Understanding Savings Monitors
http://www.developmentoutlook.org/2012/11/understanding-savings-monitors.html
In January this year, four
of us made our way into a little hamlet called Beerasandra, in Kolar District
in Karnataka. This was to be the first Pilot Village of the Savings Monitors
Project. We had already identified individuals who would be a part of our Saver
Sample and those who would be part of our Monitor Sample in this village. One
of the persons we were interviewing, Gowrappa was part of our Saver sample.
Beerasandra has a small temple where the village folk often gather. Gowrappa is
a priest and has been working there for several years. When we explained our
project to him and told him he would have to give us a 6-week Savings Goal
which he should try and meet in this time period, his answer was Rs 50.
The project fits into the
overall context of addressing the financial needs of the poor. While providing
microcredit has often been found to be very beneficial, access to formal
sources of savings is equally needed and can help the poor immensely. This
project focuses on the savings piece.
We told
him we would open a bank or post office account if he didn’t have one and he
would have to save that money in this account, Gowrappa was very happy. He
didn’t have any account and was glad that we would be bearing the expenses of
opening the account as well as helping with the whole process. A few days
later, a village meeting was conducted where the Savers picked their respective
Monitors. Every week our Surveyors would check the savings balances of these
savers and inform the Monitors about the Savers progress. At the end of the
6-week period, the Monitors whose Savers reached their savings goal were given
a bonus payment. The Savings Monitors project has since taken off and with each
of the four pilots we conducted, we found ways of improving and sharpening our
research design.
The project seeks to
answer two fundamental questions:
- Do Monitors help in increasing savings balances of people? Can they motivate them to meet their desired savings goals?
- What are the characteristics of a good Monitor?
An integral part of this
project’s research design is the village-level meetings held in each of our 61
study villages as well as the opening of bank and post office accounts which
follows after each of these meetings.
We have met and spoken to
several banks in order to get their support and co-operation in this regard.
All the accounts that we open are no frill, zero balance accounts. The response
across banks has varied. While all of them have ultimately extended their
co-operation some of them have been sceptical since the beginning. A lot of
them ask for a letter from the Lead Bank or enquire a lot about our
organisation. An immediate reaction from most banks when they are told we are
looking at opening no frill accounts is asking why we can’t open regular
accounts instead. We have to tell them that many of our respondents won’t be
able to afford putting in a minimum balance of Rs 500. They agree ultimately
but tell us that if there is no transaction for a while then the account would
automatically lapse.
The experience with Post
Offices is very different. Many times it just consists of one small room with a
Post Master sitting with a lot of registers. Most of the Post Masters are very friendly and happy to share information. One Post Master
mentioned that he had observed that women usually prefer post office accounts
to men which he felt was because these accounts are much easier to open and
require less time. Moreover the Post Master and the Post Man usually have a
good relationship with the villagers and know many of them personally. Women
find the Post Office less intimidating. Most of them being illiterate, some
find getting used to the banks a little difficult in the beginning. I have
experienced instances myself of women asking me for help in filling up forms in
the bank.
After the Bank and Post
Office Accounts are open, every two weeks for 6 months, our surveyors record
the fortnightly savings balances of the Savers and report it to the Monitors.
We have completed our Mini Baselines and Intervention Meetings in all our 61
Villages and have started these Follow Up Surveys in 46 Villages.
While we are still
analysing the results, we hope through this effort that people will be
encouraged to save more in formal sources. Furthermore if it is proved that
Monitors do help in increasing the
savings balances of their fellow villagers we believe that this product design
could be used as a simple and cost effective method to encourage improved
savings behaviour through basic utilizing of peer enforcement.
Brilliant blog post, I’ve learned a lot by analysis it. Gratitude for a clear informative post,
ReplyDelete