International Day for People With Disability (PWD) was observed on December 3 by organizing customary functions across the state. However, it was the announcement of the Governor Satya Pal Malik to institute ‘JK Govt. Scholarship Scheme for Differently Abled Students’ which made the celebration different this year. Under the scheme scholarship of Rs1 lakh each will be awarded every year to a meritorious specially-abled boy and girl student on ‘International Day for Disabled Persons’. It would an assistance and encouragement for them to study as well as acquire technical/professional/vocational training to earn a dignified living.
Here, in our state, this segment of society has always been longing for equal opportunities to live a dignified and hassle free life. But contrary to this, their urge has been most of the times taken as a demand for charity and kindness.
Since the theme of this column is to focus on banking, financial and economic affairs for the benefit of readers, I would not take political side of the plight of this important segment of our society. So, let me rake up issues confronting PWD in banking and financial services sector. Our banking industry has classified its customers into various segments. Under this segmentation they group customers based upon similarities they share with respect to any dimensions relevant to their business – whether it be customer needs, channel preferences, interest in certain product features, customer profitability, etc. But this segmentation is flawed, as there’s no such mention of the disabled persons where the banks have a special strategy in place to cater to the needs of these special people. We have been witnessing a lot of tailor-made basket of products and services for general customers. The products and services may vary from bank to bank, but one thing in this basket is common that none of the bank has a tailor-made product for disabled persons. In fact, the impression has been carried that these kind of people don’t need banking products and services, but charity. This is totally a biased analysis against the welfare of disabled persons.
If we look from banks’ business perspective, PWDs provide a large and valuable market to them. But that is currently underserved by the banking and financial services industry. It has been observed that very limited financial knowledge has resulted in an unstable relationship between PWDs and banks.
I usually come across people with disabilities complaining that banks operating here don’t take care of their financial needs and are not being fully served by the banking system. For example, no bank has facilitated insurance product for them which otherwise would better meet the needs of this huge segment of the population.
Here, banks need to have an inclusive marketing approaches. Creating specialized products and services for PWDs wouldn’t be an effective strategy for inclusion without the backing of a strong marketing and communications plan that builds brand affinity and promotes product adoption. Banks can look upon Brand Disability Channel to spotlight tailor-made schemes relevant to PWDs.
Generally, the bank staff at a branch is unfriendly with PWDs whenever they visit them to avail a service. So here is an opportunity to strengthen the in-branch marketing to engage PWDs in a hassle free manner. Extending human assistance in reading and filling out forms etc. can go a long way to infuse confidence in them.When they are made aware of the products and services available, it becomes easier for them to do business with banks.
The banks should capitalize on the power of digital technology to include PWDs in their financial programmes. For example, mobile banking is a convenient option to conduct financial transactions anywhere and anytime. Let banks conduct a special drives to educate and get the specially abled persons on digital platform. This is the most appropriate means to get them into the ambit of financial inclusion.
Lastly, let me come to the JK Govt Scholarship Scheme for Differently Abled Students’ . Here the banks can play a pivotal role to fund the scheme and make it broad-based through corporate social responsibility (CSR) route. We have a crowd of over 45 banks and financial institutions operating in the state. Why cannot the banks under the SLBC banner pool a portion of their CSR funds to fund this scholarship scheme? The government needs to explore the option and create a CSR window where corporates and banks operating here are asked to pool their contribution for socio-economic welfare of the segments of population such as the differently abled persons.
(The views are of the author and not that of the institution he works for)