An empirical study of financial inclusion and its strategic approach in the slums of Mumbai

Financial services play a vital role in the economic growth of a country. The core objective of Indian economic policy is “economic growth with social justice”. For the welfare of society, two aspects of financial services are highly important: First, financial options viz. banks, insurance companies and stock markets and second easy accessibility to such financial options for all the citizens. Financial Inclusion is a recent addition to the finance literature. Today, large segments of the world population are excluded from basic financial services even as financial services are developing and globalizing rapidly. The degree of exclusion is much greater in India, especially in the slum area population are excluded from the formal financial services. The empirical paper tries to explore the financial inclusion in the urban poor who live in the selected slums in the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai area. It is an attempt to understand the awareness of banking services, role of technology in banking services and the application of various strategy models in the selected areas. The study is mainly based on primary data.