On women’s day, I have been gifted with a bank. Let’s call it Indira Gandhi Bank, till its formal name is decided upon, to remind us not only about the country’s most powerful woman, who invoked emergency powers in 1975, but also about bank nationalisation. The bank’s idea is believed to have been incubated by the Congress party, to which Indira Gandhi belonged.
So, Finance Minister P Chidambaram duly announced that a bank for women will be launched last week. He began by acknowledging the fact that women head many banks. The purpose for the proposed Indira Gandhi Bank is to lend to women and address “gender related issues of empowerment and financial inclusion”.
The idea appears good, but Mr Chidambaram, do we need more banks? Five to be precise is the number of bank accounts I had till last year of which four I still hold. Each time I changed jobs, I had to open a new bank account. The one account which I closed still sends me mailers on the good schemes they have. Bank accounts have become a liability for me. There is an overdose of financial inclusion for people like me. And since the government wanted the Reserve Bank of India to give licences for more banks, the regulator too has come out with new norms. There will be realtors and brokerages offering banking service and when money changes hand between companies of same group, even the most empowered feel powerless or rather helpless.
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Though the new banks will be gender neutral, does the country really need banks? Setting up of more branches and expansion of post office networks can easily do the job of financial inclusion. Though access to funds for starting a business is a source of big help for both, women and men, it would have been probably better to have enabling schemes for the needy through the existing bank branches. I am reminded of nationalisation of banks here and whether the rural outreach could have been achieved even in limited way without the nationalized and public sector banks?
Besides, the prerequisite of proving your identity to open a bank account will ensure that financial inclusion does not happen, not only for women but also for men who are not empowered enough to own a property to establish residency. Their unique identity is now being established though many of them may not even have voter identity cards and may not be even exercising the right to vote. Even for availing government doles, how does a casual labour prove his total income? I know of a bright school boy, a tribal, who won a scholarship but could not avail of it because he could not get his father’s income certificate.
More private banks mean nothing to such people and to me too. So, please on Women’s Day, spare me another bank, Mr Chidambaram.
