The idea of forming a co-operative institution was mooted by the present chairman & CEO, way back in January 2011. It started with handful of like minded people, who had a vision & dream to serve the marginalized section of the society differently, gradually it grew to few dozens, after several informal & formal meetings & sessions, Citizen savings & credit was institutionalized in Aug 2012. 60 pe
ople came together to promote & form the society .The other promoter members of society includes, expert from financial services Industry, Rtd Engineer, social worker, small business owners. The objective was to financial support the marginal urban as well as rural class, who are denied of services, in absence of established credentials under present financial system & structure. Citizen Savings and credit co-operative is a budding but vital part of the informal sector of the economy & society under Bihar self supporting co-operative society act, 1996. Citizen savings and credit is a association of group of people, who have voluntarily joined together to achieve common economic and social objective and forming a joint, owned and democratically controlled cooperative organization. Members make equitable contributions to the capital/labor required and accept a fair share of risks and benefits of the undertaking, citizen works on the principal of self help and mutual assistance & benefit to provide services for their members and society at large. Citizen savings and credit acts as a financial institution as well, which is controlled and owned by its members. We collectively aim & work at uplifting the backwardness by rendering financial assistance & services. Citizen understands the social and economic dynamics and responsibilities very well hence is determined & strives for upliftment of its people and the society, where it operates. Lending facility to persons involved in unorganized sector/informal jobs like local artisan, vegetable vendors, auto/rickshaw drivers/domestic helps/street vendors/daily wage earners/sales man & women/kiosk shop owners & marginal farmers. The new economic growth has created job avenues but under informal structure, many employees & workers look for financial assistance & support & we are going to serve them. Since co-operative are based on values like self help, democracy, equality and solidarity. it plays vital role in empowering women socially economically as well .various projects in order to encourage women in small scale domestic/cottage industry are being promulgated under the guidance of Mrs. Meera sinha(CEO). She has further plans as well. She aims at setting up dairy as well as poultry cooperative farms exclusively for women at village, panchayat level. Also working on the pattern to connect the vegetable producers directly with the retailers in city , meanwhile taking care of their credit requirements. a small step towards this goal has been made with opening of Citizens 1st rural centre in Gaurichak, south of patna. Another centre is proposed at Phulwarisharif.
