Introduction to Palli Sanchay Bank

( Former name- “Amar Bari Amar Khamar” Project [ “Ekti Bari Ekti Khamar” Project ] )

1. Introduction: In order to improve the socio-economic conditions of the poor people in remote areas of Bangladesh, the “Akti Bari Ekti Khamar” project was piloted in Sreepur Upazila of Gazipur from 1996-2001 to make each family self-reliant. The project was approved in the ECNEC meeting in 2001. Later, the name of the project was changed and the project activities were stopped.

2) How can the common poor people be brought into the mainstream of production by taking the initiative to launch the project in 2009. How to improve the standard of living of the common people at the grassroots level, how to use every inch of land for production, how to improve the socio-economic condition of the poor people by investing in the village savings, how to increase their income by involving women in the production process and ensure women's empowerment. With this thought, he launched the "One House, One Farm" project for the second time. This time, to make the poor people of the villages savings-oriented/to develop the habit of savings, the issue of mandatory savings was added to the project.

3. Later, the name of the "One House, One Farm" project was changed to "My House, My Farm" project. The "One House, One Farm" project was taken up from July, 2009 to June, 2014 at a cost of 1197.00 crore taka. The project was implemented in several phases which are as follows:

a) 1st Phase:-

The project was taken up on the special initiative of the Honorable Prime Minister with the aim of developing every house in the rural areas of the country as an agriculturally-based production-oriented unit and making every village association the center of overall village development. Steps were taken to implement the project activities in 85,000 villages of the country. In a meeting held on 04.08.2011 in the Agriculture, Water Resources and Rural Institutions Department of the Planning Commission, it was decided to implement the project in phases based on the assurance of funding. In this context, the project was revised 4 times in order to expand the project across the country in phases and the project period and amount were increased in the first phase. In the original project, the implementation started by providing some resource assistance to the association members to set up farms in their homes. But due to serious inequality in the distribution of resources, the project implementation strategy was changed in the first phase. Instead of distributing resources, welfare grants were provided against savings to poor members (200 taka against 200 taka savings) and a revolving fund of 3.00 lakh taka per year was provided to the association for two years, creating a permanent fund for each association and the scope of the project was gradually increased to increase income and alleviate poverty through revolving investment in setting up small family agricultural farms in the homes of the association members. The reasons for the amendments are briefly explained below:

3.1) 1st Amendment (July, 2009 to June, 2013):

The approved estimated cost allocation of the original project was 119,700.00 lakh taka. The project period was from July, 2009 to June, 2014. The project was targeted by selecting 5,78,400 families belonging to 9,640 villages in 1,928 unions of 482 upazilas as project beneficiaries. The distribution of cows, corrugated iron and poultry, tree seedlings and vegetable seeds among some members of the association caused adverse reactions due to inequality in receipt among the members. Therefore, in the 1st Amendment, instead of distributing resources, each member received an equal amount (200/- taka monthly for up to 24 months) welfare grant against his own savings and a revolving loan fund of 1.50 lakh taka annually (for up to 2 years) to the association. A major change was made in the project implementation strategy by adding two elements. At the same time, the project activities were expanded and a target of creating 17,388 village development organizations in 17,388 wards of 1932 unions in 483 upazilas and including 10,43,280 members was set. The project period was reduced by 1 year from July, 2009 to June, 2013 and the estimated cost was set at 149,292.12 lakh taka. An initiative was taken to alleviate poverty by creating a permanent fund based on the association with government assistance by encouraging members to save and investing it among the members. At the beginning of the project, Bangladesh Rural Development Board (BRDB) cooperated in the work of the “One House, One Farm” project as a partner organization. Later, the manpower of the project was recruited.

3.2) 2nd Amendment (July, 2009 to June, 2016):

The 2nd Amendment was approved by 'ECNEC' on 30/07/2013. In this amendment, the project activities were expanded widely across the country. No new components have been added. The project activities have been expanded to 1 village each in 40,527 wards of 4,503 unions of 485 upazilas of the country, and 24,31,620 beneficiaries have been identified. The approved estimated expenditure allocation has been increased to Tk 316,296.38 lakh.

3.3) Rural Savings Bank Act-2014: During the implementation of the project, the Amar Bari Amar Khamar project, which is being implemented following the philosophy of small savings, has greatly encouraged the poor to create permanent funds by personal savings. In the context of creating expectations to institutionalize the extensive financial activities that have been carried out across the country and financial inclusion has been ensured through the project, the Rural Savings Bank Act, 2014 (2) was enacted in 2014.