There is a desire in India that the country should soon become a “cashless economy”. It is important that researchers in the fields of banking, commerce, management, ethnography, design, computer science should look into the problems that need to be addressed in taking banking to the poor and the illiterate.
The following questions are worth studying in this context:
What are the skills and knowledge required to operate a bank account, to use a debit card, and to use an ATM? Can any literate person manage these tasks? What level of literacy does one require? Can we do surveys to find out if people with low levels of education have (or do not have) useful access to banking? What are the practices for issuing cheque-books, debit cards etc.? Have any studies answering questions like these? Where have they been published?
Some of the relevant issues have been discussed in the blog post referred below.
http://newstudentresearch.blogspot.in/2016/11/research-related-to-financial-inclusion.html
Providing banking services to illiterates and poor people leads to greater financial inclusion in the country which is also a major global development goal of the World bank and IMF.
Literate and illiterate, rich or poor, are both participating in the economic and financial system today, and they will participate in the cashless society if they were introduced to the financial service system. The deregulation, communication technology, and growth in private banking, is the key for creating a cashless society.
Thanks.
WITH FLOWCHART system that shows the processes for carrying out the stages of each operation will really educate the illiterates to operate like the literates. It is never a problem or difficult task to accomplish. This has been adopted and tried in Nigeria and it is working fine. Thanks.
India has comparative advantage in terms financial inclusion as compare to other developing countries. Majority of states still communicate in local languages which is understood by many if not all. Although most people may not be able to read or write in the local language i believe they understand when is read or spoken to them. Hence the banking technologies should look at situation where the ATM will be giving instructions in local voices not written instructions. This can allow majority of the illiterate who may not be able to read or write in English or local language benefit from the cashless transactions.
Vincent Konadu has hit the nail on the head! Indian Readership Survey (link below, see TOP PUBLICATIONS) shows that, on the basis of their 2014 survey, there are 89.7 million readers of Hindi, Malayalam and Tamil newspapers if we consider only the top ten newspapers - in terms of their readership. In comparison the only English newspaper in this list of ten is in the eighth place, and has only 7.6 million readers. Considering that the population has over 600 million people above 18 years of age, 85% do not read newspapers. So, having the ATM communicate by voice in a local language makes very good sense.
I guess Mr. Srinivasan Ramani is talking about digitizing all of India through Internet Banking, well it has been a success at Akodara, Gujarat which is first digital village of India. There are two types of money, Power Money (Current notes) which is not traceable and other one is Transaction money (Which is present in your banks) which can be traced. If highest denomination of money kept is INR 100, and Government imposes Bank Transaction tax of 2% for bank transfer or internet banking and 4% for cash withdrawals, i.e. encouraging internet banking. I think Mr. Ramani problem you want to address may be solved by this method. Poor won't need Internet banking for their daily routines and rich would have to disclose all of their assets to be able to enjoy their wealth.......
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