Impact of Demographic Factors on Financial Inclusion in Pondicherry Union Territory

Abstract

Financially excluded people are those who do not have any access to the banking services. Financially exclusion can be a broad concept related to a lack of access to a range of financial services or a narrow concept reflecting particular circumstances such as geographical exclusion, exclusion on the grounds that charges and prices are prohibitively high, or exclusion from marketing efforts. The case firm (Indian Bank) wanted to increase the usage of financial facilities under financial inclusion by large number of socially disadvantage people. The entire Pondicherry region was selected for the study as the Indian Bank is the lead bank in that region and 3 per cent of the sample respondents were aware of banking services, followed by 15 per cent of respondents feel that there was improvement in savings and financial management ability.60 per cent of sample respondents responded that their income level had increased to the extent of 500 rupees, followed by 38 per cent of respondents responded that their income level has increased to the range of Rs.500 and Rs.1000 rupees and merely two per cent said their income rose above rupees 1000. Even though all the respondents possessed the no-frill account, it was found that majority were not utilizing it effectively. 60 per cent of sample respondents feel that lack of knowledge as a constraint, followed by 21 per cent and 17 per cent feel that taking insurance through insurance firm was easier and there is no sufficient service from banks as insurance firms respectively. Content of service provided got the maximum score and ranked as first, followed by procedure of availing credit which was ranked second and Other factors were ranked by the respondents in the following order, rate of interest, timeliness of credit availability, treatment of respondents by bank officials and sufficiency of credit.