Micro-Enterprise & Credit Linkage Programme
Supporting SC/ST entrepreneurs with skill training, mentoring, and access to concessional credit through NSKFDC.
About This Project
In partnership with NSKFDC (National Scheduled Castes Finance and Development Corporation), BITAN supported 250 aspiring micro-entrepreneurs from SC/ST communities in Kolkata and South 24 Parganas — helping them develop bankable business plans and access concessional loans under NSKFDC's term loan schemes.
Participants were selected through a community-led process involving local panchayat leaders and NSKFDC district officers. Each participant received a 5-day Entrepreneurship Development Programme (EDP) covering business planning, costing and pricing, marketing, record-keeping, and banking. BITAN's project officers then supported individuals to prepare loan applications and navigate the documentation process with NSKFDC and its channelising agencies.
Businesses supported spanned tailoring, catering, vegetable vending, beauty services, and small-scale manufacturing. Follow-up mentoring visits at 3 and 6 months tracked business progress, addressed challenges, and connected entrepreneurs with government market access schemes.
What We Did
- Community-based selection of 250 SC/ST entrepreneurs through participatory process
- 5-day Entrepreneurship Development Programme (EDP) — business planning, costing, marketing, banking
- Individual business plan preparation — supported by BITAN project officers
- Loan application facilitation — documentation support and liaison with NSKFDC channelising agencies
- 3-month and 6-month follow-up mentoring visits
- Market linkage support — registration with government procurement portals and district markets
- Financial literacy workshops — record-keeping, banking, digital payments
From the Field
Challenges & How We Addressed Them
Many participants had no prior experience with formal banking and were intimidated by the loan application process. BITAN trained a cohort of 'Credit Navigators' — community members who had themselves gone through the process — to accompany first-time applicants to the bank and NSKFDC office, reducing the dropout rate in the application stage from 35% to 11%.
“I had the skill of tailoring but no money to buy a proper machine or register my business. BITAN helped me prepare the loan papers and I received ₹75,000 from NSKFDC. Today I have two machines and three orders every week. My children see that their mother is a businesswoman.”
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