After its success in Chennai, Mumbai, Calcutta and Ahmedabad, Citibank's Community Support Programme is coming to Delhi on November 19. Delhi is particularly important for the programme because of the large employee base in the city. Aiming to spread its reach across the country, the bank plans to take the programme to Hyderabad, Bangalore and Pune next year.Functioning as a tie-up arrangement with several NGOs, the Community Support Programme focusses on extending microcredit support to organisations working to empower underprivileged urban women through income generation.
Says Anita Gupta, corporate affairs head, Citibank India: ``The programme is based on the philosophy of self-reliance.'' The programme helps channel financial resources to those women who are otherwise left out of the purview of the banking sector.
What exactly is Citibank's role in the project? Replies Gupta: ``The key aspects of the programme are funding (the bank has committed nearly US$ 1 million over four years to its NGOpartners), volunteerism, cause-related marketing (introduction of the women's card) and technology transfer (both software and hardware).''
Working in Chennai with the Working Women's Forum, in Calcutta with SASHA; in Ahmedabad with Friends of Women's World Banking (promoted by SEWA), in Mumbai with the Society for Promotion of Area Resource Centre, and this week in Delhi with Sharan, Citibank is primarily banking on its volunteer concentration to spread the programme in various cities.
It works somewhat like this. The partners in the project speak to Citibankers listing out their needs and expectations, after which bank volunteers come forward. To make the volunteers understand the programme better, site visits are also organised. But the bank does not force any staffer into the programme. ``It's entirely their own wish,'' says Gupta.
Even though there aren't any special incentives for the volunteers, they're completely backed by the bank in terms of both time and resource. For instance, there'sabsolutely no hindrance from the bank if a volunteer wants to work for the Community Support Programme during office hours. ``The idea is to provide our employees with a vehicle to volunteer their time and skills should they choose to do so,'' explains Gupta.
The target segment being low-income women in urban areas, the volunteers have grouped themselves into teams in response to need areas identified by the NGOs. The heads under which the various teams work are:
Marketing advisory Cause-related marketing Advocacy Technology Employee communication Financial advisory Housing advisory Tax and regulatory advisoryHere are some of the achievements of the various volunteer groups. Under Marketing Advisory, the silk weavers of Hindupur were facilitated by this team to participate in the Great Escape Shopping Exhibition in Mumbai andBangalore. This was a move to bring the artisan and the customer face to face, effectively removing the middleman. It was aunique opportunityfor the artisans to be exposed to an urban clientele.
In Cause-Related Marketing, Citibank has also tried to involve its customers, whereby 1 per cent of Citibank's income garnered from the bank's credit card for women is donated to the women's microcredit pool. This, feel Citibank officials, helps raise the awareness level among the general public.
Advocacy is another strong feature of the programme. This team has been advocating microcredit, social development and corporate partnership at various fora with the help of posters and cards.
The software for both SPARC and FWWB has been designed by the Citibankers for various purposes in tune with the Community Support Programme.
The team working for Employee Communication has prepared the communication kit and the trainers are being constantly trained. Also, the programme is being effectively communicated to Citibankers across all cities.
The Financial Advisory team looks into the funds available with the NGOs for various projects.The goals of this team are to help manage the grants; develop plans for economic loans; and assist the target group in achieving self-reliance through income.
The Housing Finance Advisory team helps structure loans for housing projects for the homeless. An example is that of SPARC, Citibank and Homeless International (a UK-based NGO) joining hands to work out a loan for a rehabilitation project.
The Tax and Regulatory Advisory team met SPARC to devise a compensation structure for their employees, whereby the tax incidence is minimised. As a result, 22 of the 25 SPARC employees take home tax-free salaries now.
Basically, be it funds management, housing finance advisory, software development or training, Citibankers are volunteering to provide a resource base that will benefit their NGO partners. For instance, recently, Citibank volunteers modelled financial plans for a housing colony using their core role as bankers. Another significant contribution has been putting together a user-friendly bankingsoftware system, keeping in mind the limitations and the realities faced by NGOs.
Citibank denies that any of it is a PR exercise for the bank. ``We're giving what we have expertise in giving,'' says Gupta. ``Our benchmark for success is not the amount of publicity we raise outside, but the extent of involvement of our employees.'' Of course, it's part of Citibank's commitment to be involved in one of the areas of national focus in India.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
Printer-friendly page
