I spent in the hinterland were absolutely magical, simply

because I was able to actually work with people at the lowest rung of the

economic ladder, rather than merely dealing with them as statistics on a

file .This had fine-tuned my understanding of social and economicrealities. Traveling by motor bike to villages in the most remote of areas,

interacting with people of cultures that seemed to exist on a different

plane.It was no small hardship given India's chaotic and treacherous

bovine trails that double up as roads. My accessories were a small

suitcase cinched together with baling twine and a bulging burlap sack

whose contents were as jumbled as the pieces of my own disorganized

everyday life. I worked hard to acquaint myself with poor, rural India by

making numerous visits to remote, neglected villages, where I spend

hours listening to villagers, sometimes sleeping in their huts while or

sitting cross-legged on their dirt floors, sharing their meals. My gentle and

unflappable manners helped me ingratiate myself to these strangers who

reciprocated generously. Though kindness is quick, acceptance comes

slowly. One long-time native summed it up: Youre only a stranger for

five minutes, but youre a newcomer for 50 years.

It was surreal. It was during this time that I realized the true challenge of

development. A challenge that no matter how much aid money, or how

much external assistance is provided, change will only occur when the

motivation for development comes from the villagers themselves. It is an

issue of empowerment. This is the root of sustainable development.

Grassroots initiatives are the ultimate drivers of prosperity. Small

entrepreneurs create wealth, and together, they can do more to end

poverty than all the top-down welfare programs combined. What is

needed most of all is moral leadership willing to build solutions from the

perspectives of poor people themselves, rather than imposing grand

theories and plans from above I have seen from close range that money

is not the main factor, it is effective programs and people to put these

programs together, who could slowly eliminate poverty .Tackling poverty

requires a fundamentally different approach: one that starts with peoplethemselves and encourages the initiative, creativity and drive from below

9


10/15

that must be at the core of any transformation of their lives if it is to be

lasting. I've learned that people usually tell you the truth if you listen hard

enough. If you don't, you'll hear what they think you want to hear. I had

the privilege of watching the women acquire a sense of dignity once theywere given tools for self-sufficiency. I discovered the power of creating a

business with real accountability. And I learned, maybe most important, to

listen with my heart and not just my head. It has been an exhilarating

experience and a personally humbling one. Are poor clients last in the

long list of our objectives? How do we bring poor clients first in the list of

priorities? Are we asking the right questions to our clients and looking for

real answers?

There are critics who believe the poor are so poor, why you would make

them pay for things. My experience is that dignity is more important than

anything else and that the poor already pay for things so lets find a way

to provide them things they can afford and want. That ethos underpins

microfinance. The mantra is: Tell us what the poor want, dont tell us

what you think is good for them.Theres arrogance to the attitude that

were going to come in and fix something for you, and you should

appreciate it. The only way to really build trust is by starting from how

people really are.

There will always be distress and sometimes turning to the government

will be unavoidable. But it is vital to prevent the state from becoming so

beneficent that it undermines people's will to help themselves. It is vital,

too, to remember that, while state intervention can bring short-term

benefits, it invariably comes at a cost, sometimes hidden at first but

usually enormous in the long term. That is the great lesson of our century

and it has been learned the hard way .There are still vested interests

which continue to cling like barnacles to the ship of the state.

Poor households around the world have demonstrated their ability to use

and pay for financial services through longstanding informal agreements

such as savings clubs, rotating savings and credit associations, and

10


11/15

mutual insurance societies. In India, there are numerous ways in which

the poor can access credit through informal and semi-formal institutions.

I've learned that there is no currency like trust and no catalyst like hope.

There is nothing worse for building relationships than pandering, on the

one hand, or preaching, on the other. And the most important quality we

must all strengthen in ourselves is that of human empathy. Empathy will

provide the most hope of all--and the foundation for our collective

survival. An open system means more voices, more voices mean more

discussion which leads to better decision. It may mean hundreds of

voices, with different thoughts and priorities, constantly fighting for one

mans ear, but then are always ways of devising a mechanism appropriate

to ones situation.

The reality as experienced by the poor living on the margin of existence

is often different from the assumptions made by the administrator. It is

difficult for us to understand the fears, the hesitancy, the pain and the

labour with which the poor live and which therefore, separates the project

from its implementation, from what is possible and impossible, or what is

easy or difficult for the rural poor.

Rural poverty is unperceived or misperceived because of the distance of

the administrator and the professional from the rural poor. As Robert

Chambers has pointed out, the rich, the powerful and the urban based

professionals are at the core, the poor, the weak and the rural people are

at the peripheries leading to a systematic bias in terms of rural poverty

unperceived or misperceived. There is the phenomenon of rural

development tourism, i.e. the phenomenon of brief visits more as a rural

tourist, the roadsides and tarmac visits, the meeting with the more

influential people in rural areas, asking the predetermined questions etc.

car convoys with hundreds of hangers-on. The aid structure often involves

top-down decisions, incredible bureaucracy and paperwork, and the

dispatch of expensive American expatriates who have to drive around in

SUVs. Where possible I think its much better to support local groups

rather than those expats. The locals cost much less than foreigners and

11


12/15

they usually have a much better idea of what people need. Unless the

poor and disadvantaged are deliberately and persistently sought, they

tend to remain in the background ,effectively screened from outside

inquiries.The problem with the villages in Central India where I spent a major part

of my career in rural banking was that the people were known for their

following instinct; they followed each other. There was not one leader in

the bunch; there were scores of them. They followed each other into

oblivion. The womenfolk would normally huddle behind curtains, giggling

shyly at us, content to fade into the background, letting their husbands

speak for them or they would blink a coded language to fellow womenwith their eyelids. I saw my role as that of the initiator. I was a catalyst,

the agent for change, the one who intervened for change. In other

words, the perception was that of myself as the leader, in so much as the

action that followed was ultimately traced back to a set of actions for

which I was responsible. It may have been an idea or a set of ideas.

