Page 49 - CRISIL ESG Report 2023

Mein Pragati (in Assam and Rajasthan)
Launched in Assam in 2015 and replicated in Rajasthan in 2016, Mein Pragati (meaning ‘I Am Progress’ in Hindi) aims to empower rural women through financial capability building.
Phase I of the programme empowered over 1.65 lakh women through multi-touchpoint financial literacy workshops. Phase II aimed to consolidate the programme to achieve deeper and more meaningful intervention with participants of Phase I by creating a cadre of community workers called the ‘Sakhi’ to support the community in building their financial awareness and access. In 2022, Mein Pragati expanded into new geographies as part of Phase III.
As on date, the programme has been scaled to cover over 5,000 villages across 24 districts of Assam and 6 districts of Rajasthan.
The programme has completed two phases and is now in its phase III
The cadre is leveraged to create awareness and facilitate access to banking services and government schemes; and strengthening institutional infrastructure to drive positive financial behaviour. Over the years, CRISIL has made significant investments to build the Sakhis’ capabilities through a ‘phygital’ model of using a mix of technology and human interface.
Sakhi cadre continue to drive last-mile impact
Through regular capacity building and handholding, the Sakhi cadre is trained to drive long-term behavioural change among rural women by easing their access to government schemes/programmes and addressing last-mile constraints in accessing financial services. The cadre proactively drives linkages and earns an income through a service fee model and guided rate card for various banking and financial services, referred to as the Basket of Services (BoS).
Seamless expansion of Sakhi cadre
Between 2018 and 2023, the Sakhis have gained confidence and experience, with a majority of them expanding their coverage area to adjacent villages.
1,550
new Sakhis have been on-boarded during the year, taking the total to
5,200+
Sakhis in over 5,000 villages, spread across 113 blocks in 30 districts in the two states.
Phase I
2015-2017
Phase II
2018-2021
Phase III
2022-2025
Building financial awareness among rural women, perfecting the intervention by adopting agile thinking approaches to establish strong proof of concept (PoC)
Having established PoC, the impact was deepened and made sustainable – both financially and institutionally – through the Sakhi cadre
Taking the programme to scale after having made the intervention impactful and sustainable
Of the 5,200+ Sakhi cadre, over 4,100 Sakhis are being actively supported by CRISIL Foundation through its NGO partners. The remaining 1,091 Sakhis are currently working independently without any handholding support. Majority of our Sakhis are earning revenue on monthly basis.
ESG Report 2023 47