Mumbai: One of the leading B-School in India, XLRI has rolled out a financial literacy programme for villagers in east and west Singhbhum districts of Jharkhand through a recently launched project called 'Sanchetana.' The institute, in association with State Bank of India, has also inaugurated the 'Financial Literacy on Wheels' initiative at Jamshedpur.
As per sources, the programme has been launched with an aim to spread awareness of savings, insurance and old age pension among the villagers and urban poor, coming closer to their homes. The student teams from XLRI would visit various public centres in remote villages to meetings and festivals, schools, community associations, etc., to spread financial literacy using various forms of audio visual documents.
According to the information, this literacy initiative intends to educate the rural people on banking and investment options. Under the programme, XLRI students, research scholars and professors are organizing sessions with villagers, while State Bank of India is supporting them by bringing the rural populace under the fold of conventional banking.
As per sources, a pilot project was launched at Saldih in Gamharia, placed about 12km from the city, in May this year. A number of sessions have been held at gram sabhas, schools, self-help groups for women and one-to-one interactions with villagers have yielded encouraging results. The volunteers from XLRI are also conducting counseling sessions with rural high school students so that they learn the concept of saving early on.
Moreover, in a statement, HK Pradhan, Professor of Finance and Chief Mentor of 'Sanchetana' said, 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.
