Cumulative Mein Pragati impact footprint (till December, 2022)

Mein Pragati, CRISIL Foundation’s flagship programme for strengthening the financial capability of disadvantaged communities, began with a focus on empowering women in the rural areas of Assam, a state traditionally excluded, mired by multiple socio-economic and geo-political issues affecting the community at large

The objective is to help marginalised rural women gain greater control on their finances, create awareness about the fundamentals of personal finance and empower them to take independent and informed financial decisions. With government initiatives ̶ including the Jan Dhan mission, payment banks and small banks ̶ to strengthen the supply of financial services, the need of the hour is a matching effort to boost demand.

The need for strong grassroots support cannot be stressed enough, for sustainable programme impact. Ergo, CRISIL Foundation focuses on continual capacity building for CRISIL Mitras, field staff, and village volunteers.

Mein Pragati is being implemented in six districts of Assam, namely, Barpeta, Nalbari, Darrang, Kamrup, Morigaon, and Goalpara.

An independent impact assessment by KPMG’s Social Sector Practice of Mein Pragati in Assam indicated:

• Increased awareness of deposits, general insurance, cattle insurance, pension, and money transfers
• Increased SHG savings
• Reduced expenses on non-essentials
• Increased self-confidence to make financial decisions for the household along with the head of family (vis-à-vis complete lack of awareness before Mein Pragati)
• Pursuing income generating activities such as pickle making, tailoring after saving and monitoring expenditure with the Mein Pragati budget diary

Reaching out to small and marginal farmers in Maharashtra: Our programme for farmers’ financial inclusion focuses on: (a) Easing financial distress (b) Preparing them to deal knowledgeably with liquidity shocks (c) Having a greater sense of control over their finances through effective cash-flow management during a crop cycle...

The objective is to help farmers correctly estimate the cash-flow requirement through the crop cycle and plan well, increase awareness of and facilitate financial linkages such as crop loans, Kisan Credit Card, loans related to agriculture and agrobased activities, and government-run schemes.

Reaching out to urban women in Maharashtra: Our urban financial literacy programme focuses on disadvantaged women from communities in Mumbai. We conducted extensive field visits and preliminary research within pockets categorised as economically weaker sections in Mumbai.

With insights into informal structures within the social fabric, we adapted our existing facilitation modules to help participants assess risks related to sources of debt (especially those traditionally considered reliable) and investments, understand the power of compounding and monthly saving deposits, and emphasise timely premium payments. After extensive pre-testing, CRISIL Foundation developed a participatory training toolkit, and trained Master Trainers from among marginalised communities.

Centre for Financial Literacy (CFL)

The RBI commissioned a pilot on financial literacy at the block level through CFLs. The central bank has assigned CRISIL Foundation 20 Blocks in Haryana and Maharashtra, in collaboration with sponsor banks. We will set up a total of 10 centres in each state to strengthen the financial capabilities of socially and economically underprivileged communities within the given intervention Block. The project will focus on women, small and marginal farmers, youth and small scale enterprises.

CFL has a three-year intervention period, with a goal to bring about sustained financial awareness, and create positive financial behaviour at the block level.

The pilot project will focus on the following to increase knowledge and awareness in communities:

• Active saving and good borrowing
• Financial planning and goal setting
• Digital financial awareness, and
• Consumer protection

Over three years, CFLs will:

• Increase awareness about banking products and services
• Increase uptake of banking products and services such as deposits
• Increase formal credit and insurance and positive financial behavior change
• Improve credit behavior
• Disseminate knowledge about rights and grievance mechanisms
• Enable a trained resource pool at the community level to promote awareness and facilitate banking services

Key achievements (till date)

• More than 160,000 community members directly reached during training and awareness camps
  
• Over 30,000 linkages to formal financial products and services facilitated in both states, indicating latent demand for formal banking products, services and other financial institutions at the block level