The total outstanding credit by public sector banks (PSBs) to women increased to Rs 11.69 lakh crore as of March 31, 2024, forming 15.42 per cent of net bank credit (NBC) of PSBs, according to the data shared by Shobha Karandlaje, Minister of State in the MSME Ministry in a written reply to a question in the Rajya Sabha. The credit to women jumped from Rs 8.36 lakh crore to 3.05 crore women borrowers as of March 20222 (forming 13 per cent of PSBs’ NBC) and Rs 7.31 lakh crore to 2.89 crore women borrowers, according to the data shared in the Rajya Sabha by former MSME MoS Bhanu Pratap Singh Verma in March 2023.
According to the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), the government had earlier drawn up a 14-point action plan (now a 13-point action plan) in the year 2000 for implementation by PSBs, including earmarking 5 per cent of their NBC for lending to women.
As per a study conducted by RBI’s Financial Inclusion & Development Department, Central Office, the share of the women-owned MSMEs in outstanding MSME credit of scheduled commercial banks (excluding foreign banks and regional rural banks) stood at 7.09 per cent as of March 31, 2023.
Currently, out of 5.52 crore Udyam-registered MSMEs in the country, 2.18 crore are women-owned enterprises, representing 39.5 per cent share.
To boost credit access to women entrepreneurs, the government had recently extended the credit guarantee cover for women to 85 per cent along with a 10 per cent concession in annual guarantee fees for women borrowers.
Women have also been the major beneficiaries of the government’s micro credit scheme Mudra. According to the official data, out of 6.67 crore loan accounts or beneficiary count in FY24, 4.24 crore were women borrowers while in terms of the loan amount, Rs 2.22 lakh crore Mudra loans were disbursed to women entrepreneurs out of the total Rs 5.32 lakh crore loan disbursed in the last financial year.