Karthik Madhavan
In providing total financial inclusion
Panchayat presidents carry out awareness campaign
Aim is to provide banking service to all village people
BHAVANI: Canara Bank’s Sakthi Nagar branch has perhaps the distinction of becoming the first bank in the district to achieve cent per cent success in the total financial inclusion (TFI) programme.
The aim of TFI is to bring all families in a branch’s service area under the banking system. Bank branches are supposed to reach out to villagers, help them open accounts, and, in opening the account, tell the customers that they can start with zero balance.
Sakthi Nagar branch, which has six villagers in its service area, has within a short time all families as its customers.
“Every family is an account holder in our branch, and in some families we have more than one person as customer,” says Senior Manager K. Govardhanan.
Accounts
The branch has 3,105 accounts under the TFI programme. Mr. Govardhanan says on July 19, the Manager, Agri Cell, K. Rohan Raj, and he spoke to the panchayat presidents and members of Appakoodal, Keezhvani, Moongilpatti, Koothampoondi, Oricheri Pudur and Punnam about the programme and need for having it in their villages.
The next day, the panchayat presidents carried out the awareness campaign by canvassing door-to-door, using audio cassettes and other methods.
On July 21, when the manager and Agri Cell manager went to Oricheri Pudur, there was not a single resident who remained indoors.
Recalling the incident, Mr. Govardhanan says, “The serpentine queue in front of us at the village gave the impression as though the villagers had gathered there to watch a new movie on the day of its release.”
At the end of the nine-hour camp, the Sakthi Nagar branch had 670 accounts, and some customers had deposited money as well.
Oricheri Pudur Panchayat president S. Thangamani says even 80-year-old Karuvayee wanted to open a bank account, as well as college students who wanted education loans.
At Punnam, the first day saw an equally impressive response with 520 persons opening accounts.
Village Assistant K. Shanmugam attributes the good turnout to the awareness campaign. “Earlier, people were under the impression that banks were elitist and that the poor like them had nothing to do with them. The awareness camp in the village and account opening right at the village has helped remove such a misconception.”
Given the overwhelming response in all the six villages, Canara Bank’s Sakthi Nagar branch with its 3,000-plus accounts has also achieved the TFI target well ahead of the deadline of August 15. Lead Bank Manager, J. Vanangamudi says the branch is as an example and the way it achieved the target is to be shared with other branches.
