Surbhi
Research Scholar, Department
of Computer Science & Engineering
Deenbandhu Chhotu Ram
University of Science & Technology, Sonipat
ABSTRACT
The Indian government is continuously introducing reforms to
improve the usage rate of plastic money, to meet the changing needs of the
economy, and to satisfy the demands of the consumer and wholesale market. Time requires the change in usage of hard money as with
time composition of digitalization, technology and environment is changing with
which citizens should adapt with for the progress of country. Keeping all this
in mind government is arranging different programmes for awareness and usage of
plastic money. Researcher has tried to find out awareness and frequency of
usage of plastic money through a questionnaire filled from two hundred (N=200)
respondents from rural areas of sonepat district of Haryana which were selected conveniently and purposely
from ten village of sonepat as
subjects. It was found that awareness differs on basis of demographics and even
frequency of usage of plastic was found to be lower than awareness.
Key words- Plastic
money, Digitalization, Programmes
INTRODUCTION
Technology has changed the
way we deal with money giving us more convenience and easy access to funds from
anywhere. It all started with a simple credit card that allowed one to make
purchases today and pay later. Further, technological advancements lead to a
new trend where most banks gave one ATM
card or debit card which can be used for withdrawing money as well as for
making purchases or payments – offline as well as online.
Plastic
money is a term that is used predominantly in reference to the hard plastic cards we use everyday in place of actual bank notes. They
can come in many different forms such as cash cards, credit cards, debit cards,
pre-paid cash cards. Demonetization
initiative has been a boon for India’s e-payment providers. Paytm reported a three-times surge in new users -- tacking on over 14 million
new accounts in November alone. While Oxigen Wallet’s daily average users increased by 167% since demonetization began. In
spite of it there a questions hangs is India ready for cashless economy
prerequisite for which is financial literacy.
Financial Literacy simply means the ability
to understand about money handling, savings and investments so as to make
judicious decisions regarding ones financial resources and activities. The need for financial
literacy has become important with the deregulation of financial markets and
the rapid growth in technologically advancement of marketing financial
products. Governments around the world have begun with many initiatives to
impart knowledge about financial instruments so as to have financially
knowledgeable citizens, for the public benefits and in totality for the benefit
of the nation with a strong economy.
Government
is focusing on financial inclusion which is an important step in development,
as access to finances helps the poor to lift themselves out of poverty. In many
parts of the developing world like India
microfinance is a good tool to fight with poverty by bringing financial
services, including low-interest loans to the poor but just bringing good tools
is not enough as their implementation is hypothetical without proper financial
knowledge and basic financial literacy. Keeping this in mind RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan proposed inclusion of
financial literacy in school curriculum
because when children will be aware they can influence their families and in
coming future they can take necessary steps to better manage their money.
Sustainable growth of a nation is closely
related to the level of inclusion of its population into the financial net.
Countries like India is struggling with poverty, less financial instruments and
what makes the problem more acute is low financial literacy. Rural area people
are still trapped in influence of local money lenders.
According to a survey on Global Financial Literacy conducted
by VISA in 2012, only 35% of Indians
were found to be financially literate and India was among the least financially
literate countries.
STATEMENT
OF THE PROBLEM
The Problem selected for investigation
in the present study has been titled as “Awareness and frequency of usage of plastic money in rural
areas of Sonipat District of Haryana”
OBJECTIVES OF THE
STUDY
Why
study Financial literacy
1. To know relation between gender and their
plastic money usage level.
2. To know
relation between monthly income and level of plastic money usage.
3. To know relation between education and
plastic money usage level.
4. To know
relation between age and plastic money usage level.
5. To offer recommendations that help to enhance financial
literacy
RESEARCH
QUESTIONS
The research
Questions derived from these areas are as follows:
1. Is there any relation between gender and
their usage of plastic money level?
2. Is there any relation between monthly
income and usage of plastic money level?
3. Is there any relation between education and
usage of plastic money level?
4. Is there any relation between age and usage
of plastic money level?
HYPOTHESIS
H0
There is no significant relation between gender and usage of plastic
money level.
H1 There is a significant relation between
gender and usage of plastic money level .
H0: There is no significant relation
between monthly income and usage of plastic money level.
H1 There is a significant relation between
monthly income and usage of plastic money level.
H0 There is no significant relation between
education and usage of plastic money level.
H0
There is no significant relation between occupation and usage of plastic
money level.
H1 There is a significant relation between
occupation and usage of plastic money level .
H0
There is no significant relation between age and usage of plastic money
level .
