MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: India’s Jharkhand State Livelihood Promotion Society (JSLPS), MicroSave Launch Financial Education Pilot Program for Self-Help Groups (SHGs)

The Jharkhand State Livelihood Promotion Society (JSLPS), a program of the local government’s Rural Development Department, and MicroSave, a financial inclusion consulting firm headquartered in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, recently launched a financial education pilot program in the Bero, Khuntipani and Manoharpur blocks of the eastern Indian state of Jharkhand. The program spans four modules – financial planning, savings accounts, credit, and pension and insurance products – in an attempt to further India’s national financial inclusion plan, Pradhaan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana, which was initiated in 2014. The curriculum also includes education in household financial management.

Building on existing participation in self-help groups (SHGs) established under the National Rural Livelihoods Mission (NRLM), JSPLS and MicroSave will incorporate four weeks of the financial education into ongoing meetings of the SHGs. SHGs are groups of roughly a dozen or two individuals that work together to borrow and save. To scale up the program, MicroSave has added the content to its ePaathshala portal, an online “library of financial literacy digital assets,” and is training a corps of “master trainers” to disseminate the information in person. Additionally, SHG members will be able to call in to the program’s integrated voice response system to seek further information. The goal of the program, which its organizers also plan to roll out in other districts in Jharkhand, is to encourage SHGs to utilize formal financial products, especially credit products, available under NRLM’s Community Investment Support Fund (CIF) for “collective socio-economic activities”.

Before launching the training, JSLPS collected data in the pilot communities on members’ “knowledge, perception, and usage of formal financial products” against which to compare the data they plan to collect at the end of the pilot.

By Michelle Dold, Research Associate

About Jharkhand State Livelihood Promotion Society (JSLPS)

The Jharkhand State Livelihood Promotion Society (JSLPS) was created in 2009 by the Rural Development Department of the government of the Indian state of Jharkhand. Its goal is to alleviate poverty by facilitating income-generating opportunities for community members, especially the most impoverished, and by creating an infrastructure of social and technical service delivery to the poor.

About MicroSave

MicroSave is a for-profit consulting company based in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh that serves financial institutions, telecommunications companies and other organizations that focus on serving mass markets or lower-income segments. It works with investors, regulators, financial institutions, private foundations and other organizations with the goal of enabling them to deliver affordable financial services that encourage sustainable and inclusive growth. MicroSave also assists in strategy development and governance, product and channel innovation, organisational strengthening and risk management, investment and donor services, research, training, and dissemination. MicroSave has implemented projects in 45 countries across Africa, Asia and Latin America.

Sources and Additional Information:

[1] MicroSave.net: “JSLPS (Under State Government Of Jharkhand) Applauds MicroSave’s Contribution In Financial Education.”, http://www.microsave.net/announcement#jslps_under_state_government_of_jharkhand_applauds_microsave_s_contribution_in_financial_education

[2] Press Information Bureau, Government of India: “Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY),Launched by the Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi on 28th August, 2014, Celebrates its First Anniversary.”, http://pib.nic.in/newsite/PrintRelease.aspx?relid=126439

[3] Jharkhand State Livelihood Promotion Society (JSLPS): “Annual Report 2013-2014.”, http://www.jslps.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/Annual-Report-2013-14.pdf

[4] Deen Dayal Antyodaya Yojana – NRLM: http://aajeevika.gov.in/content/faq

[5] MicroCapital Universe Profile: Jharkhand State Livelihood Promotion Society (JSLPS)

[6] MicroCapital Universe Profile: MicroSave

[7] MicroSave: “ePaathshala.”, http://financialeducation.microsave.net/ePaathshala.html

Do you know that MicroCapital publishes the MicroCapital Monitor newspaper each month? Find out more at https://www.microcapital.org/products-page/

Similar Posts: