FlashNano 2021
11.11.2021
Day 11: Give yourself an award and write an acceptance speech.
The Award
Namaste..
Well, I’m happy, very happy today. I was least expecting this “Best Performance In NPA Recovery In The Bank“ award.
I thank my superiors for their guidance and motivation. And I specially thank my four member team. This award belongs to them; if they had not gone out of their way to perform, we’d not have won this.
This award is for maximum recovery of dues from defaulters both in urban and rural areas, in the district allotted to us for the purpose.
Now you all know the recovery process in cities. But you must be wondering how this all-woman team managed to extract dues from defaulters in the interior rural areas, where women are usually not sent for such purposes. This is where I would like to share some lessons we learnt along the way.
The villages are mostly populated by farmers, who avail loans for their crops, farms and rice mills. To most of them, the bank is as sacred as a temple. They even remove their footwear before entering your branch and give you far more respect than you deserve.
Such people do not have any intention of defaulting on their loan payments. In fact, their loan instalments get more priority than many essential items in their budget. Even when the crops fail or a natural calamity strikes, they assure to repay you and they do, as soon as they manage to earn something.
The norms of non performing assets are not for them to understand. They pay in their own time and that’s all that matters for them.
We did not target these farmers. Our focus was on the wilful defaulters. Those who take advantage of Government schemes for taking up productive activity, then avail that loan and vanish into thin air. Or worse, keep popping up right under your nose and make false assurances of repayment when cornered.
And those who avail bigger loans for large projects, set up the units, run them and reap the profits without paying anything to the bank.
It was these wilful defaulters whom we targeted, successfully.
Many of our rural areas have a patriarchal setup and a condescending attitude towards women from the outside world. We were openly dissuaded by villagers from travelling to their places without a male accompanying us. “These places are not good for you ladies,” they would say.
Why, we even had a branch manager of a nearby bank behaving like a Big Daddy, when he tried to keep us from what he thought was a male domain!!
Now how did we combat this? Simple. We just ignored them and went about our work. We issued notices. We visited the wilful defaulters and warned them. And when nothing worked, we moved in to take possession.
The day we took the first property into bank possession, the villagers’ perception of us changed overnight. We became heroes, for quite often the culprits were also known to harass their fellow villagers. The locals couldn’t take any action against them due to the fear of repercussions. So it was no surprise that they secretly enjoyed watching such people cower in front of us.
At the end of the campaign, we had become a household name in the villages. We were often invited in for a cup of tea or a snack. The women chatted with us, freely. The men brought their financial problems to us for our advice.
When it was time to return to the city, we didn’t have the heart to leave them. Rural life is still simple and people there speak to you from their hearts. We returned to our headquarters with a good performance rating, rich experience and loads of priceless memories.
So my advice to the youngsters here, especially the women, is to just believe in yourselves and carry out your tasks. You will not only be successful, but also gain in knowledge. And someday, this award will be yours.
Thank you..
Image courtesy: Unsplash
