Delhi fails in child labour rehabilitation

Laws fail to deter the pernicious practice in national Capital

Sopan Correspondent / New Delhi

The National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) has said that the Delhi government has failed to take proper action for rescue and rehabilitation of child labourers.

In a submission to the Delhi High Court, the child rights body sought appropriate directions to government authorities while informing the court that rescued children are not being properly rehabilitated.

In its affidavit, the NCPRC said, "There is no guarantee that all rescued child labourers have been successfully restored to their families in the source states. This is evident from a study of 22 rescued child labourers in which three are not traceable and addresses of four children were wrong," the NCPRC said. It said that efforts to rescue child labourers were not being taken up seriously by the Labour Department and Sub-Divisional Magistrates.

"There is no definite feedback regarding proper rehabilitation of all rescued child labourers. Complaints about engagement of child labourers from NGOs are not acted upon promptly. In fact there have been inordinate delays on the part of task force to act upon such complaints," it said.

The affidavit was filed to inform the court about the steps taken by the government after a slew of directions were given by the High Court for the rescue and rehabilitation of child labourers in the city.

The High court had in 2009 passed a detailed order which modified the existing provisions for better rehabilitation of child labourers. It had given Delhi Police extra powers, which were earlier with the Labour Department, to effectively eradicate the problem. "We direct that the responsibility of lodging a police complaint against a person, employing child labour, would lie with the Delhi Police and not the Labour Department," it had said, asking the police to recover Rs 20,000 from the offenders as penalty without waiting for a "conviction order of the offending employer".

The submission of the NCPRC has come as a shock to the Delhi government officials. On condition of anonymity, a senior official said that they do all they can under the conditions but there are certain issues which cannot be resolved at the state government level. “We have a process of restoring the children in which help from the police and the state government where the child has to be sent is sought. In some cases, we do not get the requisite cooperation. It is not fair to put the entire onus on us,” the official said.

Most of the child labourers in Delhi work in industries like Zari, stitching, embroidery etc. where deft and supple hands are needed to do the work. The child labourers are rescued on a routine in the city by the enforcement agencies in association with the NGOs working for the children.

A lot of them work as domestic helps and also in the eating joints in the city. Though there is no dearth of laws to protect the rights of the children, the enforcement is often found to be lacking. Officials admit that the rehabilitation process is extremely time-consuming and their prime responsibility is to send back the children to the states from where they came.

Ironically, there have been several instances where the children, once rescued and sent back to their parents in their native states, come back again to the city and start working in the same industry. Activists say that extreme poverty often forces their parents to send back their children to work as child labourers, some even in hazardous units where they work for 14-16 hours a day.

Rescued children in the embroidery and zari industry have narrated their woes and suffering. They have told their rescuers that they work in small, unhygienic and poorly ventilated units, merely for food and learn the skills. They are deprived of education, recreation and live in unhealthy conditions due to poverty and also coercion in several cases.
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Implement PESA effectively

The Centre wants the state governments to implement the Panchayats (Extension to Scheduled Areas) Act (PESA) effectively to reach out to the tribal and rural population across the country.

It has been realized that disparities exist in terms of the provisions of the act and its proper implementation. Panchayats being a ‘State Subject’, States are yet to frame appropriate rules under PESA, and therefore it has not been implemented in letter and spirit. The government also cautioned that while ensuring development projects in PESA areas, the culture and life style of forest dwellers must be kept in mind so that it is not affected adversely.

PESA authorizes the States to give the Gram Sabhas power to regulate and restrict sale and consumption of liquor; ownership of minor forest produce; power to prevent alienation of land and restore alienated land; power to manage village markets, control money lending to STs and power to manage village markets and mandatory executive functions to approve plans of the village panchayats, identify beneficiaries for schemes, issue certificates of utilization of funds, etc.

Fishing community to get protection

Modeled on the Forests Rights Act, a new law has been proposed to establish rights of the fishing community in the coastal areas and resources.

Called the Fishermen Rights Act—for the coastal areas, the legislation is aimed at benefiting fishermen and other traditional communities living by the coast and using sea resources for livelihood.

These communities will have the right to possess land and build habitations near the coast, rights over fish and other products of water bodies, and the rights to protect, conserve or manage resources in coastal areas or in sea. It will also ensure that the fishing communities and other traditional dwellers who have been living in the coastal areas for long and depend on the sea for their livelihood are treated differently from outsiders under the strict CRZ regulations.

