The zilla parishad primary school at Shirasgaon has classes only from Std I to V. Students aged between six and 11 years are running their cooperative bank. The bank has a capital of Rs3,705 and its number of members has increased to 70 from last year's 55. The bank was started in 2011 and business has been increasing every year.
The students' cooperative bank model from Shirasgaon in Sangamner taluka of Ahmednagar district is expected to be replicated in the entire district. As many as 3,700 zilla parishad schools in the district will have their own students' cooperative banks from the start of the new academic year, ie June 2015.
The zilla parishad primary school at Shirasgaon has classes only from Std I to V. Students aged between six and 11 years are running their cooperative bank. The bank has a capital of Rs3,705 and its number of members has increased to 70 from last year's 55. The bank was started in 2011 and business has been increasing every year.
Ahmednagar zilla parishad chief executive officer Shailesh Nawal told dna that the idea is to inculcate the value of savings among students, so that they can use the money in case of a crisis or emergency. Nawal said he will ensure that all students open their accounts with nationalised banks so that government scholarships and their benefits can be transferred directly to their accounts.
He said he intends to bring parents as well to open their accounts so that they too can be covered under the insurance scheme. Nawal added that in addition to providing government schemes directly to beneficiaries, it would also help in providing relief in crisis hours.
Sunil Wadekar, the teacher in Shirasgaon who started the bank, said he's happy that his experiment has been lauded by none other than the ZP CEO. He said his school will participate in all initiatives undertaken by Nawal.
Shirasgaon is located 25km from Sangamner and situated at the top of a small hill, where the total village population is 830. There is no source of water for the village. All villagers hail from the scheduled tribe of Hindu Mahadev Koli and the village can afford to take a crop or two during the monsoon months only. The villagers work as farm labourers the rest of the year and have an annual income of Rs20,000-25,000.
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