The Risks of Banking
I had mentioned in my previous post the importance of negotiating expectations with the facts on the ground. This week, as we arranged for the women to obtain zero-balance bank accounts with Indian Overseas Bank, only highlights my point. On the surface, these bank accounts are a simple and easily accountable way for Ubuntu to pay these women. They can also provide the women with a method of building savings and credit with the bank, which can be useful if they ever need loans in the future. These accounts are a great way to improve transparency for Ubuntu (which is something that every NGO should strive for), while also allowing the women some measure of financial independence, as the accounts are only in their names.
And yet, despite all of these important benefits, the women preferred to be paid in cash. With cash, their husbands could not find out when they were paid and take their money (for alcohol, according to several women). As Ubuntu expands, payment by cash is less tenable, as a staff member would need to bring thousands of lakhs to these villages in cash. On the other hand, the bank is in Bannur, which is a bus ride away; their husbands would assuredly find out when they needed to withdraw money. The women—in a horrifyingly matter-of-fact way—informed us that their husbands would beat them if they tried to resist giving it to them.
A solution that James (a fellow intern, go check out his blog!) brought up was using the local bank in Kodaghalli and bringing paychecks for the women to deposit (as this bank does not have direct transfers). The main reason we had avoided this bank was that it did not allow for zero-balance accounts and required a minimum balance of five-hundred rupees. This may not be the most ideal solution, but it is perhaps the best compromise to keep the women safe as they slowly become financially independent.
While this problem luckily had a reasonably straightforward solution, it underscores the uphill battle that these women have to face: trying to achieve financial independence in a society where even personal safety cannot be guaranteed. But where do we go from here? How do we stop domestic violence when the women take it so for granted that they can joke about their husbands hitting them?
