Dr. Geetha Jeganathan: Pioneering Women Empowerment through Microfinance

Dr. Geetha Jeganathan is the Chief Executive Officer, of Gramalaya Microfin Foundation, She says that she started it because “Women many times don’t know how to approach or reach out to banks due to fear or lacking self-confidence. Women have to rely on money from their husbands or sons and thus don’t have any savings. So if the woman has any sort of problem and requires money, she has to get support from others. So I planned to work in the microfinance sector. 

This idea begins from our Gramalaya NGO because the traditional sources of credit like relatives, neighbors, friends, and moneylenders are becoming increasingly unreliable. Despite pledging assets like gold and property, local moneylenders charge exorbitant interest rates. This often leaves very few options for those who are earnestly looking to start a small-scale business. The borrowers are primarily looking for capital to augment their income. Many borrowers are agricultural laborers or housewives and they are looking to increase the income for their families and in the case of housewives, to be productively engaged by starting a home-based microenterprise. Since they have few income-generating skills, we train them with the requisite skills based on their interests, area of operation, risk appetite, and hours they can devote to their business. Borrowers are often interested in individual loans but we lend to them in groups in the first cycle. Based on their repayment history and loan utilization, we lend to individual entrepreneurs in the second cycle of lending. So our major focus remains on skills training and capacity-building for our borrowers.

At GMF they help build the women’s confidence by training them to generate their own income. Women possess a lot of capacity, but we don’t fully utilize it. If we create and support women empowerment I believe this can be the key to the development of our country. By supporting the women, the entire family will benefit and we build their confidence to tackle gender discrimination. Initially, no banks and financial institutions supported GMF Company. In continuation of my frequent follow-up, Gramalaya’s background and promotion of new systems, banks were supported. 

Dr.Geetha story was published in Yourstory, Milaap, saciwaters, zubaan etc.

Introduction:

Dr. Geetha Jeganathan was born in Tiruchirapalli. Her father worked for the Government Electricity Board as an Accountant. She completed her UG in 1995 in a college. Given her social background, her parents arranged her marriage in 1996 after graduation. After the birth of her girl child, she joined a women's self-help group formed by an NGO Gramalaya. She started working in the social sector way back in 1998 when Gramalaya, her parent organization, came to her remote village and formed a women’s self-help group (SHG). She joined Gramalaya as an SHG member. Her first role was that of a ‘school hygiene educator.’ Then she worked as a cluster co-ordinator and project coordinator. Gramalaya’s Founder and Chirman of Gramalaya groups PadmaShri Mr. Damodaran is the mentor for her. He guides and support to her in all ways. 

In 2011, Gramalaya promoted the Gramalaya Microfin Foundation (GMF) to complete the objective of Gramalaya’s strategy of promoting the social, health, and economic development of members and she has been here ever since. Based on her hard work, sincerity, and experience she switched over to Microfinance as Chief Executive Officer in 2011.

Challenges and Achievements:

The biggest challenge was mobilizing capital for the company. In the first year, they approached many banks and financial institutions to support loan capital. Nobody supported. They had no share capital or assets at the beginning. In continuation of frequent follow-up, one bank was supported in a small way. The project was completed and the repayment was 100 percent. Then slowly other banks and financial institutions were supported. Currently, we disbursed around Rupees 656 cores covering 2, 20,000 customers. Our active customers are 22,600 in Tamil Nadu and Puducherry. Today they are operating in 16 Districts of Tamil Nadu and Puducherry State of India. 

In 2000, mobilizing women into SHGs and launching an awareness campaign on sanitation through training. She supported forming SHE teams set up by the SHGs to propagate the message of sanitation, monitor the behavior of residents, and supervise the maintenance of the toilets. She has more than 24 years of experience in water, sanitation, and micro-credit projects.

She is a trainer for Entrepreneurship Development Programs and has trained more than 2000 women entrepreneurs in Trichy District. She has effectively trained around 300 employees in human resource management.

She is the organizing Chairman of the Menstrual Hygiene Management Summit in Delhi and Chennai. The MHM Summit is a forum for menstrual hygiene management which comprises non-government organizations, social activists, menstrual products suppliers, Government agencies, investors, researchers, etc. 

She has also worked as an India WASH Woman leader appointed by WSSCC, Geneva, and disseminating worldwide sanitation messages to NGOs, CBOs, and CSOs. She is the committee member of the City Sanitation Committee in Tiruchirapalli City which is working on the city development plan. 

Supporting women entrepreneurs for their working capital, preparation of project reports & business plans, and linking marketing opportunities. She helped the tribal population access financial services at the doorstep with the very lowest interest in supporting their agriculture and allied activities. She supported the tribal women who are living in Greenhills, Kolli Hills, Kalvarayan Hills, Velli Hills, and Arnoothumalai in getting financial assistance from banks for the dairy business.

She received many awards and nominations like Supported for declaring open defecation-free villages and slums in Trichy. Her organization received National Urban Water Awards, Excellence Award from Sa-Dhan, Best Woman Leader of the Year in NBFC & FINTECH Conclave 2023, and Best Upcoming MFI of the Year in BFSI & FINTECH Conclave 2023.

Personal Insights:

After her marriage, she completed an MA, MBA, and Ph.D in Sociology. Her husband is very supportive of her work. Her parents are encouraged to improve her work and take care of her daughter. She is giving importance to her work, family, and health equally. Sometimes if any quarrels come; her family members understand the situation and help her. In her work, her team is giving great support. Padma Shri Damodaran, Chairman of Gramalaya is my mentor and supports me all the time. So she can manage work-life balance.

Impact and Vision:

Her leadership style is Affiliative leadership. In her company, 85 % of women are employees. She has given employment opportunities to women. She is also motivating the employees with positive emotions and thoughts. 

Currently, they are working on financial literacy programs for rural women. The objectives are, 

• To impart knowledge on financial planning, introduce thrift and saving habits and financial services being offered by banks.
• To support the target people in making better spending, savings, and investment decisions
• To create awareness and lucidly educate people about the management of money, the importance of savings, the advantages of saving with banks, other facilities provided by banks, the benefits of borrowing from banks, and the evils of borrowing from private money lenders.
• To create awareness about ATMs, use of PIN, Debit cards, Rupay KCC, services of BCs, maintenance and operational aspects of bank accounts, etc.
• To create awareness about various features of PMJDY Insurance Schemes and facilitate enhanced enrolment under these schemes to improve the social security of rural people.
• To provide ideas about simple financial planning for children’s education, marriage, etc.  

Conclusion:

She advises young women “Stand on your legs. Love your parents, family, and community. Without giving up take the efforts and face the risks”.

At last, she ended with the quote “Information, Inspiration, and Innovation are essential to women entrepreneurs”.