The new CRZ notification also makes this distinction and makes exceptions for these communities in certain instances. The proposed law is at the discussion stage and a draft legislation has been put out by the environment ministry for public debate.

After incorporating suggestions received from the stakeholders, a final draft would be presented to the Cabinet for approval before introduced as a Bill in Parliament.

Bridging the gap in education

INITIATIVE

NGO provides data on education to help policy makers

Sopan Correspondent / New Delhi

“For the past five years, Pratham has undertaken this annual exercise of assessing and evaluating the outcomes of education of our children across the length and breadth of the country. As a huge non governmental citizen-focused effort involving over 25,000 volunteers and covering over 700,000 children in 15,000 villages each year, it demonstrates that the well being of our children is not just the government’s responsibility, and that citizens can and should do more to initiate, propel and direct public policy towards public good,” Vice President Hamid Ansari said on the occasion of release of the report on The Annual Status of Education Report, ASER 2010.

Pratham is the largest non governmental organisation working to provide quality education to the underprivileged children of India. Pratham was established in 1994 to provide education to the children in the slums of Mumbai city. Since then, the organization has grown both in scope and geographical coverage.

Today it reaches out to millions of children living both in rural and urban areas through a range of interventions. The Pratham team comprises of experts in every field who all bring their experiences and perspectives to the organsiation and are unified by the common vision of improving the future of our children.

Madhav Chavan, CEO Pratham Education Foundation, Rukmini Banerji, Director ASER Centre, Ajay Piramal, Chairman, Pratham Education Foundation, Surjit Bhalla, Yogendra Yadav and Dhir Jhingran were the other speakers at the function.

Conducted every year since 2005, ASER is the largest annual survey of children in rural India. Facilitated by Pratham, ASER is conducted by local organizations and concerned citizens. It finds out whether children in rural India go to school, how well they can read in their own language and whether they can do basic arithmetic.

Key findings

Enrollment: In 2010, ASER found that 96.5% of children in the 6 to 14 age group in rural India are enrolled in school. While 71.1% of these children are enrolled in government schools, 24.3 % are enrolled in private schools. 5.9% of girls in the 11-14 age group are still out of school. In Bihar the percentage of out of school girls and boys in all age groups has been declining steadily since 2005.

Enrollment in private schools in rural India increased from 21.8% in 2009 to 24.3% in 2010. The percentage of five year olds enrolled in schools increased from 54.6% in 2009 to 62.8% in 2010. Even after five years in school, close to half of all children are not even at the level expected of them after two years in school. Only 53.4% children in Std V could read a Std II level text. On average, there has been a decrease in children’s ability to do simple mathematics.

A clear decrease is seen in the incidence of tuition among children enrolled in private schools across all classes up to Std VIII. ASER 2010 found that over 60% of the 13,000 schools visited satisfied the infrastructure norms specified by the RTE. However, more than half of these schools will need more teachers. A third will need more classrooms.
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Chasing a mirage

Delhi government cleared several slums in the name of beatification of city ahead of the Commonwealth Games with the promise that oustees would be provided with alternative houses. But where are the promised houses?

Sangita Jha / New Delhi

The poor in Delhi paid heavily as the city hosted the Commonwealth Games last year. They lost roof over their heads. Those who criss-crossed the Nizamuddin bridge while going from Delhi to either Noida or Ghaziabad three years ago would have seen a large number of jhuggi-jhopri (slums) littered all the way. Now that stretch is clear.

The Delhi government had to ensure that the way leading to the Games Village did not show the “ugly” side of the city. The government succeeded as the jhuggis were either burnt down by incidents of fire or were demolished. Officials have now pegged shelterless in the Capital at about 47,000, who are largely construction workers and must have worked day and night to ensure that Delhi got high-tech infrastructure in place before the Commonwealth Games in October last year.

Delhi, like any other metropolitan city, has its own share of slum clusters. A large part of the land of Delhi Development Authority (DDA) and Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) are littered with slum clusters. The Delhi government in 2008 had made a commitment that it would shift the poor in the slums to low-cost housing flats. The Delhi government's infrastructure development corporation - DSIIDC (Delhi State Industrial and Infrastructure Development Corporation) - was tasked to build low-cost flats in north-west Delhi. Now, the Delhi government has initiated the process to allocate the low-cost flats to the poor residing in various slum clusters in the city.

Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit recently stated that the government would ensure that about 15,000 flats are allocated to the poor in the first phase by March 2011. The scheme under which the flats will be allocated is called the Rajiv Ratna Awaas Yojna. However, in two years that the Delhi government announced the launch of the scheme, it got entangled into bureaucratic red-tapism as well. The government wanted the funding from the Jawaharlal Nehru National Renewal Mission (JNNURM) as per its terms. It had envisaged the cost of the low-cost flats to be shared by central government, land owning agency and the beneficiary, who would have been provided with soft loans by the city government to pay their part of the sum.

After wrangling for over two years, the Delhi government eventually accepted the conditions specified by the Union urban development ministry. Now, the flats will be given to the slum-dwellers under the scheme of shifting the slum clusters as identified by the government. The city government is working out the revised cost of the flats as well as the funding pattern by the land-owning agency, the Central government and the beneficiary. The city government has identified about 46 slum clusters in the capital city which would be taken up as per the scheme. The first cluster which will be shifted is from the posh Chanakyapuri area, which is a diplomatic area. Interestingly, the first slum cluster which has been demolished is the area where a five star hotel is coming up.

The government has put in place a Delhi Urban Shelter Improvement Board (DUSIB), which has been tasked with the work to conduct survey and identify beneficiaries for the Rajiv Ratna Awaas Yojna. The Slum and JJ department had formerly been with the MCD. The government and the MCD have been more often working on different trajectories when it came to the purpose of rehabilitating the slum-dwellers. Now that the DSUIB which has come into an existence following a legislation passed by the Delhi Assembly would oversee the work of finding affordable housing for the slum-dwellers.

"We have issued clear instructions to initiate process of allotment of around 15,000 available low-cost houses in the first phase. The flats have been constructed under JNNURM project," Dikshit stated after a Cabinet meeting recently. In fact, the flats had already been constructed and were lying vacant for many months when the Delhi government and the Urban Development ministry were slugging out on the funding pattern and to bring the scheme under JNURM. The DSSIDC had already constructed 9,660 flats and 5,184 flats are likely to be completed soon.

It is interesting to note that Delhi government had invited applications from the slum-dwellers in 2008. More than three lakh people had applied for a flat under the Rajiv Ratna Awaas Yojna and had even bought the application forms by paying Rs 100 as mandated by the government, while a large number of them had even bought the application forms in black. With a change in the policy, those three lakh people would no more be eligible, as the new policy is to shift the 46 identified slum-clusters to the housing scheme. Ironically, the Delhi government has not even returned the Rs 100 per application charged from the applicants.

The government has specified the changed eligibility criteria for the slum-dwellers. Now, the cut-off date for a slum-dweller for having resided in the slum has been revised from March 31, 2002 to March 31, 2007 in an attempt to cover a large number of slum-dwellers. Also, the annual family income limit has also been revised from earlier Rs.60,000 to Rs.1 lakh. So, slum and jhuggi-jhopri (JJ) dwellers who had settled in clusters on or prior to March 31, .2007 would now become eligible to claim low-cost flats, which roughly cost about Rs 2 lakh.

Delhi urban development minister, Dr. A. K. Walia, recently stated that the DSUIB is also planning to construct 10,200 dwelling units in Poot Khurd with an estimated cost of Rs.425 crore for which an implementing agency DSIIDC has also been selected. This will be in addition to about 15,000 flats which are being taken up for allotment to the poor in the first phase. In fact other agencies in Delhi are also knocking at the door of the DSUIB to relocate slums on their lands. The MCD has requested the DUSIB to remove or relocate 31 slum clusters from the civic body's land. The civic body has told the DSUIB that in 31 slum-clusters on its land there are 10,686 'jhuggis'

occupants, who can be allotted flats under the Rajiv Rattan Awas Yojna so as to remove encroachment from the civic agency's land. The MCD told the DSUIB that transfer of 31 JJ camps from its land will vacate about two lakh square metres of land which can be used for building community halls, hospitals, school buildings, parking and so on.

