Nabard survey shows around 90 percent rural households have bank account

The financial inclusion drive has resulted in a proliferation of bank accounts in rural areas with 88.1 percent of households having savings accounts, said a survey by Nabard.

The financial inclusion drive has resulted in a proliferation of bank accounts in rural areas with 88.1 percent of households having savings accounts, said a survey by Nabard.

The incidence of Indebtedness (IOI), which is a proportion of households having outstanding debt on the date of the survey, was 52.5 percent and 42.8 percent for agricultural and non-agricultural households, respectively.

All India IOI taking rural households together stood at 47.4 percent, as per the Nabard All India Financial Inclusion Survey (NAFIS) released today.

"While 88.1 percent rural households and 55 percent agricultural households reported having a bank account, average savings per annum per household was Rs 17,488," it said.

About 26 percent of agricultural households and 25 percent of non-agricultural households were found to have been covered under insurance, it said.

Similarly, 20.1 percent agricultural households as against 18.9 percent non-agricultural households have subscribed to pension schemes.

The survey is a pioneering attempt to bring together financial inclusion and rural livelihood aspects, National Bank for Agriculture And Rural Development (Nabard) Chairman H K Bhanwala said.

"Nabard proposes to carry out the survey every 3 years. The findings reveal that there is an increase in agriculture household income significantly, with the higher increase observed among marginal and small farmers," he said.

Bhanwala also highlighted that the survey was designed through a process of consultation with RBI and other key stakeholders.

The survey, with the reference year of 2016-17, covered 40,327 rural households. It highlighted that the average annual income of an agricultural household is Rs 1,07,172 compared to Rs 87,228 for families engaged only in non-agricultural activities.

The survey was conducted on a pan-India basis, drawing samples from as many as 2016 villages in 245 districts and 29 states. A population of 1,87,518 was covered in the process.

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