There is an active Microcredit program modelled on the Grameen Bank of Mohammad Yunus, the banker of the poor people of Bangladesh, who lends money to the people that the traditional banks reject and makes them able to undertake new work activities.

At present a central bank and 4 branches have built and opened. They are concerned with microsaving and the allocation of loans without collateral. More than 20.000 women take part to the project. For the coming years the construction of new branches of the microcredit bank is forseen in the villages, with the objective of improving the socio–economic conditions of the area and to the support to the women´s emancipation. The women will be able not only to take advantage of a loan to start a small business activity, but they will also be able to participate in different training courses (dress–making, breeding, agriculture), in order to learn a new profession.

In detail, the interest requested for the loans is 10% yearly, compared to the 10% monthly interest asked by the local usurers. The loans are for between 1.000 and 10.000 rupias (20–200 Euro). Moreover, 10 rupias are deposited every week as personal savings, so that at the end of the year the woman has a small capital of about 500 rupias.

The women, who take part in the program, follow a trainging course, commit themselves to respect the 16 ethics rules of the project, among them the one to send their children to school, and to pay back the loan in a year by weekly instalments.

The women, organized in groups of about 25 people, meet weekly for the paying of the instalments and to exchange advice, receiving in the meanwhile a sense of belonging and an opportunity for idea exchange. To this point, the repayment rate is of 98%.

A concrete example: The project «Production of dairy products».

The project originated from a collaboration between IIMC and the Italian Consulate in Calcutta. IIMC commits itself to guarantee the production and the daily supply of cheese through the starting of a small production company. The product is then sold to the Italian restaurants in Calcutta.

Such activity is strictly integrated with the microcredit project: the women, who take part in it, buy the cows with a microloan supplied by IIMC and they refund it thanks to the proceeds obtained by the sale of the milk to the same organization.

A feasibility study has been currently begun for a future extension of the project: from this first phase of home–made production to another “industrial” one with the involvement of an always greater number of women. This second phase would entail the use of machinery coming from Italy and professionals, who will carry out training activities for the Indian people who will be managing the future production.