Previous Year Question
‘Swabhiman Scheme’ launched in India is associated with
Rural women rights
Rural old people care
Rural banking
Rural food security
Correct Answer: C
Detailed Solution
‘Swabhiman’ was a Financial Inclusion Campaign of the Government of India, aimed at extending banking facilities to people and habitations in rural areas that remained outside the formal banking system.
The programme was launched in February 2011. Its initial target was to provide banking services to about 73,000 unbanked habitations having a population of more than 2,000 by March 2012.
Where opening a conventional bank branch was not immediately feasible, banking services were extended through the Business Correspondent (BC) model supported by technology. Business Correspondents can broadly be understood as Bank Saathis.
Through the campaign, rural people were to be provided access to basic banking services such as deposits, withdrawals and remittances, along with the opening of a large number of No-Frills Accounts.
The programme was particularly important because financial inclusion could connect small and marginal farmers, rural workers and other low-income households with the formal banking and credit system and reduce their dependence on moneylenders.
In this question, ‘Swabhiman’ should not be confused with ‘Swavalamban’. Swabhiman was primarily associated with financial inclusion/rural banking, whereas Swavalamban was a pension scheme for people in the unorganised sector.
Swabhiman → Financial Inclusion → Rural Banking
Swavalamban → Pension