The Hindu Business Line : Rewarding points

The world celebrates International Literacy tomorrow (September 8). In India, which is pegged as one of the fastest growing economies, two out of every five Indians can neither read nor write. The 2001 census recorded 65.38 per cent literacy, way below the UNESCO assigned threshold of 75 per cent.

While the Government and many corporates and NGOs are lending support towards improving this scenario, Centurion Bank of Punjab (CBoP) has introduced a credit card that aims to support the cause of first-generation learners.

Launched in association with the Art of Living Foundation (AOL), CBoP’s ‘Miracle’ credit card will allow the bank to debit Rs 50 on every new card subscription and add a matching contribution of Rs 50 towards AOL’s ‘Gift a Smile’ programme, which aims to make rural poor children first-time literates. The contributions will go to the Ved Vignan Maha Vidya Peeth near Bangalore established under the aegis of AOL’s Sri Sri Ravi Shankar.

“We hit upon an unconventional idea of making a product like a credit card act as a facilitator for a noble cause. People just subscribe and use this like a normal credit card and get to gift a smile to some underprivileged child without any extra effort,” says Vivek Vig, Country Head, Retail, Centurion Bank of Punjab.

The ‘miracle’ happens when a proposed 5 lakh likeminded people willing to ‘give back to society’ subscribe to this card and each of their ‘tiny’ contribution goes towards generating Rs 5 crore — enough to sponsor 3,500 children for one year.

CBoP estimates that each child requires about Rs 10,000 per year for books, uniform, food and refreshments. The remaining amount is used for school infrastructure and administration.

The initiative does not stop with the subscription. Each time the card is swiped, it continues to make a difference. Unlike reward points, ‘Miracle’ subscribers accumulate Seva Points and the monetary value gets added to the programme.

As Vig explains, “In India, people normally don’t have a habit of redeeming reward points (these points expire and add back to the bank’s bottomline) and for people who do redeem the value is very miniscule. We have created a programme wherein 100 per cent of the reward points are contributed to this programme.” So far the results have been encouraging. Within nine months of launch, CBoP’s Miracle credit card has garnered over one-lakh members and the bank has contributed Rs 1 crore. By this count, 1,000 kids have been introduced to formal school education for the first time in their lives.

“We are not aiming to solve India’s illiteracy problem but we believe that through this initiative, a difference can be surely made,” says Vig.

A small step for CBoP, but a giant empowering leap for the children whose lives it has touched.

Article E-Mail :: Comment :: Syndication :: Printer Friendly Page

Stories in this Section
Railway mutton and vindaloo

Inconvenient truth

Business meets at strip clubs! Business meets at strip clubs!

Rewarding points

Strength in numbers

An evening in Mumbai