Though it's a good beginning that the poor will finally have their dream house in Delhi, the government has been quite late as per the JNNURM scheme to relocate slums. In fact, the DSSIDC had to construct 53,868 flats in 2008 along with 4,740 flats by the DDA and 6,896 flats by the Slum and JJ Department, which was earlier with the MCD. But just 14,844 flats could be completed by the end of 2010. Though there is no dearth of intent, various agencies are definitely late in executing their plans. Hopefully, the government agencies expedite their work so that those who have lost their shelters find some for their families.

अरेवा की प्रयोगशाला

महाराष्ट्र के मुख्यमंत्री पृथ्वीराज च्वहाण जैतापुर परमाणु संयंत्र परियोजना पर जनवरी के पहले सप्ताह में ही बोल चुके हैं- ‘मैं राज्य सरकार की तरफ से कोई भी ऐसी तकनीक यहां आने नहीं दूंगा जो महाराष्ट्र की जनता के लिए असुरक्षित हो। हमारे राज्य मे ंपहले से छह रिएक्टर चालू हालत में हैं। यह कहना मूर्खतापूर्ण तर्क है कि यह असुरक्षित है। महाराष्ट्र में परमाणु रिएक्टर के खिलाफ एक सस्ती राजनीति की जा रही है।’ पृथ्वीराज चह्वाण उन दिनों प्रधानमंत्री कार्यालय में मंत्री थे जब केन्द्र सरकार ने सारी ताकत झोंककर परमाणु उर्जा विधेयक को मंजूर करवाया था. पृथ्वीराज चह्वाण जानते हैं कि वे कितनी "मंहगी" राजनीति करने के बाद परमाणु उर्जा विधेयक पारित करवाने में सफल रहे हैं, इसलिए उनके राज्य में परमाणु बिजलीघरों के विरोध जैसी 'सस्ती' राजनीति को वे भला क्यों बर्दाश्त करेंगे?9900 मेगावाट के जैतापुर परमाणु ऊर्जा प्रकल्प को लेकर कोंकण क्षेत्र में सस्ती ही सही, लेकिन राजनीति तेज हो गई है। परमाणु ऊर्जा संयंत्र के पक्षकार जहां इसे विकास से जोड़कर देख रहें हैं, वहीं इस परियोजना के खिलाफ खड़े लोगों का स्पष्ट मानना है कि यह परियोजना कोंकण के विनाश की कहानी का पहला अध्याय होगी। 9900 मेगावाट के परमाणु ऊर्जा प्रकल्प के काम को छह इकाइयों में फ्रांसिसी कंपनी अरेवा के हाथों पूरा होना है। योजना के अनुसार पहले चरण में प्रस्तावित छह ईकाइयों में 1650-1650 मेगावाट वाले दो इकाइयों का काम पूरा होगा। यह दोनों ईकाइयां रत्नागिरी जिले के मड़वन में होंगी। योजना के अनुसार इस परियोजना के पहले चरण को 2013-14 तक पूरा होना है और बचे चार ईकाइयों का काम भी 2018 तक पूरा कर लिया जाना है। वर्तमान में हमारे कुल बिजली उत्पादन मे ंपरमाणु ऊर्जा की भागीदारी 2.90 प्रतिशत की है। देश में इसे 2020 तक बढ़ाकर छह प्रतिशत तक ले जाने की योजना है। और 2030 तक इसे तेरह प्रतिशत की भागीदारी में बदल दिया जाएगा। इसके लिए मड़वन (जैतापुर) की तरह कई परियोजनाओं की देश को जरुरत होगी।बहरहाल बात माड़वन (जैतापुर) की करते हैं। जिसमें पांच गांव माड़वन, मीठागवाने, करेल, वारिलवाडा और नीवेली की 938 हेक्टेयर जमीन जानी है। लेकिन चर्चा में माड़वन (जैतापुर) गांव का नाम ही बार-बार आ रहा है। इसकी पहली वजह यह है कि छह ईकाइयों में पूरे हो रहे इस परियोजना की पहली दो ईकाइयों का काम माड़वन में ही पूरा होना है। दूसरी वजह जनहित सेवा समिति के प्रवीण परशुराम गवाणकर बताते हैं, ‘परियोजना में जाने वाले कुल 938 हेक्टेयर जमीन में 669 हेक्टेयर जमीन माड़वन की है।"