H1 There is a significant relation between
age and usage of plastic money level.
REVIEW OF LITERATURE
Anthes
(2004) stated that financial
literacy is the ability to read, analyze, manage and communicate about the
personal financial conditions that affect material well being. Mason and Wilson (2000) have defined,
financial literacy as Meaning making process
in which individuals use a combination of skills and technologies,
resources and contextual knowledge to make sense of information in order to be
sufficiently informed to make decisions with an awareness of financial
consequence.
Findings suggest that financial education
is benefical, but the extent of the benefits depends on the time horizon for
changing financial behaviors. Financial
education has positive relationship with financial literacy and long-term
behaviors Another key finding from these research is that people with low
levels of financial literacy seem to get more benefits Sabri, Mohamad Fazli Fazli,(2011),
Wagner, Jamie (2015), Irina kunovskaya (2010) . Tschache C. Arrington (2009) The results of this survey showed that
most of the participants of the survey were in favour of importance of
financial literacy and financial literacy curriculum was also important. The
conclusions of this study were that financial education is advantageous and
that the concepts taught in that type of curriculum were appreciated.
Pallavi
Gupta et al. (2013) found a
large variation in correlation among the different states of India with a very
low correlation at the national level and suggested indian government should
promote Information Communication Technology models like biometric ATM,
telecentres to achieve Financial Inclusion in India as high literacy is not compulsorily required in
these models
JariwalaV.Harsha (2009) in his study
found all the respondents have invested their savings in various investment
alternatives, despite of it majority of
the respondents possess lower level of
financial literacy. From the analysis of financial literacy questions, was
found that the majority investors are less financially literate in a state of
India.
Deerajen
Ramasawmy et al (2013) No
significant difference was found at 5% level for the financial literacy level
between male and female respondents while significant difference was found between male and female for the ability to
read, analyse, manage and communicate. Based on this study, it was found that
age, gender, language, race and income level do not have any impact on the level of financial literacy.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
To achieve the objective
of the study, two hundred (N=200) respondents 100 males and 100
females were selected conveniently
and
purposely from rural areas of sonepat district as
subjects. Questionnaire was used to
assess the awareness and usage of plastic money and its relation with different
parameters such as age, gender, monthly income and education. In
order
to examine the hypothesis
of the present study
crosstab correlation was applied
to compare the association between different variables.
Table
showing association between age and basic financial literacy
|
AGE * FREQUENCY OF USAGE OF PLASTIC
MONEY Cross tabulation
|
|||||||
|
Count
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
FREQUENCY OF USAGE OF PLASTIC MONEY
|
Total
|
||||
|
|
|
NEVER
|
RARE
|
SOMETIMES
|
OFTEN
|
ALWAYS
|
|
|
AGE
|
18-35
|
32
|
9
|
25
|
4
|
3
|
73
|
|
35-50
|
17
|
7
|
24
|
19
|
8
|
75
|
|
|
50 And above
|
30
|
18
|
2
|
2
|
0
|
52
|
|
|
Total
|
79
|
34
|
51
|
25
|
11
|
200
|
|
|
Symmetric Measures
|
|||||
|
|
|
Value
|
Asymp. Std. Errora
|
Approx. Tb
|
Approx. Sig.
|
|
Interval by Interval
|
Pearson's R
|
-.144
|
.061
|
-2.044
|
.042c
|
|
Ordinal by Ordinal
|
Spearman Correlation
|
-.124
|
.069
|
-1.757
|
.081c
|
|
N of Valid Cases
|
200
|
|
|
|
|
The result revealed in above tables is that H0 is rejected
and significant relation is found between age and frequency of usage of plastic
money. People between age of 35-50 uses plastic money more than other
categories.
Table
showing association between gender and basic financial literacy
|
GENDER * FREQUENCY OF USAGE OF
PLASTIC MONEY Cross tabulation
|
|||||||
|
Count
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
FREQUENCY OF USAGE OF PLASTIC MONEY
|
Total
|
||||
|
|
|
NEVER
|
RARE
|
SOMETIMES
|
OFTEN
|
ALWAYS
|
|
|
GENDER
|
MALE
|
25
|
32
|
16
|
16
|
11
|
100
|
|
FEMALE
|
54
|
2
|
35
|
9
|
0
|
100
|
|
|
Total
|
79
|
34
|
51
|
25
|
11
|
200
|
|
|
Symmetric Measures
|
|||||
|
|
|
Value
|
Asymp. Std. Errora
|
Approx. Tb
|
Approx. Sig.
|
|
Interval by Interval
|
Pearson's R
|
-.228
|
.065
|
-3.287
|
.001c
|
|
Ordinal by Ordinal
|
Spearman Correlation
|
-.224
|
.069
|
-3.240
|
.001c
|
|
N of Valid Cases
|
200
|
|
|
|
|
The results revealed in above tables is that H0 is rejected
and significant relation is found between gender and frequency of usage of
plastic money. Women is found weaker and shows possess less basic knowledge
related to finance.54% of women were found such who have never tried using
plastic money in comparison to 25 such males.
