XLRI, in association with the State Bank of India, plans to roll out a financial literacy initiative – Sanchetana – in East and West Singhbhum districts of Jharkhand.

The initiative would be aimed at spreading awareness about savings, insurance and old age pension among the villagers and urban poor, said a press statement issued by XLRI.

Under the programme, student teams from XLRI would visit various public centres in remote villages to spread financial literacy using various forms of audio visual documents.

While XLRI students, research scholars and professors would organise sessions with villagers, SBI would assist by bringing the rural populace under the fold of conventional banking.

With a view to penetrate into remote areas, SBI plans to send authorised agents to facilitate opening of bank accounts.

A pilot project has already been initiated at Saldih in Gamharia in May this year. Nearly 500 accounts have been opened so far.

A number of sessions have been held at gram sabhas, schools and self-help groups and the interactions with villagers have yielded encouraging results, the release said. The volunteers from XLRI are also conducting counselling sessions with rural high school students so that they learn the concept of saving early on.

“Financial literacy is an irreducible need for everyone. Low income and vulnerable consumers are not necessarily less financially literate than wealthier consumers. With this initiative, we intend to spread such awareness and make people conscious about their financial decisions,” said H K Pradhan, Professor of Finance, and Chief Mentor of Sanchetana.

shobha.roy@thehindu.co.in

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