Lakhimi Baruah

Lakhimi Baruah is the founder and managing director of the Konoklota Mahila Urban Co-operative Bank, the first and only all-women bank in north-east India. She was named for the Padma Shri in 2021 in the field of social work, from Assam ^[1].

A weaver at twelve

Baruah was born on 1 September 1949 and took a BA from Dibrugarh University ^[2]. Her link with the cooperative movement began at 12, when she wove cloth for a cooperative weaving society to earn money ^[2]. She later worked at the Sivasagar District Central Co-operative Bank, then left the job to start a bank run by and for women ^[2].

Banking for the poor

Her aim has been to end poverty by giving women control over money ^[2]. The bank teaches saving and borrowing habits to women with little or no schooling, gives training and organises self-help groups ^[2]. Its small loans have helped thousands of women from poor families take up farming, animal rearing, weaving, tailoring, food-making and flower growing, and many now also pay for their children’s schooling and health ^[2].

At the time of the award the bank had four branches, 45,000 customers and 12,000 shareholders, and had lent to almost ten thousand women entrepreneurs through more than 1,200 self-help groups ^[2].

Recognition

The bank received the Nari Shakti Puraskar for 2015 from the Ministry of Women and Child Development, and in 2017 the Assam government named it the best-performing cooperative society ^[2]. Baruah’s own honours include the Asam Sahitya Sabha’s Karmasree award in 2006 and a FICCI FLO award in 2009–10 ^[2].