Gram-Utthan

Gross Loan Portfolio USD, 2010: 9.7 million

Number of active borrowers 2010: 66,828

Average loan balance per borrower USD, 2010: 144.4

Deposits USD, 2010: 4.8 million

Assets USD, 2010: 11.8 million

Number of depositors 2010: 104,017

Mission:

Enabling the poor and disadvantaged for qualitative changes in their lives through an empowerment process.
Socio-economic development of rural poor with a thrust on women and their empowerment

Background and Main Challenges:

Challenges: Community development through sustainable entrepreneurship.

Address:

Pimudi- Kenderapara

Orissa

India

Phone:

+91 6729 276225

Fax:

+91 6729 276225

Email:

gramutthanngo [at] rediffmail [dot] com

Website:

www.gramutthan.org

Main Funding Sources:

Grants

Loans

Products and Services:

Loans

Voluntary Savings

Insurance

Funds Transfer Services

Training and Consulting

Looking for (Investment Types):

Equity

Loans in Local Currency

Donations

Capacity Building Grants

% Operations Comprised by MF:

91 - 100

Date established:

Apr 9 1990

FYE:

31-Mar

Current Legal Status:

NGO

Regulated:

Social Performance Profile


+ Mission specifics
+ Target markets (ranked by importance)
Women	1
Clients living in rural areas	2
Ultra poors	3
+ Development goals (ranked by importance)
Increased access to financial services	1
Health improvement	2
Development of start-up enterprises	3
Growth of existing businesses	4
Gender equality and women's empowerment	5
Employment generation	6
Water and sanitation	7
Housing	8
Forward and Backward Market Linkage to SHG Products.	9
+ Poverty targets
Very poor clients
Poor clients
+ Governance
Has trained members of its board on social performance management
Has a formal board committee that monitors social performance
+ Range of products and services
+ Financial products and services offered
+ Credit products offered
Microcredit loans for microenterprises
SME loans
Loans for agriculture
Housing loans
Housing and water and Sanitation.
+ Savings products offered
Compulsary Savings but not cash colleteral.
+ Compulsory insurance products required
Compulsory credit life insurance
Compulsory agricultural insurance
Asset Created out of the microfinance loans.
+ Voluntary insurance products offered
Voluntary credit life insurance
Voluntary life insurance
+ Other financial products and services offered
Remittances services
+ Non-financial services offered
+ Enterprise services offered
Enterprise skills development
Business development services
+ Education services offered
Financial literacy education
Basic health/nutrition education
Child and youth education
Occupational safety and health in the workplace education
Reducing volunerability of the migrants both at the source and the destination.
+ Health services offered
Basic medical services
Managing a PHC with PPP model.
+ Women's empowerment services offered
Leadership training for women
Women's rights education/gender issues training
+ Products and services targeting the poor
Products and services specifically designed to target the poor:	We develop a special product for the Ultra poors.
+ Social responsibility to clients
+ Client protection principles in use
The loan approval process requires evaluation of borrower repayment capacity and loan affordability. Loan approval does not rely solely on guarantees (whether peer guarantees, co-signers or collateral) as a substitute for good capacity analysis.
Internal audits check household debt exposure, lending practices that violate procedures including unauthorized re-financing, multiple borrowers or co-signers per household, and other practices that could increase indebtedness.
Productivity targets and incentive systems value portfolio quality at least as highly as other factors, such as disbursement or customer growth. Growth is rewarded only if portfolio quality is high.
Prices, terms and conditions of all financial products are fully disclosed to the customer prior to sale, including interest charges, insurance premiums, minimum balances, all fees, penalties, linked products, third party fees, and whether these can change over time.
Staff is trained to communicate effectively with all customers, ensuring that they understand the product, the terms of the contract, their rights and obligations. Communications techniques address literacy limitations (e.g. reading contracts out loud, materials in local languages).
Acceptable and unacceptable debt collection practices are clearly spelled out in a code of ethics, book of staff rules or debt collection manual.
The organization's corporate culture values and rewards high standards of ethical behavior and customer service.
A mechanism to handle customer complaints is in place, has dedicated staff resources, and is actively used. (Suggestion boxes alone are generally not considered adequate.)
Customers know how their information will be used. Staff explains how data will be used and seeks permission for use.
+ Cost of services to clients
Declining balance interest method
+ Social responsibility to staff
+ Human resources
Transparency on salary (a clear salary scale based upon market salaries)
Benefits (medical insurance, pension contribution)
Protection at work (safety, anti-harassment)
Equality (anti-discrimination, equal pay for men and women with equivalent skill levels)
+ Basis of staff incentives related to social performance
Ability to attract new clients from target market
Outreach to remote/rural communities
Outreach to women
Quality of social data collected
Client retention/drop-out rate
Portfolio quality
+ Social responsibility to the environment
This institution raises clients' awareness about environmental impacts
This institution trains/educates clients regarding environmental improvements
+ Poverty measurement tools in use
Participatory wealth ranking and informations collected at the time of joining to the SHG.