Visit to Australia of Eminent Academic and Social Banker
Community Sector Banking (CSB) has undertaken to sponsor the visit to Australia of Dr. Pradip Kumar Sarmah, Executive Director of the Centre for Rural Development (CRD) in India. Dr Sarmah will be attending the 2008 COMMACT International Conference to be held in Brisbane in late October.
This support by CSB is part of the COMMACT Solidarity Partnerships Program that seeks to establish practical and ongoing collaboration efforts between nonprofit organisations in developed nations with on the ground organisations in developing nations. A core element of the program is for partnering organisations to help each other develop the effectiveness of their practice of People-Centred Development.
COMMACT comprises representatives from non-profit, non-government and social enterprise community organisations from a number of countries and supports people-centred development organisations and projects – www.commact.com
In addition to his other work at the Centre for Rural Development, Dr Sarmah established the Rickshaw Bank in India in 2004. It was established to provide an alternate means for rickshaw pullers to become self-employed and to escape the vicious cycle of working for rich contractors and being indebted to moneylenders.
The Rickshaw Bank provides asset-based loans to rickshaw pullers for which instalments are repayable on a daily repayment plan with a one-year duration. Full and timely repayment leads to ownership of the rickshaw being handed over to the puller. This is different to the usual practice where pullers have little chance of ever owning their own rickshaw. The innovation lies in its unique style of service delivery and design that addresses underlying causes of poverty through asset-based entrepreneurship development. The program has been implemented in many parts of India.
For further information about the Rickshaw Bank, visit www.crdev.org