Serious disability in financial inclusion drive

Three years ago, from ramparts of the Red Fort Prime Minister Modi had spoken about financial inclusion which has since then successfully made a paradigm shift in banking penetration. Now, after opening new banking accounts for most households, we must move to the next stage where benefits should reach the silent majority of those individuals with disability.

India, a signatory of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in effect from May 2008, has an obligation to comply to the convention which promotes, defends and reinforces human rights of the disabled.

As the 10th year of compliance to one of the most comprehensive human right treaty of the 21st century approaches, India needs to take a look at its efforts for the disabled.

Consequent to the Prime Minister’s Jan Dhan Yojana, nearly 99.9 per cent of households now have a bank account. A bank account implies availability of financial resources, for livelihood purposes, at reasonable rates without being at the mercy of greedy money lenders charging exorbitant interest rates.

India, though unrecognised, has been a pioneer in financial inclusion starting with nationalisation of commercial banks in 1955, 1969 and 1980, and undertaking various initiatives such as priority sector lending and encouraging microfinance institutions for higher banking penetration.

However, factors such as lack of awareness, poverty, low income, illiteracy, unemployment and inadequate branch network continue to restrict financial inclusion of certain sections of society, especially the disabled.

First, and most importantly, disability refers to an individual who lacks abilities to perform an activity in the manner or within the range considered normal for a human being. These mainly comprise blindness, low vision, hearing impairment, locomotor disability, mental challenges and mental illness. The country has, by extremely conservative estimates, about 2.7 crore people categorised as persons with disability (PwD).

Census 2011 shows that nearly 69 percent of PwDs stay in rural areas and only one-third of this disabled population are working, out of which 31 per cent are in agriculture. Those with locomotor disability accounted for largest share of 20 per cent amongst the disabled followed by those with visual and hearing disability.

In fact, though not included, a large number of 11 crore elderly also struggle with similar disabilities impacting their banking activities. Therefore, in view of the diversity in the issues faced as well as types of disabilities, necessitate a need for multi-spectral approach to ensure financial inclusion of PwDs.

To address the issue of financial inclusion of the disabled, global practices vary. International guidelines for web accessibility is followed by countries such as Australia, New Zealand and the US. It ensures multiple formats of information like audio, braille documents and larger font size, and images with text description.

Tactile keypads, optimised ATM locations, ramp facilities, larger screens, audio output, low tables, specialised privacy standards during banking operation are features ensured in Australia, Sweden and the US.

The incidence of disability implies cost, both direct and indirect, to the individual and the respective family. These costs range from health, rehabilitation, education, training, employment, insurance, transport to assistive equipment.

As in advanced countries, the Government needs to consider providing financial assistance and assistive equipment to PwDs and their families to enhance probability of livelihood or directly provide jobs to PwDs. The Government, given its mandate, could also consider incentivising private sector to encourage recruitment of PwDs.

In 1977, nominal reservation of 1 per cent for specific disabilities in government jobs was introduced and extended in 1995 to 3 per cent. However, the Government and public sector institutions have achieved limited success.

Several studies show that on an average, PwDs account for nearly 0.5 per cent of total workforce in the organised sector. ILO claimed that 73.6 per cent of PwDs in India are still outside the workforce.

To tap the potential of demographic dividend, it is imperative to equip and enable the youth amongst PwDs to be at par with the rest of the cohort.

Entrepreneurial ventures is one of the means for the disabled to be financially independent, free from discriminatory and sometimes stringent requirements of mainstream employment. But unfortunately, PwDs face multiple societal hurdles.

Majority of the financial services including banks do not take a benign approach in providing financial support to the disabled. The RBI guidelines to banks to provide cheque books, ATM and locker facilities to the visually challenged, ramp facilities and tactile keypad at ATMs and to not deny services on grounds of possible risk in operation of banking facilities has, unfortunately, not borne encouraging results.

There is also an issue in terms of identifying the magnitude of disability leading to preconceived notions on capacity of the individual. Hence, cultural brokering can be an effective means of training the service providers, including banks and sensitising the general population of special needs of PwDs so as to bridge the cultural gap.

In an emerging economy like ours, it is very important that government and welfare-oriented institutions play an important role and share the responsibility of providing the disabled a dignified life. It also makes economic sense, as according to World Bank, ensuring employment to the disabled can help in enhancing economic growth.

The writer is professor of economics and social science at IIM-Bangalore. With inputs from Rinusha Rajan

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