Mired with poverty and helplessness, a family in Bihar’s Samastipur district on Friday reached the blood bank of Sadar hospital to sell their blood and obtain money to repay their loans.
Gulnaz Devi had borrowed Rs 35,000 with the help of “Swayam Sahayata Samuh” from a bank for agricultural purposes.
As the money she was earning was low, she was unable to return the amount to the lender.
“I, along with my husband, tried every possible way to earn money or borrow it from relatives or friends to repay the loan amount but no one helped us. Then we got the idea to sell the blood and earn some money to deposit the installment. The lender was applying pressure on us to deposit the installment,” Gulnaz Devi said.
When they heard about the plight of Gulnaz and her husband, the blood bank officials informed local administration about the incident.
Contacted, an officer of Waris Nagar block office in Samastipur said: “We have learnt about such an incident in Sadar hospital’s blood bank. The officials have informed us but we have not received any letter from the victims. We are approaching the family to solve this problem. Under the RBI guidelines, lenders cannot apply pressure on the borrowers in case of installments not being paid.”
In Bihar, there are 10 lakh Swayam Sahayata Samuhs operational. Each of them comprises 10 to 15 women in every village or Panchayats. They recommend women of their respective village a loan of up to Rs 2 lakh for business and agriculture purposes. Following their recommendation, the bank gives loans with a nominal interest of 2 per cent to 4 per cent to individual women.
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