Financial Inclusion and Lower Income Minorities: A Study of Banaskantha District of Gujarat

Financial inclusion is the key development policy for the growing economies around the world. India has also adopted the policy for balanced growth of economy. Reserve Bank of India (RBI) along with other financial organizations, has started the efforts to include the people in the formal financial system through many policies, which are also promoted by the present government. Many researchers have studied the topic of financial inclusion in different ways and presented significant outcomes. However, there are very few research available which combine financial inclusion with socio-economic status of people. Keeping this point of view, it will be very interesting to analyse socio-economically the status of financial inclusion. This paper presents an empirical study of financial inclusion among lower income minorities in Banaskantha district of Gujarat. Banaskantha district is one of the educationally backward districts of Gujarat state. The study concludes that there is significant financial exclusion prevailing among the lower income minorities, caused by various factors. One of the prime factors is the lack of accessibility of financial inclusion schemes and negligence of rural and remote areas by financial institutions.