Lucknow start-up to teach women about finance in rural U.P.

FinLit was started by Neha in 2020 after realising that she too was quite unaware of how to manage and invest her finances when she was young.

LUCKNOW In a bid to educate women from rural parts of Uttar Pradesh about financial management, FinLit, a financial literacy start-up owned by Lucknow-based CEO Neha Mishra, will hold workshops from April 1. These one-or-two-day-long workshops will be held over the year in several districts of the state in collaboration with Mission Shakti.

Teacher financial literacy program held by FinLit in 2022, for rural and urban school teachers of U.P. (HT Photo)

FinLit was started by Neha in 2020 after realising that she too was quite unaware of how to manage and invest her finances when she was young. Now, through various programs, she endeavours to make other women more aware of how to be financially independent and understand personal finance.

Under this Mission Shakti-backed initiative, 35 educators from FinLit will be deployed to tier 2 and 3 cities -- such as Gorakhpur, Aligarh, Saharanpur, and others -- to hold physical workshops with women aged between 25 and 35 years. The workshops will teach them how to manage finances, and make investments in the context of insurance schemes, retirement plans, and more.

“We have identified this age group (25-35 years) based on the response we got from a previous online program we had conducted in rural Uttar Pradesh... They are far more involved and eager to learn,” said Neha. She said that even though they are not aware of the financial jargon or procedures, they do know how to operate WhatsApp and use Google Meet -- which helps in their learning to use online banking tools.

“We are taking a three-pronged approach to this program -- the first is to do with access to digital finance services, then there is the need for people to understand retirement as a subject and why they need to invest in retirement and pension plans, and finally the access to EMI and credit.” Neha points out that very often people from rural areas misunderstand the concept of EMIs (equated monthly installments).

Previously, Neha had also tied up with government and private organisations to conduct other awareness programs such as entrepreneurship development for students, and another focusing on insurance developments, among others. She added, “Finance is a very nice space but people often get very scared of it, and that is due to a lack of understanding.” She said that once women understand personal finance, they can then begin to dabble in investments and retirement plans to financially secure their futures.