Annapurna Pariwar celebrated its 24th Annual Rally recently at Pandit Farms, Karve Nagar, Pune which was attended by almost 10,000 women. Adharpuna is a long term savings scheme for the very poor women which will ensure financial security in their old age. Annapurna Pariwar is a group of 5 Developmental Organizations working in Pune and Mumbai with an aim of empowering poor women and their families in terms of finance, education, health and child development.During 2016, Annapurna Group gave micro loans of around Rs.130 crores to the poor women and has collected savings to the tune of Rs.30 crores. Loans are given without any collateral or security and yet the repayment rate is 100%. Over Rs.1.87 crores were distributed to help the poor and their families at the time of sickness and deaths among the members by its micro insurance wing. Educational sponsorships of Rs.20 lakhs were distributed to 836 poor children in this year.
In the function Dr. Medha Purao-Samant, Founder Chairperson of Annapurna explained the need for going towards a cashless society and promised to help the slum women to open bank accounts and help them conduct cashless transactions with the help of ATM card facility. She also appealed to them to enroll themselves in the Adharpurna scheme brought to them by Annapurna.
On this occasion Advocate Prakash Ambedkar said, Annapurna Pariwar’s work is appreciable, society needs more organization like Annapurna to raise the graph of women Entrepreneurship in our society. Women are the pillars of our society. The growth of our society is only possible through women and Annapurna Pariwar is joining hand to hand to make this possible.
The women entrepreneurs felicitated during the programme all had great ambitions to grow their business even further. Mrs. Dipali Balasaheb Aaru said, ‘’I would like to thank Annapurna Pariwar for their help and I would like to request major big banks in India to give loans to women entrepreneurs who are looking to grow their business. Women entrepreneurs have immense potential which the banks need to tap into.’
Mrs. Manisha Sanjay Dalvi said, ‘’Annapurna Pariwar and my family has helped me a lot to grow my business. I intent to grow my business even further.’
Mrs. Manisha Arjun Lokhande who was also felicitated said, ‘’It is a proud moment for me to be honored by Annapurna Pariwar. I have started sari selling business at home, then I took shop on rent at laxmi road. Annapurana Pariwar has also been very cooperative in all my business growth till date.’’
Mrs. Vishranti Girish Katkar said, We had small bangle shop. Annpurna Pariwar support us and lead us to the development.
Major decisions announced in the meeting included :
? Declaration of dividend of 10% to 80,000 members;
? The first loan to the poorest of the poor of Rs.15,000/-;
? Raising of first loan size to Rs.25,000/- with maximum of Rs.1 lakh;
? Lowering of rate of interest on loans;
? Opening of bank accounts for all members in a nationalized bank with ATM card facility;
? Going towards cashless transactions
Awards to Annapurna’s members coming from poor families were given away for Best Entrepreneurs by Mr. Subodh Kumar Gupta, GM and Mr.Pushkar Mishra DGM from SIDBI. Mr.M.K. Gupta, DGM from Bank of Baroda gave away awards for Best Social Achievement. Awards for Best Mother and Best Social contribution were given away by Trustee Ms Chitra Khinvasara.