f i nanc i a l i nc lu s i on i n i nd i a
33
Financial Literacy Centres
The financial literacy centres (FLCs) constitute one of
the major initiatives of UBGB which is impacting the FI
initiatives of North Bihar. The FLC plays an important
role in providing capacity building and awareness creation
of customers in getting the financial services of UBGB.
The FLC is one of the core themes for attaining the
objective of Gram Chetna and thus UBGB is playing an
important role in making FLC a success. All 18 districts
are covered with FLC. Financial literacy initiatives
happen through indoor/outdoor medium where the RBI
guidelines and materials are being followed. A monthly
monitoring system tracks progress made on the various
indicators by the FLCs. Till now around 8,000–10,000
camps have been organized and around 5,00,000 villagers
have benefited from it.
Given the large number of villages allotted to it UBGB
is making slow and steady progress in the field of finan-
cial inclusion despite the adverse conditions. UBGB is
gearing up to set up the strong systems to more compre-
hensively bring about FI in rural areas.
2.4.2 SEWA Bharat-SBI Financial Inclusion
Model in the Hills of Uttarakhand
Similarly in 2009, SEWA Bharat partnered with State
Bank of India to increase the financial inclusion of women
in remote areas of Uttarakhand. Under the SEWA-SBI
Financial Inclusion model, local cadre of women from
the community have been employed as Customer Service
Points (CSPs) to provide linkages between banks and the
unbanked population. These women gain meaningful
employment by delivering doorstep banking services
across villages using mobile technology in the form of
GPRS enabled-PoS machines. A Little World acts as
the technology service provider with SEWA Bharat
as the field facilitator. As of October 2013, the SEWA
Bharat-SBI BC model is being implemented in the
four districts of Almora, Bageshwar, Pithoragarh and
Champawat, spanning 23 blocks and over 600 villages
15
With the help of PoS machines, no frills accounts
are opened. Deposit accounts (fixed and recurring),
remittances, withdrawals and loan applications and
pension distribution are made available through this
model of financial inclusion. Since the inception of the
initiative in 2010 and as of end September 2013, 22,640
PoS accounts had been opened, with total savings of
Rs. 9,75,44,314. Of these accounts, 90 per cent of them
are active and 80 percent belong to women.
16
90 percent
of the no-frills accounts opened under this programme
are active with a CSP on the average linking 750 people
with financial services.
Based on a study of the Sewa Bharat-SBI Financial
Inclusion model by her in December 2013, Tankha
(2014)
highlights issues in the implementation of the
BC model. SEWA’s experience reveals that financial
transactions frequently get aborted owing to technical
glitches in operation of PoS machines.
17
Further, there is
considerable
financial burden
on implementing agencies,
especially non-profit organizations such as SEWA, to roll
out and sustain this BC model
owing to
the
range and
volume of costs
that need to be incurred.
18
Though women CSPs have been provided work
opportunities with the help of investment from the
NGO-BC, issues remain about the small commissions
provided and the work conditions (see Box 2.5). It
would appear that, as in other reports of the involvement
of women as CSPs, their participation inevitably is
governed by the fact that
their expected remuneration levels
are comparatively low and their motivation may partly be
derived from non-monetary factors
.
19
2.5 ALTERNATE INSTITUTIONAL
INNOVATIONS AND CHANNELS OF
FINANCIAL INCLUSION
The financial inclusion infrastructure and package has
been positioned independently of the pre-existing struc-
ture of SHGs and their federations promoted by NGOs
and government agencies. However, two agencies are
using the BC intermediary relationship to channel funds
from the banking system at reasonable rates of interest
to the SHGs over and above that available through the
direct SHG-bank linkage channel. NABFINS, promoted
by NABARD, Government of Karnataka and some com-
mercial banks, is registered as a non-banking finance
company (NBFC). In Andhra Pradesh through the initia-
tive of the government-promoted Society for the Elimi-
nation of Rural Poverty (SERP), low-cost supplementary
credit is provided by a registered financial cooperative,
Stree Nidhi.
