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Jayshree Vyas Interview

Jayshree Vyas, 56, MD, SEWA Bank

She has got 50,000 poor women in Gujarat to save for old age. For Jayshree Ashwinkumar Vyas, better known as just Jayshreeben, it is important that poor working women from rag pickers to vegetable vendors save and think beyond today. She is getting them to invest in a mutual fund under a micro-pension scheme that has been put together by SEWA Bank along with Unit Trust of India Asset Management Company (UTI-AMC).

SEWA Bank follows, what Vyas calls, "a life-cycle approach to address all the financial needs of the poor working women . They are surely in demand. Just look at the numbers. From 1986-87 (around the time she took charge) to now, SEWA Bank's members have increased from 10,339 to 70,000 today, depositors 23,834 to 4 lakh, deposits from Rs 1 crore to Rs 100 crore, disbursements Rs 62 lakh to Rs 55 crore and profit from Rs 3 lakh to Rs 75 lakh!

What does power mean to you?
Power to me means the ability to make a positive impact on people's lives.

New lessons learnt in 2009.
Invest more in relationships during a downturn.

New frontiers crossed in 2009.
Getting 50,000 poor women working in the informal sector to invest in a pension scheme.

What next?
Hope to cover 1 lakh such women in the pension scheme. - E. Kumar Sharma