Madhya Pradesh was conferred with the prestigious SKOCH Financial Inclusion and Deepening Award-2014 in New Delhi on Saturday. The State has been selected in the Best State category. It was conferred the SKOCH Order of Merit certificate at a function at the India Habitat Centre, New Delhi.
The award was received by Madhya Pradesh’s Additional Chief Secretary Aruna Sharma from MP Meenkshi lekhi and former CAG Vinod Rai.
Madhya Pradesh has written a new chapter of progress through inclusive growth in the rural areas. Special attention has been paid to availability of banking services in remote rural areas. Rural areas’ progress and villagers’ economic upliftment can be ensured only through financial inclusion. With this in view, ultra-small banks are being opened in the radius of every 5 km in the rural areas. So far, 2200 ultra-small banks have been opened in the state with transactions worth over Rs 1500 cr.
This unique initiative for extending benefit of financial inclusion in a planned way to the remote areas has been lauded at the international level also. On January 24 last, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) released a report on this unique model praising this as the best innovation in the direction of good governance. Impressed by Madhya Pradesh’s innovation, several other states have also expressed the desire to replicate it. So far, delegations of a number of states have visited Madhya Pradesh to study this model.
Receiving the award, the Additional Chief Secretary, Panchayats, Rural Development and Social Justice, Aruna Sharma, informed that giving priority to financial inclusion, 14,000 and 787 such villages were identified for financial inclusion where people had to travel 20 to 90 km for banking services. To solve this problem, 2998 villages were selected in the shadow area where ultra-small banks can provide banking facilities easily within 5 km radius.
Now, MNREGA labourers are getting payments at the earliest through ultra-small banks. With the opening of ultra-small banks, funds meant for beneficiaries and MNREGA labourers are being deposited in their accounts directly in their villages. Besides, amounts of pension under various social security schemes, scholarships, amounts for cycles and uniform of students and assistance given under Janani Express Yojana are also being deposited directly in the bank accounts of the beneficiaries.