Financial Inclusion of the Tea Garden Workers’ Households of Biswanath District in Assam
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.25175/jrd/2024/v43/i4/172862Keywords:
Tea Garden Labourers, Credit, Logit.Abstract
The tea industry in Assam has been playing a dominant role in the economy of the state; both in terms of production and labour absorption. Tea garden workers are the lifeline of the tea industry. However, many studies have shown that Assam’s tea garden labour community has been lagging behind others in most of the socioeconomic aspects. In this regard, by enabling uncomplicated and affordable access to formal financial services for tea garden workers, financial inclusion can significantly contribute to raising their standard of living. Against this background, based on surveyed data, the current study aims to investigate the extent and determinants of financial inclusion among the tea garden workers of Biswanath district in Assam. It is found that although a good number of the surveyed tea garden labourers have accessibility to bank accounts, most of them are not using it regularly. A large section of the surveyed labour households does not possess any kind of insurance, and they are more accustomed to informal sources of credit. A Logit model is utilised to identify the determinants of financial inclusion. Age, education and work type of the household’s head, distance to the bank branch and inclusion of the household in Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana are found to be the significant determinants of financial inclusion.
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