We crib about the government day in and day after. We talk of the flaws of the Aadhar card and how the government has messed up the scheme and spent crores of money on a system which may not work. We talk of the flaws of the government’s recent cash transfer scheme where subsidies to the poor are being directly transferred to their bank accounts via the aadhar card. This is to stop the leakages of subsidies that existed in the system for years and did not reach the intended ones. But it helps to look at the positive side of things. As I was doing a documentary on an Indian nationalised bank, I realised that a lot of churn and change is happening in the rural districts and amongst the rural and urban poor.
Visiting this very small bank at Mahabalipuram in Tamil Nadu, I was amazed to see the crowd in the bank. There are close to 300 people at any given point of time. All these are the rural folk, many who don’t know how to read and write, coming with hands holding bank passbooks. They need to seek help from the bank to understand what is written in the passbook and to fill cash and cheque requests. These people have never before known what a bank meant. Today, the money they earn through the MNREGA scheme of the government is directly transferred into their accounts. We all talk of Financial Inclusion but it helps to go to the ground level and see what impact it really has.
For me it is akin to the mobile revolution. The mobile in the hand of practically every Indian spurred, not just a talking revolution, but an empowerment of a different kind. Seeing the maids, the vegetable vendor, the rickshaw and taxi drivers, the newspaperman and even the flower lady with a mere Rs 10 business with me connecting on mobile, was a real cheerful sight to watch. To me, it was a similar feeling now, seeing all of these people with a passbook in hand. It is an empowerment that is not visible or can be measured. It is an upliftment of a kind that actually does not have to do with money. They may hardly have money in their accounts but it is one big positive step in their lives. It is development in every sense of the word.
The banks have an immense task at their hand. They need to quickly add huge numbers to their staff to tackle the sudden rush at the banks. So there is employment too. They are employing bank correspondents in huge numbers. And who are these bank correspondents. This bank correspondent I met sits with his wife at his shop of goodies at a small region called Basant Nagar in Chennai. He is the one who distributes and collects back the money given to the fisher folk of that area through his hand held machine given to him by the bank. Handling a daily item store, guess he knows basic accounts! He gets paid Rs 3,000 per month. That’s not only additional income for him but look at him... he is the king of that area!
Nationalised banks are the lead banks for districts allocated to them... that is they are in charge of those districts. They have regional rural branches under them. They not only handle financial transactions but conduct rural training courses and are also helping rural artisans and such others in keeping their art alive. Imagine I am here just talking of one bank. Collectively all banks are surely doing a lot on ground.
There are the negatives that people talk of. Money directly transferred may be misused by the man of the house to engage in bad vices. But let us for now look at the positive side of the story. I visited Tamil Nadu and Tamil Nadu is said to have 100% financial inclusion. Perhaps that is why I see so much action. Hope other states too follow.
But one thing always troubles me. When banks and the government are working hard to elevate poverty in the rural areas, why must I still see young smiling, smart children in Mumbai begging for money.