A bank for students by classmates

PONNANI: Learning without financial pangs is the dream of every student. But thousands of students are facing financial problems in their pursuit of education. To deal with the situation, students of the Muslim Educational Society Higher Secondary School at Ponnani in Malappuram district have launched a programme called “Save money, share money” to help deserving talented students by offering them interest-free loans. The programme is in effect a bank run by the students. It operates on the lines of ordinary banking institutions, but without charging any interest on the loans. There has a board of directors and offers facilities like separate account for each student, passbook, computer accounting, maintenance of the daily collections register and remittance receipt. The day-to-day operations of the bank are being looked after by the board of directors elected from among the students.The idea evolved around two months ago during an NSS camp. ‘’Inspired by the concept, we initially started  ‘Save money for the future’ programme. Later, considering the poor economic conditions of some of our friends, we decided to make certain changes in the existing project and renamed it as ‘Save money, share money’,’’  Niyaz T,  a member of the board of directors, said.As of now,  54 members, including teachers and students, own savings account in the bank and the total deposit amount stands at Rs 30,000.