With the nationwide lockdown, all activity has been halted across the country.
The last couple of weeks have been unprecedented. The lockdown as a result of the pandemic has severely impacted the livelihoods and financial condition of our communities. Our Impact Partners have swung into action and are fulfilling the immediate needs of food and relief supplies for the communities. While our partners continue to respond and also provide us with on the ground updates, we have been planning our next interventions.
Before I delve into our plans, here is a quick update on your social investments.
Impact on your Social Investments
As a Social Investor, it is important for you to know that as a consequence of all this, there is a very high likelihood of delays in repayments in the next few months. With regard to investees on the platform, we will continue to fundraise for them and disburse loans on a case to case basis when the situation improves. Incase of individuals who no longer need the loans, the loans will be cancelled and the amount added to your Rang De credit.
It has been heartening to see emails from so many of you with suggestions and recommendations on how to support our investee communities. After several conversations with our partners, community organisations and considering your views, we now have a roadmap to help our communities rebuild their lives.
Interest Free Loans
As the much-needed relief measures continue amidst the lockdown, the need for credit will be absolutely essential for people who are involved in providing essential services. Our interest free loans with customised repayment terms will help them continue and rebuild their livelihood, right at this very moment. This includes occupations such as farming, dairy and food processing.
The biggest blow of this crisis is on small and marginal farmers. A majority of them have been challenged by the lack of warehousing and inadequate storage facilities for their grains and perishables. The inability to store or process their products immediately is a huge challenge often leading to distress selling. Our recent pilot with small farmers in Yavatmal was one such example of an immediate need for interest-free credit to prevent such distress selling.
Our farmers are going to need all the support they can get.
Join Us!
We always anticipated that the need for interest free credit in the farming sector is humungous. Several conversations with on-ground organisations working with farmers have validated this further.
So for the next few months, our work is cut out. We aspire to provide interest free credit to farmer communities, curated by credible partner organisations, across the country. We are pulling out all the stops to ensure we stand with our farmers in such testing times.
These unprecedented times call for unprecedented targets and measures. The Rang De team is committing to raise Rs.100 crores as interest free loans for farmers across the country. We are all geared up for this and we invite you to join us in building this movement.
You will hear from us as soon as we launch this initiative. In the meanwhile take care and stay safe.