If financial inclusion has to make any meaningful contribution then banks will have to reach out to people in Hindi and other regional languages, Reserve Bank of India Governor D. Subbarao said.

“We cannot meaningfully pursue financial inclusion and financial literacy by using English as the medium of communication,” Subbarao said.

In an apparent reference to the Saradha chit-fund scam where thousands of small investors lost their life’s savings, he said that the Government and regulators must protect people from such fraudulent schemes.

There are two ways that the authorities can achieve this, he added. “First, we should make people better aware of the risks of such schemes. Second, we need to provide them access to the formal financial sector so that they do not fall prey to such schemes. “For both these initiatives, we need to reach out in Hindi and vernacular languages,’’ the out-going governor of the central bank said.

The Government and the Reserve Bank have accordingly launched an advertisement campaign in local languages to increase awareness among people. We need banks to join in this initiative, he said.

satyanarayan.iyer@thehindu.co.in

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