Financial Relationships Between Community Based Organisations and the Formal Banking Sector - YCO's Perspective

How have youth charitable organization helped poor women access financial services?

This paper focuses on the work of a local NGO, Youth Charitable Organisation (YCO), in Andhra Pradesh (AP), India. The NGO's focus is on developing self-sufficiency and autonomy among the rural poor, particularly women, using a participatory approach.

The author traces YCO's evolution, starting from a rural development NGO in 1983, to the present when it has promoted a Mutually Aided Cooperative Society (MACS) as a community based financial institution. The paper presents the institutional characteristics of the YCO promoted MACS:

Is registered under the APMACS Act, 1995;
Has a for-profit status;
Offers thrift, credit and other intermediation services;
Restricts membership to women;
Retails bulk loan provided by YCO.

Finally, the paper presents the important successes of YCO's intervention:

Organizing women into self help groups;
Establishing a good microfinance program that goes beyond financial services;
Establishing women's cooperative, an organization working for the benefit of the community.