Table
showing association between monthly income and usage of plastic money
|
MONTHLY INCOME OF RESPONDANTS *
FREQUENCY OF USAGE OF PLASTIC MONEY Cross tabulation
|
|||||||
|
Count
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
FREQUENCY OF USAGE OF PLASTIC MONEY
|
Total
|
||||
|
|
|
NEVER
|
RARE
|
SOMETIMES
|
OFTEN
|
ALWAYS
|
|
|
MONTHLY INCOME OF RESPONDANTS
|
0
|
71
|
2
|
3
|
2
|
0
|
78
|
|
5000
|
1
|
5
|
0
|
2
|
0
|
8
|
|
|
8000
|
1
|
4
|
0
|
0
|
2
|
7
|
|
|
10000
|
2
|
13
|
4
|
8
|
1
|
28
|
|
|
12000
|
1
|
3
|
6
|
2
|
1
|
13
|
|
|
15000
|
1
|
4
|
5
|
1
|
2
|
13
|
|
|
18000
|
0
|
0
|
1
|
1
|
0
|
2
|
|
|
20000
|
2
|
1
|
7
|
3
|
1
|
14
|
|
|
25000
|
0
|
1
|
10
|
1
|
3
|
15
|
|
|
30000
|
0
|
0
|
7
|
3
|
1
|
11
|
|
|
35000
|
0
|
1
|
6
|
2
|
0
|
9
|
|
|
40000
|
0
|
0
|
2
|
0
|
0
|
2
|
|
|
Total
|
79
|
34
|
51
|
25
|
11
|
200
|
|
|
Symmetric Measures
|
|||||
|
|
|
Value
|
Asymp. Std. Errora
|
Approx. Tb
|
Approx. Sig.
|
|
Interval by Interval
|
Pearson's R
|
.631
|
.040
|
11.445
|
.000c
|
|
Ordinal by Ordinal
|
Spearman Correlation
|
.732
|
.042
|
15.130
|
.000c
|
|
N of Valid Cases
|
200
|
|
|
|
|
The results revealed in above tables is that H0 is rejected
and significant relation is found between income and frequency of usage of
plastic money. Lower the income less usage of plastic money was found.
Table
showing association between awareness and usage of plastic money
|
AWARENESS OF USAGE OF PLASTIC MONEY
* FREQUENCY OF USAGE OF PLASTIC MONEY Cross tabulation
|
|||||||
|
Count
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
FREQUENCY OF USAGE OF PLASTIC MONEY
|
Total
|
||||
|
|
|
NEVER
|
RARE
|
SOMETIMES
|
OFTEN
|
ALWAYS
|
|
|
AWARENESS OF USAGE OF PLASTIC MONEY
|
Awared
|
72
|
27
|
39
|
17
|
9
|
164
|
|
NOT Awared
|
7
|
7
|
12
|
8
|
2
|
36
|
|
|
Total
|
79
|
34
|
51
|
25
|
11
|
200
|
|
|
Symmetric Measures
|
|||||
|
|
|
Value
|
Asymp. Std. Errora
|
Approx. Tb
|
Approx. Sig.
|
|
Interval by Interval
|
Pearson's R
|
.178
|
.067
|
2.540
|
.012c
|
|
Ordinal by Ordinal
|
Spearman Correlation
|
.191
|
.066
|
2.742
|
.007c
|
|
N of Valid Cases
|
200
|
|
|
|
|
The results revealed
in above tables is that H0 is rejected and significant relation is found
between awareness and frequency of usage of plastic money. Inspite of people
awared of digital instruments frequency of usage is low.
CONCLUSIONS
Gender, monthly income, level of education
have association with basic financial literacy but in case of age no such
association was found. Overall usage of plastic money was found to be very low
many respondents were not even known to features of ATM cards.
RECOMMENDATIONS
Government should focus more on these rural
areas as the basic financial literacy is not achieved by many of them. More of
campaigns are required, financial educations weeks or months to be organized.
Successful implementation of financial literacy programmes is most required.
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