Mein Pragati Assam, run by CRISIL Foundation, a project in Assam where there is no payment of money or goods to the beneficiaries but only transfer of financial knowledge, has won the National CSR Award 2018 in the “CSR in Challenging Circumstances, Northeast” category.

Rashtriya Gramin Vikas Nidhi is the project implementation partner.

The project empowers socially and economically disadvantaged sections of society in Assam by strengthening their financial capabilities. The award was conferred by President Ramnath Kovind in New Delhi on Tuesday. The National CSR Awards, instituted by the Union ministry of corporate affairs, is presented in two categories — excellence in CSR and contribution in difficult areas/aspirational districts.

CRISIL Foundation is CRISIL’s corporate social responsibility arm, reaching out to socially and economically disadvantaged communities within and beyond their areas of operations. It was formerly known as Credit Rating Information Services of India Limited.

Mein Pragati Assam was launched in 2015 with the initial goal of empowering one lakh rural women in six districts (Barpeta, Darrang, Goalpara, Kamrup, Morigoan and Nalbari).

“After achieving significant improvement in awareness, we modified the intervention strategy to drive deeper and long-term behavioural change which will help form a cadre of community workers called sakhis,” an official of CRISIL Foundation said. The sakhis have helped provide financial connectivity to around 1.18 lakh people across 400 plus villages through facilitating access to government and state welfare schemes.

“It is a unique project focusing on empowerment of women by strengthing their financial capabilties. The impact has been tremendous. One can easily gauge the impact when one interacts with the women. The project needs to be replicated elsewhere,” Amiya Sharma, executive director of Rashtriya Gramin Vikas Nidhi, told The Telegraph.

“For the first time there is no payment of money or goods to the beneficiaries. Only financial knowledge transfer. And yet it has been successful,” he said.

The foundation has created a social platform to disseminate information regarding the schemes. The model has demonstrated efficacy, and can be scaled nationwide. These sakhis are able to charge a small fee for their services, which has made this initiative self-sustaining. Maya Vengurlekar, chief operating officer, CRISIL Foundation, said, “The community cadre has emerged as a powerful model of convergence. The sakhis are the primary point of contact for links to financial products and services, as also to government welfare schemes.”