Svakarma’s Customer Knowledge Series in Mumbai was held in collaboration with Agora Microfinance (AMIL) and Swadhaar FinAccess.
This event was organized for Svakarma customers who manufacture chappals (Thakkarbappa chappal cluster), who are jointly served by Svakarma and AMIL through a business correspondent partnership. Financial literacy was identified as a relevant topic for this borrower segment, with the primary objective of providing knowledge and skills to enable better money management.
Swadhaar FinAccess was invited to address this topic, given their expertise in the space.
The session began with a module on responsible borrowing. Through a video presentation and some case studies, a trainer from Swadhaar explained the precautions to be taken before taking on a loan and the importance of maintaining a good credit score through timely repayments. A demonstration was conducted of the Swadhaar Saathi app – a platform for financial education and money management, which helps track income/expenses, set goals and encourages saving. The app also provides short financial education videos on ATM use, mobile banking etc. The trainer then explained the importance of using bank accounts, including savings bank accounts. She explained how to save through fixed deposits and recurring deposits, and provided a demonstration of the usage of digital banking.
Finally, a discussion on various government schemes for savings and insurance provided useful information of schemes like Sukanya Samriddhi Yojana, Pradhan Mantri Suraksha Bima Yojana, and Pradhan Mantri Jeevan Jyoti Bima Yojana.
The session was informative and helped reinforce key aspects of responsible borrowing and provided inputs on banking and government schemes. Interested entrepreneurs were also offered operational support to access some of the services.
