Financial inclusion is a broad term used to describe the provision of savings and loan services to the poor in an inexpensive and easy to use form. It includes opening of bank accounts for those that have never had one, and allowing people to send and receive money easily. The main objective is ensuring access to formal credit for people who depend on informal means for their financial needs and also financial education to ensure that the poor and marginalised make the best use of their money. Financial inclusion is only possible if the cash in problem is made convenient for the users.
Two kinds of public policy frameworks or theories are used in a policy like Financial Inclusion:
1) It’s a race
If it weren’t, we would probably all be living in hunter gatherer societies, and human population would be in millions, not billions. You can see desire to participate and partake - but also the confusion of not being able to do so because? I dont know why. Because they don’t qualify? They can not play with the same toys, or go to the same schools (or any schools), or wear the same clothes, or eat the foods advertised around them - why? Because the society around them decided they are humans who deserve less because that is how they score in an imagined set up, which we call our social or economic order. The pain of exclusion they feel though is real. You can see it most clearly on children’s face because they have a hard time lying about it - by adulthood they have learnt to mute their reactions and given in. But still you can see it on the faces of mothers of poor families - they relearn the pain of exclusion when they want everything for their child that this other descendant of the ape has, that she and her child can see right before her, pretending to be a superior being. This is a classic example of financial inclusion.
2) In a race, alliances have to be built
In-group and out-groups established. Exclusion and inequality will emerge. It’s modern human nature. It’s the nature of civilization. Viewing it from a point of view that social exclusion in the world is merely a reflection of the thoughts of those that feel that. There are many a stories of how a child from an inferior race/country/family has gone on to be successful in all walks of life. Maybe it’s education that the socially excluded ones need - definitely not the type of education they are getting now. Western world cares for their own people that’s why you see a better and just society in comparison to ours. We are living in 2100’s under feudal culture and we are even promoting monarchy now. May be Education of poor can help. If they can understand the problem, they can do something about it. Where I can see it most clearly is on the faces of the children of poor families as they have not yet learnt the ‘logic’ of our imaginary systems (the capitalisms, the socialisms, the bullsh*tisms). It is the same as how can we use the rural network of Co-operative sector banks for economic development & financial inclusion.
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Self preservation
At the core that is every species’ innate purpose. And when you combine that with a survival of the fittest mentality, then it starts to make sense. The more people you allow into the “tribe” the less secure your own position. And in today’s world money is the most powerful weapon, so tribal alliances are dictated by similarities in wealth even over race and geography. Therein the financial class system that seeks to promote oneself, generally at the expense of others. In the animal kingdom one can argue that social structures are more well defined, but that’s because their class system is predefined. The lioness will never be king of the jungle, but will never consider the role either. We have a more advanced mind, but some prehistoric DNA to contend with.
Oh Thou
There’s no love in wealth.
Only the poor can love.Oh Thou
Take all my excess.
Impoverish me.
It’s really social exclusion thats the real culprit and economic or financial exclusion is just the fig leaf to cover up the fact that we are a mean species. We make up numbers with this imaginary thing called money and use it as a clever cover up for a very real human desire to exclude ‘others’. And, crucially, it is this repugnant exclusion that runs the world. It is the fuel that powers all our existing systems - the potential energy borne from the stress of being excluded as an inferior being that is then converted to kinetic energy through labour and economic activity. Thus the system is served.
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How to Solve the Biggest Problems with Human Race
If only we knew how unearned all we have is. We have our lives as gifts. We have our innate talents as gifts. We’ve learned our skills by the generosity of others. We have our inventiveness only as our brain’s spontaneous elaboration of others’ work. If only we knew how unearned what we have is. Then we might share. It’s this realization that’s making me start to think this may not be a fight we can win. I can work on fixing a faulty economic system all I want but that is only an imagined one - the real core of the problem is human nature itself and its meanness. All religions have tried to fix that meanness but havent got very far. The fig leaf on the contrary has gotten bigger over time. Throughout history, man has been cruelly dominating other men. We’re much more subtle about it now. The only intervention that can allow the exclusion to dissolve is humanity itself. May the sanity prevails and people realise this too. Superiority itself being a relative word means that other should have less. Is the same reason people debate over things like “How too much of financial inclusion is affecting the banking sector?”
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Do business correspondent models help financial inclusion in Pakistan?
What is the scope of technology or OEMs in the business correspondent model for financial inclusion in Pakistan? Well not so very bright. Our purpose should not be to erode the gap itself, but only to decide which side of it we fall. Finally, the function of money, of wealth, of ownership is exclusion. The function of wealth is to purchase exclusive access. The function of money is selfishness. It is, I think, just that simple. Still, I will not draw a conclusion - it is part of my own journey of learning as I am going through life. Maybe there is something God will show me one day that will make be believe that mankind is curable. All I can do in the meantime is try to not get sucked into the same system I see around me. Money is the way we wall others from our lives. By wealth we turn our back on others. Ownership is a refusal to share. It is just that simple.
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That is why looking people in the eyes is so important - its the only channel which allows you to travel beyond the artificial.