Postmen Will Now Teach Banking In Villages, An Effort To Change The Face Of Rural India

There is just one bank in my village. It is a government bank where people stand in queue for hours just for simple tasks like withdrawing money or depositing money. During festivals, the bank had a mini fair inside it with people of all ages and other nearby villages gathered to get their money for the celebrations. Their idea of saving is often giving the money to someone they trust for safe keeping and/or buying cattle or lands.

When the first ATM opened a few years back, the whole village had gathered to see the magical machine that spit out money in exchange of a card. They have Kisan credit cards and loans on their head to buy a tractor, but not many know how to use it or the interest policy of banks. Many rely on their kids studying/living in more developed cities for such financial queries.

However, now the government of India has come up with an innovative solution for this.

 

Post offices in India that have mostly become defunct with the advent of smarter banking technology are now going to employ postmen to give lessons on banking services across villages in India.

 

These postmen will be taught and given lessons that they can give to people in different villages. Weekly classes will be organised with the help of village administrations and the lessons will be given on the same. The government has launched many short term and long term investment plan for people, these plans will be explained to the public.

Post office (banking and HRD) member, MS Ramanujan told media that Post offices will now be changed into financial literacy hubs. The PO employees will be selected for the training and after a thorough training program they will be teaching the public about financial services and state sponsored financial inclusion schemes.

 

“The initial plan is to leverage complete Post Office network for these services to reach remote areas as well. The bank will pay a pre-decided fees the PO of India for these services,” he added.

Currently, many accounts are opened in the rural areas of India under various government services, however, lack of knowledge about banking services and financial literacy has led to inactivity in these accounts. There are no transactions done and most accounts are just for the name sake.

Therefore, an initiative like this might benefit the unfunded people in generating funds for themselves. All we need is a robust management and structure in place to ensure this plan rolls out successfully.

And then let’s see if the beloved postman in villages now becomes their beloved financial adviser too.

News Source: Navbharat Times

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