The Salia Sahi slum in Bhubaneswar. Telegraph picture

Bhubaneswar, Jan. 5: The Nayapalli police today detained four employees of a microfinance company for threatening a woman of the Salia Sahi slum. The woman, Nirupama Nayak, along with some other women from the slum, had borrowed money from the company but could not pay the interest.

The youths were later released after giving an undertaking to the police that they would not repeat the offence. Sources said both the sides had reached a compromise.

Sources said the four employees, all youngmen, threatened Nirupama Nayak, who lives in the Salia Sahi slum. They even confined her to a house in the slum. The local residents later intervened and rescued her. They detained the youths and informed the police, who took them to the police station.

Sources said that Nirupama, along with some other women of the slum had borrowed money from ‘Ujjibani’ a microfinance company with its office in Chadrasekharpur. The company had assured them of low interest rates and repayment in 48 instalments.

However, the company later lowered the interest rates following a government directive. The company had put a condition that the new interest rates would be applicable only to the new borrowers.

Nirupama along with four other women had borrowed Rs 10,000 from the company. The company had given them Rs 9,000 and Rs 1,000 as security money. They were told to repay the money in 48 instalments of which Nirupama’s group had paid 26 instalments. They wanted the rest of the instalments to be paid at the lower interest rates but the company refused.

“The interest rate was high so we could not pay the interests in time. We wanted them to allow us to pay according to the new interest rate but they did not agree. It would have helped as we are poor people. But they did not listen to us and threatened me. They used abusive languages against us. I felt so humiliated that I even thought of committing suicide,” said Nirupama, leader of the group.

“The employees of the microfinance company only contact women and don’t take male members in their families into consideration. Women generally don’t understand the rules which makes it easy for these employees to harass them,” said a local resident.