Empowering Rural People through financial Inclusion and financial Counselling

Resumen o Introducción

Global economy is marching towards an objective of inclusivity, integrity and sustainable development across the countries. The economic and political experts restate that achieving inclusivity and integrity at multilevel socio-economic activities is the ultimate goal to impart sustainability in the global society. The term ‘inclusion’ has become a buzz word across the world especially in the context of finance and society.

The United Nations (UN) and its affiliated organisations are radically working at a continuous pace to extend financial inclusion and social inclusion specifically among the developing and underdeveloped economies. The United Nations’ Third International Conference on Financing for Development discussed and documented that the access to financial services is the key for social inclusion and capacity building of people. Numerous empirical researches have significantly proved that the financial inclusion has a positive impact towards the empowerment of the poor and the needy from economically backward societies. In the Global context, several international bodies such as the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) which is popularly known as ‘the World Bank (WB)’, the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF), the United Nations Secretary-General’s Special Advocate for Inclusive Finance for Development (UNSGSA) and the Consultative Group to Assist the Poor (CGAP) are tirelessly contributing through their prescribed guidelines and strategic framework to enhance financial inclusion at a global level.

By far, there has been consistent number of research works carried out by these global bodies to resolve the problems of financial inclusion and notable efforts taken to empower the people of developing and underdeveloped countries particularly those living in the rural topography. Simultaneously, the Global summits and forums on financial inclusion are incessantly conducted across the world to discuss the problems and prospects of inclusive financing. Therefore, the present research is to identify the problems of people regarding inclusive financing and to suggest measures for the further empowerment of rural population of India.