Poor women in Gujarat - from rag-pickers to vegetable vendors - have reasons to be less worried about starvation in old age than their peers elsewhere. Over 50,000 of them today have a retirement plan in place. Yes, you heard it right! The country’s first ever micro-pension scheme for the unorganised sector (mainly daily wage earners) run by the Ahmedabad-based SEWA Bank, has just enrolled its 50,000th member on September 1, with a majority of them being poor women.
| The SEWA-UTI scheme is a Government of India notified Pension Fund. |
| The average monthly contribution from account holders is Rs 100. |
| Members are mainly women who are daily wage earners. |
| SEWA’s goal is to reach one lakh accounts by December 2009. |
These women have already improved their financial condition and are investing in MFs. “It is changing their mindset. They are thinking long-term and saving for old age,” says SEWA Bank Managing Director Jayshree Vyas. Back in April 2006, SEWA along with Unit Trust of India Asset Management Company (UTI-AMC) put together the scheme called “UTI Retirement Benefit Pension Fund”.
Under this, SEBI-approved individual retirement accounts are opened, from where the cash is invested into debt and equity and borrowers given a passbook. The average age of account holders is around 30 years. But what about the fact that there is no assured return in this? Says Vyas: “It is designed as a good mix of debt and equity with a chance to give the poor a benefit from the upside in the stock market.”
