The North East region have been left out and unreached by services of Public sector banks and other privatized banks. Stepping into the vacuum, NEREFS engagement with the deprived communities in the North East India and other state has not only proved that it can change the lives of the poor but also the economic structure of the region. NEREFS ushers a new economic order in the marginalized region by proving that a correlation based on relation based on relationship and trust can be made between MFI’s and traditional communities.

Today, NEREFS presence is visible in the North East states and other part of India with its empowering mission. While targeting the rural poor in the matter of sustainable economic activities, it has immensely multiplied the social capital by identifying income generation activities with focus on microfinance as the basic input for socio-economic development. Significantly, NEREFS efforts towards building a new economic order is reflected in the breaking of the frontiers of ethnicity, regionalism and parochialism, which has been one of the domestic factors in barring progress and development in the region. These factors, which NEREFS has successfully deconstructed, cannot be underestimated in any way if one has a deep insights and understanding of the interplaying forces that in turn influence policies and decision making process.

 

What is evident from NEREFS success is its understanding of the culture or even sub-culture of the diverse communities that it is working with. In a politically vulnerable region like the North East, NEREFS efforts are not confined to not only increase the social capital, but it also engaged in economic and financial education of the masses at the same time. When most of the banks that are operating in the North East failed to avail its services to the unemployed and deprived people at the grass roots level, NEREFS, despite its recent birth and intervention in the region has been making headway in creating a new economic order in its areas of operation. With 100+ branches across India, NEREFS is marching on.