The OECD INFE has defined financial literacy as follows: ‘A combination of awareness, knowledge, skill, attitude and behaviour necessary to make sound financial decisions and ultimately achieve individual financial wellbeing.’

The Standard & Poor’s Financial Services LLC (S&P), FinLit Survey 2015 findings are sobering. Worldwide, only 1-in-3 adults are financially literate. The S&P Global FinLit Survey is the largest, most comprehensive measure of financial literacy. The survey provides key information to policy makers, regulators, the private sector, and academics and empowers them to develop effective financial education policies and programs.

According to the survey less than 25% of adults are financially literate in South Asian countries. For an average Indian, financial literacy is yet to become a priority. India is home to 17.5% of the World’s population, but nearly 76% of its adult population are not able to understand basic financial concepts. These results are glaring and need immediate intervention to increase the Financial Literacy Level in the Country.

Financial ignorance carries significant costs. Consumers who fail to understand the concept of interest compounding spend more on transaction fees, run up bigger debts, and incur higher interest rates on loans (Lusardi and Tufano, 2015; Lusardi and de Bassa Scheresberg, 2013). They also end up borrowing more and saving less money (Stango and Zinman, 2009). Meanwhile, the potential benefits of financial literacy are manifold. People with strong financial skills do a better job planning and saving for retirement (Behrman et al., 2012; Lusardi and Mitchell, 2014). Financially savvy investors are more likely to diversify risk by spreading funds across several ventures (Abreu and Mendes, 2010).

The NCFE – All India Financial Inclusion and Financial Literacy Survey in 2019 confirmed the S&P FinLit Survey report. This survey revealed that 27.18% of the respondents have achieved minimum target/score/minimum threshold score in each of the components of financial literacy prescribed by OECD-INFE. Which means approximately 73% of the respondents in India could not get the correct score which reveals the low Financial Literacy levels in India.

The COVID-19 Pandemic has been an unprecedented crisis and it not not only impacted our health but also our education, wealth and the economy as a whole. PriceWaterhouseCoopers (PWC) – 10th Annual – Employee Wellness Survey, 2021 revelaed some thought provoking results. After a year of COVID-19 disrupting people’s lives, finances are the top cause of employee stress, even above job, health, and relationship stress combined.63% of employees say that their financial stress has increased since the start of the pandemic.

Employees Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) had allowed formal sector workers under its ambit to withdraw a non-refundable advance from their retirement savings to deal with hardships due to lockdown and 8.2 lakh workers decided to dip into PF savings to survive in Covid-19 lockdown which shows the financial condition of the workers. EPFO settled 56.79 lakh COVID-19 advance claims and released over ₹14,000 cr till December 2020 which shows the quantum of impact on the financial well-being of the workers.

The PWC Employee Wellness Survey 2019 studied a very interesting correlation between the degree of care the employer has about the financial wellbeing of an employee and his loyalty towards the organization. Forty-six percent of Millennials and 44 percent of members of Generation X (compared with 30 percent of Baby Boomers) polled in the survey said loyalty to their employer was influenced by how much the company cared about their financial well-being. Majorities of all three age groups (81 percent of Millennials, 75 percent of Generation X and 52 percent of Baby Boomers) said another company that cared more about their financial well-being would be more attractive to them.

Krisha Foundation’s Committee on Financial Education champions the cause of Financial Education and Investor Awareness and has conducted numerous Investor Awareness Programs and Financial Literacy webinars for college students, faculties, defence personnel, corporates, women groups and various associations. Through innovation and on ground interventions we have touched the lives of over a million unserved and underserved families across India. Krisha Foundation has a letter of intent with Zilla Parishad Palghar District, Government of Maharashtra signed at the Chief Minister of Maharashtra Office convention title ‘Dialogue Palghar’, to spread Financial Literacy and awareness in the Palghar District. Krisha Foundation recently in association with H R College of Commerce & Economics participated in observing March 22nd- 28th as Global Money Week, an annual global awareness-raising campaign on the importance of ensuring that young people, from an early age, are financially aware, and are gradually acquiring the knowledge, skills, attitudes and behaviours necessary to make sound financial decisions and ultimately achieve financial well-being and financial resilience. Krisha Foundation strongly believes in the multi-stakeholder approach for creating a financially aware and empowered India, as proposed in the National Strategy for Financial Education 2020-2025. Krisha Foundation has adopted the 5C approach to Financial Education as proposed in the policy i.e., Content, Capacity, Community, Communication and Collaboration. Money is a universal phenomenon and understanding concepts of money is very important in one’s lifetime. It is more prudent when you introduce these concepts at an early age. Students are exposed to money everywhere be it piggybank or their pocket money or a cash gift from your grandmother on your birthday. It is best to introduce basic skills of savings, investments, power of compounding etc.