The cancer of installment loans in the villages
Al Amin :
Installment loans are now integral to middle and lower class families in the village area.
Today, among the characteristics of the rural family, ponds full of fish, cows and land full of crops, installments also have become an essential feature. It is difficult to find a family that is not involved in installments.
This installment system has become one of the sources of financial support. Earlier this loan was personal oriented, now it has become institutional oriented.
Zakir Sahib, a teacher by profession. His wife is a housewife. The family of three children is now homeless.
Due to the installment loan of about 15 lakh taka, now they have to leave their own houses and lands and settle in Dhaka.
After selling the land and houses and paying the installments, they are now living in Dhaka city.
The house in Dhaka must be rented. How many hundreds of memories the family had around their birthplace, their own house, their own land, their own culture, neighbours, children’s childhood, adolescence, everything was centered around this place and its surrounding environment.
Everything has to be left today, because of this terrible totalitarian rural installment system.
Local Cooperative Institutions operate installment loans. In return, for a certain amount of financial assistance and for a certain period of time, the village people leave their land, property as security.
In case of default or failure to pay within the specified period, the life of the installment recipient becomes horrible and problematic.
Usually, the fixed amount of money taken as loan from cooperatives is to be repaid in weekly or monthly installments. In return, the companies collect a favourable amount of profit from the customers.
The installment system has become so popular that almost every village, even every small community has a meeting each week where some take on new debts and others come to make their weekly or monthly payments. This installment system has attacked the society so much.
Earlier, people could sleep peacefully. But now the story of going to bed with a bunch of thoughts and not being able to sleep is a daily story of almost every middle class and lower class family.
This installment loan programme has taken away from people the peaceful sleep. Long-term debt is burdening every family. This installment is making people lose their families, lose their neighbors, lose their villages, lose their homes.
Unable to pay the installments on time, suicidal incidents are also happening regularly. To pay off one installment, another installment is taken as a loan. As a result, in the long run, our rural society is crushed by this loan system.
Why are families getting involved in installments, knowing the desired misfortune, why are they taking loans as installments? Most of the rural families in Bangladesh are middle and lower class. Installment loans are their only source for varied needs.
Some to build a house, some to get married, some to organize an event, some to go abroad, some to start a business, some to complete the marriage ceremony of a daughter, some to pay a dowry, some to pay off old debts, some to please the people of the girl’s in-laws, some wives to support her husband abroad, thus getting involved in the installment loan scheme.
The situation of Zakir’s wife’s sister can be mentioned here. The woman’s husband has not been able to come to Bangladesh from abroad for almost 20 years because he has to pay off millions of taka as installments.
During her husband’s critical time abroad, she collected money in installments from the country and sent it abroad for her husband. As a result, he is also affected by this totalitarian disease. Can you imagine? A man cannot return to his homeland because of this installment loan!
Like him, many people in the country have been staying abroad for years only to pay installment loans. They are unable to return to their country today due to the burden of installment loans.
They can’t go back to family, to society, to children, to childhood. How cruel destiny it is!
A concerted effort is needed to avoid this dreaded installment plan. People take these installment loans mainly for financial security.
So people have to be provided financial resources. Emphasis should be placed on local training to prevent unemployment in rural areas, to create new jobs, to make rural people employable. As a result, people’s financial needs will be ensured.
If there is a system of earning money in return for work, no one will turn to installment loans and every society should come forward to inform about the horrors of this installment loan and increase social, overall awareness, as well as make a sincere effort by all to eliminate this installment system in rural areas.
Only then it is possible to eradicate this rural cancer from the society. The people of the homeland will return to the country, and no one will be left without a home. Life should not be given to suicide. Then, rural society will return to its familiar evergreen ambience.
The writer is a student, Department of History, University of Dhaka. He is also a member of Bangladesh Tarun Column Lekhok Forum, Dhaka University Branch.
