CRISIL Foundation aims to create a trained, all-women cadre at the grassroots level from the community that can build financial literacy and inclusion at the village level.
CRISIL Foundation, the corporate social responsibility (CSR) arm of CRISIL Ltd, certified over 500 women grassroots-trainers as ‘GramShakti Sakhis’ at a convocation organised at the North-Eastern Development Finance Corporation Ltd premises in Guwahati on Thursday, November 3, 2022.
Selected from local communities in Assam and trained by CRISIL Foundation, the GramShakti Sakhis are equipped to support their communities by enabling last-mile access and usage of formal banking and financial services. They will provide a basket of services, including documentation and linkages support for banking, financial products, and government entitlements at the doorstep of people.
Says Amish Mehta, Managing Director & CEO, CRISIL, “We are deeply committed to the society and to empowering people to make informed financial choices. CRISIL Foundation’s flagship programme, Mein Pragati, has reached over 7 lakh rural community members in 14 districts. In years to come, we intend to scale up our social impact in Assam and the north-east, with support from all stakeholders and our on ground partners.”
The Sakhis go through a unique training-cum-certification programme called GramShakti, which can be accessed on a smartphone app. Their 30-hour digital learning programme comprises 12 modules that cover the complete scope of financial inclusion and literacy aspects such as financial planning, savings, investments, loans, insurance, pension, digital finance, and self-sustained livelihoods.
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The programme includes practical assignments to ensure participants can apply their theoretical knowledge to typically challenging real-life scenarios in hinterland such as making a PAN card application, opening a pension account, and counselling households on the importance of insurance.
Through GramShakti, CRISIL Foundation aims to create a trained, all-women cadre at the grassroots level from the community that can build financial literacy and inclusion at the village level. This will not only change the community’s knowledge, attitude and behaviour, but also provide doorsteps service delivery to the unbanked and underserved communities.
Says Maya Vengurlekar, Chief Operating Officer, CRISIL Foundation, “The community cadre has emerged as a powerful model of convergence ─ the Sakhis are the primary point of contact for linkages to financial products and services, as well as to government welfare schemes. As key drivers of financial inclusion at the doorstep of rural households, Sakhis continue to raise financial awareness, addressing queries about appropriate financial choices for any season of life. In doing so, the cadre instills and reinforces good financial behaviour in the communities it touches.”
CRISIL Foundation has been working towards building awareness and capacities of the financially excluded in India since 2013.
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In Assam, CRISIL Foundation started its intervention through Mein Pragati in 2014, and has achieved scale with support from implementing partners Rashtriya Gramin Vikas Nidhi and Seven Sisters Development Agency.
Over 1,200 rural women have been identified and trained as Sakhis so far.
The positive, on-the-ground impact earned recognition when CRISIL was conferred with the National CSR Award, 2020, in the category ‘Corporate Awards for Excellence in CSR’ for efforts in the areas of financial capability building and environment conservation. CRISIL had also earned the honour in the first edition of the awards for ‘CSR in Challenging Circumstances, North-East’ for its flagship project Mein Pragati in Assam.
CRISIL Foundation’s efforts through Mein Pragati have resulted in a larger partnership with the Reserve Bank of India, 10 public sector banks and NABARD through the Centre for Financial Literacy programme in 18 states and union territories – a testimony to, and validation of, CRISIL’s efforts in the financial awareness space.
