Free Where Angels Prey by Ramesh S Arunachalam Page A

their wives to perform their roles effectively. When DevEx officers learned of this, they retaliated by supplying the male field staff of Aashray with sex workers. Veena had been left disgusted by the happenings and, more so, by the blatant disregard most of these MFIs had for the welfare of the very clients they were mandated to serve. Following this, she had ordered shut more than fifty branches of the MFIs in the district.
    Refusing to be cowed down, the MFIs had launched a counter-offensive against Veena by lodging a complaint against her with the Chief Minister. They alleged that she had behaved in a high-handed manner and had not complied with proper procedures before shutting down their branches. They had also insinuated that she was colluding with the banks to cut them out of the supply chain.
    The fight between the MFIs on the one hand and the people and administration of the Krishna district on the other, was of particular consequence because of its possible impact on the course of microfinance elsewhere in the country. For one, just four districts of Andhra (Krishna, West Godavari, Guntur and Prakasam) accounted for about 15 per cent of all micro-loans in the country. The success of the Andhra Pradesh model was what had sold microfinance as an idea to the rest of the country. Many of the MFIs were slowly branching out to other states like Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra and the northern “BIMARU” states—Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh.
    As a consequence of the Krishna crisis, which saw caps on interest rates, loan write-offs and stringent regulations being imposed, the microfinance sector in Andhra experienced a slowdown. Banks, too, were increasingly unwilling to lend to the MFIs as a result. It was around the same time that many private equity and venture capital funds started evincing an interest in investing in microfinance. Wall Street’s entry was undoubtedly seen as a game changer.
    Veena was given a clean chit by the enquiry committee set up to investigate the allegations made against her by the MFIs, and was subsequently awarded the President’s Gold Medal for exemplary service. Wherever she was transferred after that, she always kept an ear to the ground for news on the activities of MFIs in the region. It saddened her to see the sector once again possessed by the ghost of suicides as MFIs returned to their old ways of coercion and oversupply of credit. Similar news was pouring in from other districts too, as she found out during her interaction with her peers.
    The knock on the door brings Veena to the present.
    “Yes, come in!”
    Her PA, Nilanjan, enters with a file in hand.
    “Madam, we have a detailed report of all the incidents in our district.”
    “Five of them, right?”
    “Six in all, Madam! There was a suicide reported last night. And there have been two kidnappings, where the daughters of the indebted women have been held captive as a means to coerce them into repaying their debts.”
    “Have they been rescued since?”
    “The girl from Parichemam village has been rescued, Madam. She was found locked up in an old warehouse about 5 km from the village. The warehouse is said to belong to a local politician whose relative works as a collection agent with SAMMAAN. The police are still trying to find the whereabouts of the other girl.”
    Veena is infuriated by this news.
    “Scratch the surface of most instances of such exploitation and you find some kind of political sanction! Four years have passed and the sector’s conscience continues to be in hibernation.”
    Veena gets up with a start.
    “Call the SP and inform him that I am headed to Parichemam. I want to speak to that girl myself. I am not stopping until we get to the bottom of this and gather enough evidence against SAMMAAN. There can be no better time to push for action.”
    Veena’s phone rings as she rushes out of the room.
    “Good morning, sir!”
    “Are you on the job, Veena?”
    “You will have a report