RBI launches mission to make every citizen a user of digital payment

As many as 58% of some 90,000 respondents in an RBI survey said they were not using digital payments; a large chunk, in fact, was not even aware of them

While digital payments have skyrocketed during the past few years, a significant portion of the population still does not use digital payments for day-to-day transactions. In order to bridge this gap, Reserve Bank of India (RBI) governor Shaktikanta Das on Monday launched a mission -- "Har Payment Digital" – with the aim of making every citizen in the country a user of digital payments as part of Digital Payments Awareness Week (DPAW) 2023.

The theme of the awareness week is "Adopt digital payments and Teach others also".

"Over the past few years, usage of digital payments in India has seen exponential growth. Citizens of the country have embraced digital payments for the speed, convenience, and security that it offers. However, a significant portion of the population is still not aware of digital payments or is not using them despite being aware," the central bank said in a statement.

Forty-two per cent of 90,000 respondents in an RBI survey said that they had used digital payments; 35 per cent said they were non-users though aware of digital payments, while 23 per cent weren't aware of digital payments.

Considering the benefits that digital payments bring to the country, it is necessary to create more awareness and further increase the usage of digital payments, RBI said. Hence, the RBI has been observing a targeted campaign – DPAW -- every year as part of the continuous efforts towards increasing financial awareness.

The central bank will launch "Har Payment Digital" (HPD) mission that would run till the period of Vision 2025, with an intention to convert the non-users into users of digital payments. Vision 2025 has its theme as "E-Payments for Everyone, Everywhere and Everytime".

From this week onwards, RBI in collaboration with the banks and other stakeholders of the payment systems will carry out a multimodal campaign covering print, television, radio and social media during the week around the theme -- "Adopt digital payments and Teach others also".

Through the campaign, the users of digital payments will be encouraged to teach non-users about the ease, safety and convenience of digital payments to fulfil the mission of every citizen a digital payments user, the central bank said.

RBI has planned various campaigns which will be undertaken to deepen the reach of digital payments in the country.

Among various other things, RBI regional offices will conduct "Jan Bhagidari" or mass scale people involvement programmes to enhance awareness on a large scale about the mission and the theme of the campaign and to encourage adoption of digital payments in the process. Further, payment system operators will adopt 75 villages across the country to convert them into digital payment enabled villages. These villages would be distinct from those in the districts covered under the Digital Banking Units (DBUs); Expanding and Deepening of Digital Payments Ecosystem (EDDPE); and the Aspirational Districts Programme.

The central bank also intends to partner with appropriate agencies to reach out to villages across the country to propagate the campaign theme message "Digital Payment Apnao, Auron ko Bhi Sikhao" by sharing videos and teaching villagers about ease, safety, convenience and usage of digital payments.