BANKING ON RURAL MICROFINANCE
"No one can be sure whether the beneficiaries are using the money for livelihood purposes. People will always use it to buy things they like," says Vasuthevan, who has the grim task of overseeing a district with the nation's second-highest tsunami death toll.
"I would like to make sure the people use the money properly, but what can I do? We don't have enough facilities or funds," the former storekeeper laments as he sits listlessly in his sparsely-furnished office.
Experts agree that there needs to be tighter regulation of the co-op unions. A vast majority of them are ill-equipped to handle the large inflow of relief funds, they point out.
"Right now, nobody really knows who is doing what in micro-finance.there is absolutely nobody in Sri Lanka monitoring these activities," German finance advisor Steinwand says.
"The seed money is very soon gone because it is, more often than not, utilized in an unprofessional way," he adds.
But micro-financing has certainly helped a new credit culture take shape in the rural heartlands, albeit in the most unlikely of ways.
Back at Devagi's seaside village, Sasikala Thangamani, the local treasurer of Gamage's women's union, is making sand drawings of her rudimentary banking system, drawing curious stares from a circle of bare-footed onlookers.
A middle-aged man, breath reeking of alcohol, staggers forward, and threatens to beat her unless she gives him money. "Sasi", as she is affably known to her villagers, ignores him.
"He used to be a fisherman with nine children, but two died in the tsunami. Now he is jobless and just drinks with his wife everyday," says the demure-looking Sasi, 28, who herself lost her lifetime savings when the giant waves swept her house away.
"I don't trust them. I will never accept them into my society," she said.
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