The Piggy Bankers

In 2004,over two dozen children,mostly from Chaturbhuj Sthan,came together to set up their own bank with support from two voluntary groups,the Mahila Vikas Centre and the Delhi-based Butterflies. Today,the bank has branches in two other districts—Sitamarhi and Bettiah—and these banks have over 1,200 accounts and over Rs 25 lakh in deposits. The account holders are ragpickers,helpers at tea-stalls or grocery shops,children who peddle wares at traffic junctions and like Aashna and Badsha,children of sex workers. Muzaffarpur alone has 850 accounts,of which over 400 children are from the red-light area.

Aashna,who makes tazia and bunters for a living,is among the 12 child volunteers at the bank. Though a committee of children from among the account holders runs the bank,an adult facilitator from the Mahila Vikas Centre helps the child managers with their accounts. Last year,Aashna and her colleague at the bank,Badshah,who sells firecrackers,scrimped and saved enough to enroll themselves in a school.

“These are zero balance accounts and any child below 18 can open an account. Once a child turns 18,his money is deposited to a regular bank. When an account holder comes to deposit money,we accept it only after ascertaining its right source of income—money from gambling or theft isn’t allowed,” asserts Aashna.

Children usually deposit anything between Rs 5 and Rs 500 and these deposits earn a simple interest every three months. The interest amount is something the children look forward to. Twelve-year-old Rukhsar says she had withdrawn Rs 170 to buy clothes and sweets ahead of Id. Muskan,13,took Rs 195 from the bank to submit her school fees and Chandni spent Rs 80 on bangles and clothes. The bank also gives loans to its account holders. Naresh Kumar,15,recently got a loan of Rs 500 to start a tea-stall and Najiya,14,got money to set up a juice stall.

At the bank,as Aashna took note of the day’s deposits and withdrawals,she didn’t look too happy with the eight deposits she had managed for the day. Badshah had gone to school. Other child volunteers and assistant managers (12 of them) had gone to different parts of city on work.

Mahila Vikas Kendra’s programme manager Abdul Rahim says,“The children’s bank was set up to encourage working children to save. The government may have laws to stop child labour but in reality,a lot of children have to work to support their families.”