Members of women Self-Help Groups (SHGs) from Nilaiyur, who are handloom weavers, have alleged that private financial institutions are pressuring them to pay their debt with interest despite the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) giving a three-month moratorium on repayment of loans.
K.M.Umadevi, president of an SHG, said that around 500 families belonging to Sourashtrian community had procured loans through these groups and were weaving sarees to earn their livelihood. They get orders from agents to weave cotton and silk sarees, which are later sold to other parts of the country.
However, in the wake of COVID-19 pandemic there had been no orders for them for nearly three months, said Ms. Umadevi. “With the loss of livelihood, we struggled to run our families during the lockdown,” she added.
“Only recently we had talks with our suppliers, who told us that they will give each family one ‘paavu’ (hank) to weave sarees. This would fetch us a meagre income of ₹3,000. Earlier, we used to get four ‘paavus’ to weave every month. But, unfortunately the demand for sarees have come down due to the pandemic,” she pointed out.
Against this backdrop, the collection agents of private financial institutions had been knocking their doors for the past one week seeking repayment, complained R. Durgadevi, another weaver. “Despite pointing out the moratorium announced by RBI, these agents threaten us that they will not leave our homes until we repay them. They warn us that they will seize our Aadhaar card and smart ration cards and list us as defaulters. They also intimidate us saying that our children cannot seek an education loan in the future,” she added.
Most of the members had paid around 90% of the loan amount and it was due to the COVID-19 pandemic, that they could not pay their remaining dues. “It will take us a few more months to get more orders and be in a position to repay back the dues,” said Ms. Umadevi.
Madurai District Collector T.G. Vinay said that the administration had strictly instructed all banks and non-banking financial institutions to not seek repayment of dues and interest from loanee until August 31. “We have warned them that action would be taken if they violated the RBI norms. We have also asked the Lead District Bank Manager to inspect and report about such violations,” he said.
