Hyderabad: Women Drive Savings in Farmer Families: Survey

 Hyderabad: Women from the farming community in Telangana have foresight to save for difficult times and Financial planning for the family was done by women in every eight out of 10 farmer families in the state, said findings of a recent survey.

According to Nabard’s All India Rural Financial Inclusion Survey (NAFIS), there was a direct relationship between land size and average savings reported by the households. The results reflected a clear rising trend with the quantum of savings increasing by size class of land possessed.

The state-wise trends regarding the average savings amount for saver households saw wide variation in savings with the average amount at the higher end reaching up to as high as Rs 53,140 for the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir. The national average was Rs 20,139. The average savings of Telangana farmers stood at merely Rs 18,381, which was lower than the national average. Even after meager income levels, the Telangana women took initiatives to save the money.

The proportion of saver households, where at least one member was reported to have saved any money with a formal institution, was analysed in the survey to assess the penetration of institutional saving sources in the rural communities. Participation of women members in household savings, particularly with institutional sources was also explored. A wide disparity was witnessed among states with regard to institutional savings by women members.

Among the saver households from the farming community in Telangana, 80 per cent of them are found to be women — trailing behind only Meghalaya and Odisha, where women made up the 88 per cent of the savers.

Overall, 66 per cent of agricultural households reported saving money in the latest survey, compared to 50.6 per cent in the earlier survey. Agricultural households outperformed non-agricultural ones in terms of savings, with 71 per cent of agricultural households reporting savings, compared to 58 per cent of non-agricultural households.

Compared by the type of household, the average amount of savings was higher for agricultural saver households Rs 20,717 as compared to non agricultural saver households Rs 19,206.

The active participation of women in the savings of the Self-Help Groups (SHGs) from Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, is said to be one of the factors for increased savings and institutional savings. It may be noted Andhra Pradesh and Telangana stood in the first and second place respectively in the savings of Self Help Groups as per another survey of Nabard.