“Inculcate financial literacy concepts among the various sections of the population through financial education to make it an important life skill” - National Strategy for Financial Education: 2020-2025”
The above statement is taken from the report named “National Strategy for Financial Education: 2020-2025” published by the Reserve Bank of India. The statement clearly establishes the need for financial education as a stepping stone for an empowered society that can efficiently contribute to the economic growth of the country. A financially empowered society is one that has easy access to financial products and services along with good knowledge of how to utilize these services responsibly for individual financial growth.
Assam has always been an agrarian society with the majority of people engaged in agriculture and allied activities. However, issues like fragmented landholding, illiteracy, remoteness of villages and ignorance have been major obstacles to achieving financial inclusiveness in society. There is an acute need for awareness among the masses regarding the core banking services and products such as savings, loans, pensions, insurance and payments.
Understanding this need the Assam Agribusiness and Rural Transformation Project (APART) on 10th January 2023 launched Krisarthak – an assignment on financial education and counselling (FEC) of the farmers with an aim to enhance the financial inclusion of the farm community and encourage responsible use of financial services and products by them.
The event began with a lamp lighting ceremony and an overview of Krisarthak delivered by Dr Syed.S.Kazi the team leader for the assignment. Krisarthakis specifically designed to deliver digital financial education and counselling to the farmers of the Farmer Producer Company, who are also APART beneficiaries.
The inauguration of Krisarthak took place in the presence of Ajai Nair, Sr. Financial Sector Specialist, World Bank and ShriAkash Deep, IAS, SPD, ARIAS Society. Nair, in his address to the gathering, highlighted that Krisarthak will be one of the most unique digital-based financial literacy programs in India as it will strive to provide financial education and counselling using digital tools and platforms. This in turn will also create digital literacy among farmers and help them access digital banking facilities with more confidence.
Along with education, Krisarthak will bring the financial advisory service to the doorstep of every farmer, using digital means. This personalised advisory service will help farmers plan, manage and invest money to optimise their financial growth. The program will also incorporate Farmer’s Financial Health Survey and generate Financial Health cards for households.
Akash Deep, IAS, SPD, ARIAS Society, while speaking about the assignment added “Krisarthak will be one of the biggest digital financial literacy drives to be launched in Assam. Further, it will engage over two lakh fifty thousand farmers in just a period of two years. This massive reach will be diligently tracked through Information Communication Technology (ICT) tools for making sure that the program bears results and gets translated into growth in demand and uptake for financial products and services from the farm community”.
This assignment will be implemented by a consortium of partners namely the New Delhi-based Digital Empowerment Foundation (DEF) along with the Fair Climate Fund (FCF), the Indian Institute of Bank Management (IIBM) and the Council for Social and digital development (CSDD).
The pilot phase of Krisarthak will be implemented from January to March 2023 where the ICT tools will be tested among 5000 Farmers in 5 districts of Assam. The final rollout is slated for May 2023.
The event came to an end with a vote of thanks delivered by Nitin Singh, Financial Services Specialist, APART. While thanking the dignitaries present at the function he mentioned that “Krisarthak will offer 360-degree support to farmers and reach out the last mile targets using integrated ICT tools. The self-paced e-learning module on financial products and services will be made easily available to the farmers in the local language through a chatbot platform called BittiyaSakhi.”
Krisarthak will not only monitor the progress of a farmer’s financial awareness but also intervene through the call centre, SMS campaigns and local resource person to reinforce good financial behaviour in the society. In the long run, Krisarthak aims to build a community where every individual is able to participate in the Nation's financial system and contribute to its economic growth.