Indian rural education and the role of microfinance

Last summer, my classmate from IIT Madras, Sharat Chandran dedicated a few months of his time to a rural village in Maharashtra, India. Sharat, who is currently pursuing an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management, documented his thoughts from the trip. The following is an excerpt from his personal experiences in Mhaswad, Maharashtra.

“I was an external consultant with a women’s co-operative bank, Mann Deshi Mahila Sahakari Bank, Ltd. My experience in dealing with the residents of this remote village in India has given me an entirely new perspective on the intelligence and capacity of the villagers to achieve great progress, if provided the right opportunities.

There is an inherent tendency in many of us, who have been fortunate to receive higher education, to equate smartness and intelligence with fancy degrees. I have personally been guilty of such preconceived notions. However, my experience in Mhaswad made me realize how wrong I was. Mann Deshi’s branch managers and key personnel are all local to the village. They were educated in the local schools and their experiences were derived in rural settings. And they were all extremely sharp and often came up with innovative product offerings which matched their clients’ needs. While they lacked formal training in Liquidity Management, PAR ratios or regressions to predict loan repayments, their real life experiences adequately compensated for these.

I have been fortunate to have dealt with some highly regarded professionals in the banking industry, and I can vouch for the fact that the women of Mann Deshi are no less smart or capable. In my opinion, there is a huge urban bias in our educational institutions. This means that there is a huge talent pool which we are not tapping or empowering. While illiteracy or the lack of quality education may be a hindering factor, Mann Deshi has built interesting ideas around combating the obstacles placed due to illiteracy, from simplifying their procedures for various loan and savings products to using pictorial methods/ placards for communicating to their clients at their branches. Mann Deshi is a fine demonstration of how microfinance and microcredit can impact rural India. My experience in Mhaswad has taught me that, providing the right financial support to the local farmers and small business owners are key to the development and growth of rural India. ”

Rural education has been a major area of focus for us at Anand Charity. Projects such as Nanubhai, Rajugela, and Krishna have had tremendous impact in rural India and we will continue partnering with dedicated organizations to help education answer the wants of the poorest villager.