Financial inclusion has become a
policy priority. Inclusive growth
is a process which yields broad-based benefits and ensures
equality of opportunity for all. It is therefore synonymous with `growth with
equity', which is the watchword of development planning in India. The essence
of financial inclusion lies in ensuring that a range of appropriate
financial products and services are available to all and building their capabilities
to understand and access those services.
Financial inclusion is defined as "the process of ensuring access to
appropriate financial products and services needed by vulnerable
groups such as weaker sections and low income groups at an affordable cost in
a fair and transparent manner by mainstream institutional players."
Financial inclusion, therefore, includes fair access to financial products and
services. However, if we look at some of the statistics in this regard, we
find that the extent of financial inclusion in India is relatively in nascent
stage and a vast majority of population lacks access to various financial
services. A lot of effort is still required in this direction to achieve our
objective of `inclusive' growth.
While financial inclusion in the narrow sense may be achieved to
some extent by offering any or some of these services, the objective of
`Comprehensive Financial Inclusion' would be to ensure making available an
appropriate and fair set of services encompassing all of the above. The first thing
is of course opening of `check-in' account or no-frills account. The next stage
is providing immediate credit. The poor want accessibility to
immediate credit. Data from various studies show that 80% of the credit
requirements of the poor are not for business or entrepreneurship, but for life
needs like meeting a financial emergency, sudden illness, etc. The Reserve
Bank guidelines have facilitated the opening of `no-frills' account with
ready-made overdraft facilities, but the moot question is how many
banks have opened a no-frills account with this
facility. |
