The Bandhan School, West Bengal

Bandhan-Konnagar (Bandhan) a not for profit organization, registered under West Bengal Societies Registration Act, 1961, began its journey in 2001, with the aim of women empowerment and poverty alleviation Believing that access and control around livelihood and household social and economic decisions are core to social transformation, Bandhan’s core activities were centered around microfinance and development services. As the microfinance services expanded, Bandhan acquired the status of Non-Banking Financial Company (NBFC) in 2009. The microfinance portfolio was transferred to the NBFC whereas Bandhan-Konnagar continued on its path of development services. The NBFC received a universal banking license from the RBI in 2015 and Bandhan Bank was setup. It became the first Indian microfinance institution to become a bank. Bandhan-Konnagar continues its journey, with unique, innovative and impactful development services transforming the lives of millions of socially marginalised and underprivileged diverse social groups. With an experience of over two decades, Bandhan-Konnagar believes in holistic development of communities through an engendered approach and, implements different impact oriented programmes. The unique programme approach of Bandhan with technological and on demand innovation, ensures capacity development of communities through asset creation to address poverty and associated causes of poverty like health, nutrition, education, clean water, unemployment and gender inequality.