Prayas Institute of Economic Empowerment (PIEE), a unit of Prayas, was established in June 2005 to design, develop & conduct training programs aimed at building livelihood opportunities for youth and women of the rural and slum based communities in Delhi and outside through life-skills cultivation and technical trainings in contemporary market driven trades that prepare the marginalized beneficiaries for jobs and, or, small business enterprises. PIEE major role is to provide training to empower youth & women with entrepreneurship and related practical skills from marginalized communities. Under PIEE All Courses are conducted according to the Qualification Pack of NSDC under NSQF. Major courses offered have been in the Sectors of IT/ITeS, Beauty & Wellness, Telecom, Apparel, Construction, Agriculture, Retail &Hospitality and RPL. Job Roles have been decided according to the interest and aptitude of candidates seeking skill in a particular sector.
This Institute also covers members of Self Help Groups in Delhi and outside as its target group for its empowerment through training oriented economic activities which involve production and marketing functions as means to economic end. As such, components like vocational training, life-skill up-gradation, production, marketing, micro-credit, micro-financing, job opportunities and micro-business enterprises form the fiber of this institute.
Functions of PIEE- Conducting market survey to identify locations and trades prior to setting-up a training centre
- Providing Vocational Education/Training to create opportunities for productive livelihoods and jobs
- Launching trades for training, based on market survey
- Cultivating and up-grading vocational skills
- Developing Technical skills
- Forming Self-Help Groups that derive their income from micro-enterprises, supported by micro-credit
- Producing market driven goods/services
- Creating marketing avenues for profit from sales
- Ensuring opportune placements (job/small-business set-up) for the beneficiaries
- Making the centers self-sustainable through revenue generation
- Creating new training centers
- Up-scaling existing centers and their programs as per contemporary market trends.
Objectives of PIEE To improve the occupational skills and technical knowledge of trainees and to raise their efficiency and increase productive ability by providing training in the field of Computer, Typing, Stenography, Dress Designing, Cutting Tailoring and Embroidery, Beauty Culture, Auto-mobile repairing, Screen Printing and Book Binding, Candle Making, House Wiring etc.
To organize training and orientation course for key resource persons, master trainers on designing, development and implementation of skill development programmes
To widen the range of knowledge and understanding of social, economic and political systems in order to create critical awareness about the environment
Promote national goals such as secularism, national integration population control, community development, women’s equality, productivity, water conservation and environment.
Operational AreasPrayas Institute of Economic Empowerment (PIEE), presently covers the slum clusters and re- settlement colonies like Jahangirpuri, Tughlakabad, Vasant Vihar, Batti Mines, Dakshin puri, Vivek Vihar, Pandav Nagar, Bhagwanpur, Narela, Hari Nagar, Kirti Nagar, Zakheera etc. for Vocational Training and Community mobilization. Instructors working with Prayas Institute of Economic Empowerment are trained from NVTI/ITI or having other higher qualifications with relevant experience.
Micro Finance – Introduction“Microfinance is the provision of financial services to low-income clients or solidarity lending groups including consumers and the self-employed, who traditionally lack access to banking and related services.??? Microfinance is not just about giving micro credit to the poor rather it is an economic development tool whose objective is to assist poor to work their way out of poverty. It covers a wide range of services like credit, savings, insurance, remittance and also non-financial services like training, counseling etc.
Salient features of Microfinance:- Borrowers are from the low income group
- Loans are of small amount – micro loans
- Short duration loans
- Loans are offered without collaterals
- High frequency of repayment
- Loans are generally taken for income generation purpose
Microfinance sector has grown rapidly over the past few decades. Nobel Laureate Muhammad Yunus is credited with laying the foundation of the modern MFIs with establishment of Grameen Bank, Bangladesh in 1976. Today it has evolved into a vibrant industry exhibiting a variety of business models. Microfinance Institutions (MFIs) in India exist as NGOs (registered as societies or trusts), Section 25 companies and Non-Banking Financial Companies (NBFCs). Commercial Banks, Regional Rural Banks (RRBs), cooperative societies and other large lenders have played an important role in providing refinance facility to MFIs. Banks have also leveraged the Self-Help Group (SHGs) channel to provide direct credit to group borrowers. With financial inclusion emerging as a major policy objective in the country, Microfinance has occupied centre stage as a promising conduit for extending financial services to unbanked sections of population. At the same time, practices followed by certain lenders have subjected the sector to greater scrutiny and need for stricter regulation. Although the microfinance sector is having a healthy growth rate, there have been a number of concerns related to the sector, like grey areas in regulation, transparent pricing, low financial literacy etc. In addition to these concerns there are a few emerging concerns like cluster formation, insufficient funds, multiple lending and over-indebtedness which are arising because of the increasing competition among the MFIs. On a national level there has been a spate of actions taken to strengthen the regulation of MF sector including, enactment of microfinance regulation bill by the Government of Andhra Pradesh, implementation of sector-specific regulation by Reserve Bank of India and most recently, release of Draft Microfinance Institutions (development and regulation) Bill, 2011 for comments.