Finance ministry collecting data to assess extent of financial exclusion in West Bengal, Bihar and northeast

KOLKATA: The finance ministry is collecting data based on socioeconomic and banking parameters from West Bengal, Bihar and the north-eastern states to assess the extent of financial exclusion in this region, two senior bank executives said.
The survey is being carried out five years into the introduction of the government’s flagship financial inclusion scheme, Prime Minister Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY).

This is expected to be followed up by a ministry-level meeting in the Northeast in March where the top brass of Indian banking would also congregate. It would also review the progress in banking and digital penetration in the region's tea belt, the executives said.

“This exercise is to understand how banks can participate in economic development in the region. Review of financial inclusion schemes, therefore, becomes important,” one of them said.

The Economic Survey 2019-2020 has underscored the need for higher financial inclusion to address the highly skewed distribution of farm credit delivery in these states.

Data collection from banks is a regular affair for the ministry, but what makes this drive different is its focus on the eastern and north-eastern states.

The number of un-banked areas is high in the tea gardens of the region. These areas don’t also have much access to the cashless mode of payment.

Tea plantation, which is one of the major activities in this region, has long been suffering from ailments due to reasons ranging from poor agricultural practices to climate changes.

Financial inclusion has taken a long stride since 2014 when the Narendra Modi government changed the focus to opening a bank account for every household from opening branches in villages. The focus now has shifted to opening accounts for every adult person.

As on February 12, there were 38 crore accounts under the PMJDY scheme with deposits of Rs 1.15 lakh crore.

Of these accounts, about 60% are in rural and semi-urban areas. In a report last year, the Reserve Bank of India said the usage of these accounts had stagnated in the previous two years as evident from a deceleration in average balances.