Originally born out of an Act namely The West Bengal Scheduled Castes Development & Finance Corporation Act, 1976 (Act of 1976) West Bengal Scheduled Castes Development & Finance Corporation, got its present incarnation as "West Bengal Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward Classes Development & Finance Corporation" (WBSCSTOBCDFC), when two amendments of the Act during 1980 and 1981 increased its operational scope by bringing the development of tribal people especially those who are living below the poverty line (BPL) within its ambit. Backward Classes Welfare Department of the State Government exercises administrative control over the Corporation.
The Corporation offers a bouquet of schemes to the target group to fulfill the mandate of creating an alternative source of income through small and medium economic activities. Finances are made available to individuals or to groups, in comparatively soft terms along with admissible subsidy and margin money. Thus, a large section of marginalized people of rural Bengal is covered by institutional credit by the Corporation.
In addition, the Corporation provides skill training to the target groups through Government and non-Government institutions and service providers to enable them to take the opportunity of generating additional income as per their acumen. The Corporation also implements some special schemes supported by the State Government.
Being the “State Channelizing Agency” in respect of Apex Corporations like National Scheduled Castes Finance & Development Corporation (NSFDC), National Scheduled Tribes Finance & Development Corporation (NSTFDC), National Backward Classes Finance & Development Corporation (NBCFDC) and National Safai Karmacharis Finance & Development Corporation (NSKFDC) resources for implementation of schemes are available from them as bulk loan which are backed up by State Government Guarantee. State Government contributes Share Capital and the Concerned Ministries of Government of India also participate in Central sector scheme for providing assistance to the State Corporations in the ratio of 51:49. This apart, State Government provides salary grants annually through Budget provisions of Backward Classes Welfare (BCW) and Tribal Development (TD) Departments. Other resources like Special Central Assistances (SCAs) and Grants provided by Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment (MOSJ&E) and Ministry of Tribal Affairs (MOTA) of Government of India are channelized to the District level implementing Agencies through the Corporation. The Corporation, thus, in tandem with Panchayat Raj Bodies and District Administration (WBSCSTOBCDFC has district offices headed by District Managers), plays multifaceted role to achieve desired outcome.
WBSCSTOBCDFC works through an online commercial accounting system which is acknowledged and audited by the office of PAG (Audit), West Bengal annually. This ensures central monitoring over the district offices on status of utilization of fund and ensures transparency beyond doubt.
