RBI adopts village in Karur to strengthen financial literacy

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has adopted a remote village lacking in financial literacy to implement its outreach programme in the district. Elavanur village in K. Paramathi block is set to reap the benefits of personnel banking directly under the guidance of the RBI. The village is one among the four in Tamil Nadu and Puducherry selected in the current year. At a meeting at the village on Saturday, RBI Deputy General Manager S. Selva Raj spoke on the salient features of the programme and exhorted the people to join the banking mainstream. He told them that in future all government welfare measures and benefits would be routed through bank accounts of the beneficiaries. Mr. Selva Raj said the RBI has identified one village in each district to implement the programme under which the financial literacy level would be bolstered.  The habit of banking by helping them open no frills account, and bringing all households under the banking umbrella, would be imbibed into the masses. The objective is to ensure inclusive and equitable growth of the selected village, and the development noticed in the model village be replicated in other villages with the active participation of the villagers, administration and banks operating in the area. On financial inclusion scheme, Mr. Selva Raj said the poor need not be bullied by the cumbersome process of banking and by opening no frills account they need not maintain any minimum balance. Eligible people in Elavanur village could get bank credit support based on their income. Lead District Manager K. Chandrasekaran said the RBI adopted Elavanur village in consultation with the lead bank.  The success of the programme depended on the involvement of the people and there was a possibility that eligible artisans, farmers, students and entrepreneurs of the village would get bank credit support through better financial literacy. RBI Assistant General Manager Natarajan said frequent meetings would be conducted in the village to improve the people's exposure to banking activities. He gave a demonstration on identifying counterfeit currency. A quiz programme was organised on banking activities and prizes were distributed to the winners. Ramasamy, Manager, Lakshmi Vilas Bank, Chinnadarpuram; and RBI AGMs Ganesan, V.L. Satheesh Kumar and Manoj Kumar spoke.

HBL