Context: All banks understood the importance of BC Sakhi and Bank Sakhi and issued special ID cards for Covid-19 Lockdown Pass as Essential Service Duty.
About BC Sakhi and Bank Sakhi

• BC Sakhis are Self-Help Groups (SHGs) women working as Business Correspondents for banks. A Bank Sakhi is someone who has been an SHG member involved in conducting banking and book-keeping activities of the group.
• As a Bank Sakhi, she provides a range of financial services on behalf of the bank to her community and is supported by the local SHG federation which provides capacity development, training, and financial awareness in the community.
• Being a Bank Sakhi, she is paid a commission by the bank for different services, which covers her costs and provides her with an income.

Key Highlights of the Government Initiatives amid COVID-19 lockdown

• The Union Government had announced release of 500/- per month for 3 months in 20.39 Crore Women PMJDY accounts.
• Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana-National Rural Livelihoods Mission (DAY-NRLM), Ministry of Rural Development was given responsibility to transfer the fund with support of Department of Financial Services and Banks.
• Government of India also released other DBT funds like Rs.2000/- to PM Kisan Yojana accounts, MGNREGA wages payments to all rural population to address the financial stress being faced by the community.

Role of BC Sakhi and Bank Sakhi

• Due to release of DBT funds, there was expected rush at Bank premises for withdrawal of the amount.
• The instructions regarding withdrawal were already given in advance by many Banks as to how and who can come to the Bank for withdrawal as per last digit of account numbers.
• In most of the cases, the services of BC Sakhis (SHG women working as Business Corresspondents for banks) were utilized for making payments to the rural households.
• All banks understood the importance of BC Sakhi and Bank Sakhi and issued special ID cards for Covid-19 Lockdown Pass as Essential Service Duty.
• They were issued letters from the Banks and stickers/passes by local administration.
• SHG members engaged as BC Sakhi/ Bank Sakhi are playing a vital role in ensuring the disbursement of financial relief packages provided by Government of India.

What has been the outcome?

• As a result, out of around 8800 BC Sakhi and 21600 Bank Sakhi, around 50% of both cadre voluntarily started working amidst Lockdown across the country right from Assam, Mizoram, Sikkim, Manipur to Bihar, Jharkhand, Chattisgarh, and other states of the country.
• Bank Sakhis are supporting Bank Branch Managers in managing rush at branches during DBT payment and ensuring social distancing of customers by creating awareness among rural community.

About about Business Correspondents

• Business Correspondents are retail agents engaged by banks for providing banking services at locations other than a bank branch/ATM. 
• BCs enable a bank to provide its limited range of banking services at low cost. They hence are instrumental in promoting financial inclusion.

As per the RBI guidelines the products provided by BCs are:

• Small Savings Accounts
• Fixed Deposit and Recurring Deposit with low minimum deposits
• Remittance to any BC customer
• Micro Credit and General Insurance