Gradually, I began to understand that the perceptions and ideas exist in

different forms in peoples minds already. What is really needed is thetime and space and opportunity for putting them into action. My role was

now severely limited in my mind. All around me, I saw development

programmes failing because they did not take the politics of the ground

reality into account. An effort for deep-rooted social change would have to

derive its strength from the people it intended to benefit. . I worked in

rural projects for close to three decades, and throughout this time was

disappointed by the way government, banks and development agenciesapproached rural development. Their traditional approach failed to build

the capacity of the people. They undertook projects that kept funds

flowing, but failed to consult the affected villages. The projects weren't

collaborations with the people and the result was a lack of sustainability.

Most importantly, the people were not empowered and valued enough to

learn and think for themselves in finding solutions. Instead, they were

simply instructed and subsequently followed direction like servants.

Tackling poverty requires a fundamentally different approach: one that

12


13/15

starts with people themselves and encourages the initiative, creativity and

drive from below that must be at the core of any transformation of their

lives if it is to be lasting .If people can be given the support they need to

make important decisions in their own communities, to build their owndemocracies in their own ways, they can do the rest themselves. In doing

so, they will not only move their own communities out of poverty, they will

take the world with them. Change must come from within: communities

must make their own decisions regarding their future. We have to

promote participatory approaches that address the specific needs of each

community, as well as increased education. Though recognizing that the

escape from poverty is a slow and arduous process, it is one of

empowerment. Those determined to improve their lives will seize

opportunities to improve their lives we therefore, should take on a

supporting role in the development process rather than try to provide all

the answers.

The bottom up approach is about living and working with the poor,

listening to them with humility to gain their confidence and trust. It cannot

be bought and manipulated with money, or by grafting urban assumptionsof development which in fact may destroy existing workable low cost

structures. It is about respecting and implementing the ideas of the poor,

encouraging them to use their skills and knowledge for their own

development. It is about taking a back seat and providing the space for

them to develop themselves. In short, we need to nurture and nourish

financial democracy. There may be an ideological debate over whether

popular participation is a good in itself (representing the goal ofempowerment of the poor and, in the larger political sense, the goal of

democracy) or a means to an end project sustainability. The poor are

often inconspicuous, inarticulate and unorganized. Their voices may not

be heard at public meetings in communities where it is customary for only

the big men to put their views. It is rare to find a body or institution that

adequately represents the poor in a certain community or area. Outsiders

and government officials invariably find it more profitable and congenial

to converse with local influentials than with the uncommunicative poor.

13


14/15

In a small project everyone can participate in decision-making. That's the

only real way to improve a community. The community gets employment

and has a feeling of ownership and control. But the practical advantages

of participation for project effectiveness and sustainability weigh heavilyin favor: participation can refuse waste of project resources and lead to

recurrent cost recovery; most important, it gives people a stake in the

project resources and thus makes them willing to support it. There are

also the negatives of participation: it is difficult, time-consuming, and

tricky; it can permit elites or free riders to get more than their share; it

can stir up conflicts that traditionally society and culture have been able

to keep under wraps; it can alienate governments; and so on. We can

always have a basket of recipes to suit every group from which to choose

an appropriate one. The success will finally depend on the charisma and

the personal commitment of the project leader who inspires the team and

lets the creative aquifers charge back to life.

Financial development through public participation enables individuals to

make the most of their potential and represents a tool for expanding

financial democracy. We have made historic strides toward theconsolidation of political democracy, revolutionizing governance in India's

rural hinterland but they have not been accompanied by the

democratization of means and opportunities. Financial democracy is

fundamental for achieving greater inclusiveness, improving social

cohesion, and generating broad-based growth. It is therefore crucial for

economic dynamism and political stability. It is crucial because the lack of

financial democracy prevents people from gaining access to resourcesthat would enable them to make the most of!

Empowerment means different things to different people. There is, of

course, one tide that will lift all boats. That is the tide of economic growth.

Poverty is the biggest hurdle to empowerment. It is poverty that denies

access to education; fails to create adequate number of job opportunities;

drives families to a demeaning life shorn of the barest dignity; forces a

mother to give away her girl child in marriage. It is a matter of common

14


15/15

knowledge that higher family income results in greater spending on

education for the children; better food and clothing; search for better

housing; more forceful assertion of rights and the willingness to seek legal

remedies; and the capacity to influence, individually or collectively,decisions that affect large sections of the people.

The heroic stories of tenacious women scripting tales of economic success

are great signs of a brighter tomorrow .For a world where people live on

less than a dollar a day this is an important step. The journey of a

thousand miles starts with a step. Truly, there is change in the air. Though

not dramatic, not a headline grabber, it is a slow and quiet transformation

that definitely is underway in remote and far-flung villages. Women whoso far had been diffident and withdrawn are gradually shedding their

earlier reticence and stepping out of the four walls of their homes to

acquire an identity of their own. It is a silent effort in the country that is

bound to accelerate progress on any indicatoreconomic, social, or

politicalthe last fairly visible with most of the one million women elected

over the years at the panchayat level coming out of the self-help groups.

This may not be a revolution- but at least it is a start.

.

Samiullah Khan Marg Sadar,

Nagpur 440 001India

Phone: +91 712 2533006

Cell: 9049638959

E-mail: [email protected]

15
mailto:[email protected]:[email protected]

Documents

A Bankers Village Diary