Women are good borrowers: Activitist

Women are good borrowers: Activitist

A. Junaidi, Jakarta

Business loans help women improve the quality of their and their
families' lives as they tend to make use of their profits to meet
the needs of their families and repay their debts on time, an
observer says.

"Unlike men, only a small number of women fail to repay their
debts," coordinator of the Indonesian Movement for Microfinance
Development Titus K. Kurniadi told a seminar titled "Developing a
better quality of life for women" on Wednesday.

The seminar was organized by the Indonesian Coalition for
Population and Development and supported by the United Nations
Population Fund (UNFPA).

Titus said that more than 60 percent of 3.5 million people
involved in microfinance schemes were women, who almost never
missed their payments.

He said women who successfully ran a business thanks to a
microfinance scheme would spend their profit on family interests.

"They don't think of themselves. In many developing countries,
some loans are designated only to women," Titus said.

He suggested that the government provide soft loans for
microfinancing institutions that extend loans to poor families.

He classified poor and very poor families as those who earn up
to US$1 a day. Studies indicate that a loan between Rp 500,000
($55.60) and Rp 2 million could help the families emerge from
poverty.

"The government need only supervise the institutions in
disbursing the loans," he said.

He suggested that the government stop using banks to disburse
loans as it would prolong the lending process and the loans would
be restricted to particular groups or small-scale businessmen.

"Banks tend to prolong the process of loan disbursements and
demand collateral, which could prevent poor families, especially
women, from meeting requirements," he said.

Education is another requirement to improve women's quality of
life.

Observer Arief Rachman said educating women could help them
counter the impact of discriminatory tradition and culture.

"Through education, we can dispose of culture and traditions
that place women in a subordinate position," Arief, who is
national chairman of the United Nations Educational, Scientific
and Cultural Organization (Unesco), said.

He said education could also eliminate the myths that
underestimated women, such as the theory that women are more
emotional than men and men tend to be more rational than women.

He said education was needed to promote gender equality.