परमाणु ऊर्जा प्रकल्प के लिए चुनी गई यह जमीन पर्यावरण के लिहाल से अति संवेदनशील है। समुद्र का किनारा, 150 किस्म के पक्षियों का घर, 300 किस्म की वनस्पतियां। खास बात यह है कि इनमें कई वनस्पतियों और पक्षियों की किस्म दुर्लभ है। समुन्द्र के इस मनोरम तटिय क्षेत्र में एक दर्जन से अधिक परमाणु ऊर्जा संबंधित प्रकल्प प्रस्तावित हैं। जबकि रत्नागिरी को राज्य सरकार ने ओद्यानिकी (हॉर्टिकल्चर) जिला घोषित किया है और इसका पड़ोसी जिला सिंधदुर्ग गोवा से भी लगा हुआ होने के कारण पर्यटकों की खास पसंद रहा है। बड़ी संख्या में गोवा देखने के लिए आने वाले पर्यटक सिधदुर्ग का रुख करते हैं। पर्यावरणविद इस बात से अचंभित है कि जिस रत्नागिरी को दुनिया भर मे जैव विविधता के हॉट स्पॉट के तौर पर देखा जाता है, उस जिले के लिए परमाणु ऊर्जा संबंधित परियोजना के करार पर उस साल हस्ताक्षर होता है, जब पूरी दुनिया ‘अंतरराष्ट्रीय जैव विविधता वर्ष’ का उत्सव मना रही है। 2010 को अंतरराष्ट्रीय जैव विविधता वर्ष के रुप में मनाने की घोषणा संयुक्त राष्ट्र ने बर्लिन में की।साखरी नाटे मछुआरों की बस्ती है। वहां मिले मच्छीमार कृति समिति के उपाध्यक्ष, अमजद बोरकर। वे और उनके साथी समुन्द्र को लेकर अपने रागात्मक रिश्तों की बात करते-करते भावुक हो गए। बकौल बोरकर- ‘समुद्र के साथ हमारा रिश्ता पीढ़ियों का है। हमारे पूर्वजों के समय से यह समुन्द्र हमें रोटी दे रहा है। सरकार परमाणु ऊर्जा प्रकल्प को कांेकण और महाराष्ट्र का विकास कहकर प्रचारित कर रही है। लेकिन यह विकास का नहीं कांेकण की बर्बादी का समझौता है।’ बोरकर के अनुसार महाराष्ट्र की सरकार प्रकल्प के नाम पर गंदी राजनीति कर रही है। वे बताते हैं कि किस तरह कोई डॉ. जयेन्द्र पुरुलेकर एक मराठी चैनल पर आकर और खुद को जैतापुरवाला बताकर परियोजना के पक्ष में बोलता रहा, जबकि उसका जैतापुर से कोई ताल्लुक नहीं है। बोरकर कहते हैं, ‘हम साखरी नाटे में रहने वाले लोगों ने मिलकर पुरलेकर के झूठ के खिलाफ उसका पुतला जलाया।’टाटा इन्स्टीट्यूट ऑफ सोशल साईंस (टिस) की एक रिपोट के अनुसार परमाणु ऊर्जा प्रकल्प के लिए सरकार ने जो स्थान तय किया है। वह बिल्कुल उपयुक्त नहीं है। 'टिस' की यह रिपोर्ट महेश कांबले ने इस इलाके के 120 गांवों में जाकर लोगों से मिलकर तैयार की है। कांबले के अनुसार इस परियोजना का स्थानीय और पर्यावरणीय परिवेश पर बहुत बुरा प्रभाव पड़ेगा। रिपोर्ट यह भी कहती है कि सरकार तथ्य को तोड़ मरोड़ रही है। और मड़वन के उपजाऊ जमीन को बंजर बनाकर कर पेश कर रही है। जैतापुर के जिस 626.52 हेक्टेयर जमीन को अन उपजाऊ बताकर दिखाया जा रहा है। वहां के किसान उस जमीन पर धान, फल, सब्जी लगा रहे हैं। वर्ष 2007 में बाढ़ में सरकार ने राजापुर के किसानों को आम की फसल खराब होने पर एक करोड़ सैंतिस लाख सात हजार रुपए का मुआवजा दिया था।
अर्थक्वेक हजार्ड जोनिंग ऑफ इंडिया के अनुसार जैतापुर जोन तीन में आता है। जो भूकम्प के लिहाज से रिस्क जोन माना जाएगा। ऐसे इलाके में परमाणु से जुड़े किसी प्रकल्प को शुरु करना कम खतरे की बात नहीं है। स्थानीय लोगों के लिए रेडिएशन का मामला भी एक बड़ा मुद्दा है। परमाणु ऊर्जा प्रकल्प के आस पास जो लोग होंगे, उनके स्वास्थ पर इसका दुष्प्रभाव एक बड़ी चिन्ता बना हुआ है। गांव वाले पूछते हैं, यदि यह प्रकल्प इतना सुरक्षित है तो यहां काम करने वाले अधिकारियों के लिए आवास की व्यवस्था प्रकल्प से पांच-सात किलोमीटर दूर क्यों प्रस्तावित है? उनके रहने के लिए आवास परमाणु ऊर्जा प्रकल्प के परिसर में क्यों नहीं किया जा रहा?माड़वन (जैतापुर) में रहने वाले जानना चाहते हैं, यदि फ्रांसिसि कंपनी अरेवा उनके गांव आ रही तो यहां वह कोई समाज सेवा करने तो नहीं आ रही है। वह एक निजी कंपनी है, जो यहां कमाई के इरादे से आएगी और कांेकणा की जमीन पर पहली बार वह अपने ईपीआर तकनीक की जांच भी कर पाएगी। जिसे पहले कहीं जांचा-परखा नहीं गया है। क्या अरेवा भारत को परमाणु ऊर्जा प्रकल्प के नाम पर अपनी प्रयोगशाला के तौर पर इस्तेमाल करना चाहती है?

