Impact of Institutional Finance in Developing the Tribal Economy of Northern Odisha: A Study of Keonjhar and Mayurbhanj Districts

Institutional finance is considered one of the most common forms of financial assistance provided by banks or any formal financial institution. It has immense significance for the development of a country’s economy as well as for backward communities such as tribals. The tribals continued to suffer as long as the tribal areas remained underdeveloped and unreached. This paper aims to explore an anatomical analysis of the tribal economy, to know the effects of the implementation of different developmental programs on them, and to examine the satisfaction level among the tribal people on a gender basis in connection with the institutional credit utilized for productive purposes. Through a scheduled questionnaire, 495 sample responses have been collected from Keonjhar and Mayurbhanj districts of Odisha. Crosstab analysis, factor analysis, chi-square, and other techniques were used to analyze the sample data, and the study found a positive response in connection with the implementation of different developmental programs and different levels of satisfaction on a gender basis in relation to the productive utilization of institutional credits.