Financial Literacy- Raju

Meet Raju, your new financial literacy teacher

Sandeep Singh
Posted online: Wednesday, August 22, 2007

RBI, NSE launch novel method to increase financial inclusion, devise comic character to explain difficult banking and stock market concepts

If Raj brought India to Archies, Raju is taking banking to consumers. Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and National Stock Exchange (NSE) have launched an innovative mode of propagating financial literacy by adopting comics as a means to educate people in a simplified manner on banks, their services and the understanding of stock markets. This is a step ahead by the banking regulator and the leading stock exchange of the country to make people aware and include them in the growth of the country. The poor level of financial literacy has been a growing cause of concern all across and this step to educate people is an important step forward.

RBI feels that though there are 70,000 bank branches across the country and though India has grown significantly over the past few years, financial inclusion has lagged. This is mainly because of people having wrong notions about a bank or not having the proper knowledge of its functioning. RBI thinks that people are not properly aware of the banking facilities and the services it can offer them like savings, loans and credit cards.
The central bank plans to use comics to carry financial education at various levels to specific categories of people. It has launched its first book on basic banking, Raju and The Money Tree. Four more are in the pipeline — two on basic banking (one each for rural and urban households), one on currency (its use and security), and one on the RBI as a monetary authority. Apart from Hindi and English, these books will be published in the vernacular languages. The first book has been framed in so simple and understandable a manner that even a 10 year-old-child would be able to understand the concepts. It has good caricatures that make the reading more interesting. All facets of the basic financial procedure have been weaved in very neatly in story format, which tries to teach the importance of banks in channelising money through the prism of its main character, Raju. It is explained that banks can be used as a channel to keep money safe and to earn interests. The book makes an effort to enlighten the reader on the basic needs that a bank can serve for an individual.
Other than disseminating financial education through the medium of comics, RBI is also working on the course content for making financial education a part of the school curriculum. RBI expects to complete the course in a year, after which it will approach NCERT to include it as part of the regular course curriculum. The book released by NSE tries to explain what an index is, what it signifies, how it moves and what factors are responsible for its movement. But before RBI’s Raju — who needs a serious upgrade in terms of visual and verbal complexity — NSE’s endeavour falls flat. It barely manages to cut-paste complex concepts from the medium of books to the medium of comics. It doesn’t grip, doesn’t tell a tale. The planning has been done, the books are out and now lies the most critical part — dissemination to people who actually need it and for whom it has been planned. RBI has decided to use channels like state government offices, village panchayats and schools.
What tomes on finance couldn’t and cannot communicate, perhaps Raju will.

http://www.indianexpress.com/story/211865.html