Poor and marginalised people suffer the most due to the lack of access to the formal banking and financial services. Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana, launched in August 2014, has played a significant role in opening bank accounts. However, just opening of a bank account is not enough. Most of the poor people don’t know what to do after opening the bank account. Gyan Shree Foundation Trust has conducted a series of financial inclusion and awareness campaign targeted at women and marginalised section of the society.

Financial literacy and awareness campaign was conducted from 10-30 January in 2018. The programme was supported by National Stock Exchange and Skoch Development Foundation. Nearly 1000 village-level entrepreneurs, Panchayat representatives, SHGs, students and professionals from over 50 villages of Bochaha and adjoining areas benefited from the programme.

In 2019, the awareness drive was conducted during 15-30 January, while in 2020 it was conducted from January 27 to 15 February. During both these years nearly 1000 candidates benefited from the awareness drive. In total nearly 3000 people from poor and marginalised section of the society benefited from the initiative. The project included one week of financial literacy programme and workshop conducted at Gyan Shree Foundation Trust head office at Bochaha, Muzaffarpur, and literacy and awareness campaign conducted at Panchayat level. The focus of the initiative was on removing the constraints marginalised people face in accessing financial services. Participants were given detailed information about the different schemes and programmes run by the government related to financial inclusion. Procedure, benefits and risks involved with the different financial products were explained in details.