Sixty-year-old Purnima Sardar suffers from Monday blues, but of a different kind.
She dreads the first day of the week when she needs to pay Rs 650 to the agents of a microfinance company that had loaned her Rs 50,000 to repair her thatched roof a year ago.
Arranging Rs 650 a week is not easy for the resident of Khalpar in East Burdwan’s Borsul-II gram panchayat as her main source of income dried up after the Centre stopped the release of funds to Bengal under 100-day job scheme MGNREGA citing irregularities.
“My son cannot work as he has a permanent disability.... My daughter-in-law works as a farm labourer as she is young and can work hard. For an old woman, the 100-day work scheme was the only option to earn a subsistence living,” said Purnima, a widow.
“But since this scheme came to a halt, our lives became miserable.... I had to take the loan to repair the roof of my hut and now am neck-deep in debt,” she added.
Purnima said her daughter-in-law has been earning about Rs 20,000 by working as a farm labourer for about four months a year. Before the 100-day work scheme came to a grinding halt, she and her daughter-in-law used to earn about Rs 8,000 each by working for around 40 days under the scheme.
“I had to mortgage my gold earrings for a loan of Rs 5,000 as I was failing to pay the weekly instalment of Rs 650 to the agents of the company. I don’t know how to repay the mortgage loan and the initial debt of Rs 50,000,” Purnima said.
Asked about the repayment schedule, she pleaded ignorance saying she didn’t have the papers.
A local panchayat member said the story was similar for most villagers.
“The terms of repayment are so hazy... I think these poor villagers are ending up paying exorbitant rates of interest, which may be in the range of 40 per cent a year,” the panchayat member said.
Moroni Sen is also clueless about how to repay the loan of Rs 20,000 taken from a microfinance company a year ago to buy a mobile for her son Srikanto who studies in Class XII at Borshul High School.
“I had some projects to do during the summer holidays and needed an Internet connection. My mother took the loan and bought me a phone, which has become a headache for us,” said Srikanto.
Moroni said she had to sell two of her goats to pay the weekly instalment of Rs 575 to the company agents after defaulting on payments for a few months.
“The situation was much better when we used to work under the 100-day work scheme,” said Moroni.
Local gram panchayat members said they were aware of the situation but could do little.
“We cannot intervene as none of the villagers lodge complaints with us or the police as they do not want to be blacklisted by these institutions.... The problem has become critical as the traditional banks don’t show interest in lending money to these people,” said a panchayat member of the Trinamool Congress-led Borshul-II gram panchayat.
Alpona Majhi, 65, said her indebtedness was linked to the purchase of foodgrains.
“We are three people in the family and each one of us is entitled to 3kg of rice and 2kg of wheat every month (under the National Food Security Act)... But we need 15kg of rice for each of us every month as we eat rice thrice a day,” she said.
“As I don’t get work under the 100-day job scheme, I find it difficult to buy rice every month. I have been borrowing in times of distress and my indebtedness is growing,” said Alpona.
A member of the Trinamool-led zilla parishad in East Burdwan passed the blame onto the Centre and said these deprived sections would teach the BJP a lesson. “The agents are worse than kabuliwallas.... They force people to sell off animals or mortgage gold to pay instalments. This is a vicious cycle,” the leader said.
The villagers admitted that they benefit from the state government’s welfare schemes such as Lakshmir Bhandar and old-age or widow pension. “But that is not good enough to cover the income loss owing to the sudden pause on the 100-day scheme,” said Aloka Sen, a resident of Borsul in Burdwan East.
Bardhaman-Durgapur votes today