Financial Inclusion: An Empirical Study of Households Availing Banking Services with Special Reference to Tumkur District

Even after the seven decades of independence of India, 14.48 crores household out of 24.67 crores have access to basic banking services and only 54.46% of rural households have access to banking (Census 2011). In 2011, 2.5 billion population were unbanked and in 2014 it has been reduced to 2 billion (World Bank Findex 2014). CRISIL Inclusix report says only 50.1(for 100) population has been under the fold of financial inclusion. According to 2011 Census 58.7% of households are only availing the banking services. This paper tries to understand the concept of financial inclusion in different perspective. This paper analyzed the status of financial inclusion in India and its periodical growth. The pattern and extent of banking services availed by households of Tumkur district, even at sub-district level have studied in this paper. Study has shown that still there is a large portion of population financially excluded and efforts are required by Governments, RBI, NGOs, SHGs, Micro Finance Institutions and other organizations to reach unbanked people and to create financial awareness among people to avail formal banking and financial services.