Mint Quick Edit | Financial inclusion has risen but that’s only half the story

At 67, its value has risen from 64.2 recorded the previous year, thanks to gains across all sub-indices—namely, for financial access, usage and quality.

According to the central bank, which created this index more than half a decade ago and published its first ever reading of 53.9 for 2020-21 in August 2021, last year’s increase was led by progress on the dimensions of usage and quality, “reflecting the deepening of financial inclusion and sustained financial literacy initiatives.”

That public access to formal services is the hardest nut to crack has long been evident, given the sheer expanse of India.

An army of banking correspondents was sent out to enrol residents of remote villages and Jan Dhan bank accounts have been tom-tommed, but many people still pay informal moneylenders usurious rates of interest; RBI’s easing of lending rates has no bearing on their lives.

It’s tragic that the well-off get cheap loans while the hard-up pay a much higher price for money even if they’re equally creditworthy. Inclusion must improve faster for an emancipatory measure of relief from this inequity.