Panel proposes 24 % interest cap on MFI loans

Separate category of NBFCs for microfinance institutions suggested

Sopan Correspondent / New Delhi

A Reserve Bank of India Committee has suggested that micro finance institutions (MFIs) be allowed to charge a maximum interest of 24 per cent on small loans which cannot exceed Rs 25,000. The committee was formed in a bid to revive the crisis- ridden micro finance sector in the backdrop of the Andhra Pradesh government bringing an Ordinance to curb usurious practices by some such institutions.

The committee, headed by Reserve Bank’s Central Board Director Y. H. Malegam, also pitched for creation of a separate category of non-banking financial companies (NBFC-MFI) for the micro finance sector. The panel said small loans of up to Rs 25,000 could be given to families having an income up to Rs 50,000 per annum. On repayment, it said, the borrowers should be given the option of weekly or fortnightly or monthly return of the loan. It further said at least 75 per cent of loans extended by MFIs should be for income generation purposes while recommending that a borrower cannot take loans from more than two MFIs. The committee wants the recommendations to be implemented from April 1, 2011.

Industry body Microfinance Institution Network (MFIN) termed the recommendations as balanced. MFIN CEO Alok Prasad said, “It gives clarity to the industry requirements. The recommendations have been long demand of the industry.” On interest rate ceiling, he said, the micro finance industry was already moving in that direction, so it was nothing new.

The RBI constituted the committee in October last in the wake of allegations of overcharging and using coercive recovery practices by MFIs that led to a spate of suicides in Andhra Pradesh. The decisions taken by the State government to regulate MFIs slowed down the loan recovery process hitting the financial health of the sector. It was further aggravated by the reluctance of banks to support MFIs. Earlier, Prime Minister’s Economic Advisory Council Chairman C Rangarajan had also vouched for capping the MFIs’ interest rate margins.

About the regulations of MFIs, the Malegam Committee, suggested that it should be done by the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) in close coordination with the RBI. If the recommendations are accepted, the committee said, a separate law enacted by the Andhra Pradesh government would not be needed. With regard to NBFC-MFIs, the committee suggested that they should have a minimum net worth of Rs 15 crore.

The other members of the panel include industrialist Kumar Mangalam Birla, RBI Central Board member U. R. Rao and RBI Deputy Governor K. C. Chakrabarty. The report was widely awaited, as the Finance Ministry is expected to draft a bill to regulate MFIs on the basis of the sub-committee’s recommendations.

AP accounts for nearly half of the total MFI business in the country, with major players like SKS Microfinance, Spandana Sphoorty Financial, Basix and Share Microfin present in the state. The industry had practically collapsed in the state after the Ordinance of the state government which prevented the MFIs to recover the dues. They were lobbying with the government over the weeks to overcome the crisis which led to the formation of the Malegam Committee. It now remains to be seen what direction the government takes and what would be the shape of the proposed Bill for the purpose.

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