Mann Deshi Mahila Bank Ltd (Mann Deshi) has made a special effort to bring illiterate women into the banking sector. Since many of our clients are illiterate or semi-literate women, they need a comprehensive Financial Literacy Program in order to take full advantage of the opportunities we offer. Thus Mann Deshi has developed such a comprehensive program tailored for the needs of the women in rural Maharasthra.

In Basic Financial Literacy program we use more and more pictures so that semi-literate and non-literate women can understand it easily. To date, more than 11,500 women have benefited from this course.

We are currently developing the curriculum and setting up an Advanced and Business Financial Literacy course. This new course will include saving and loan management, bank services, budgeting, financial negotiation introduction, and pension and insurance presentation. This will help financial inclusion of marginalized communities. The Business School aims at helping women to become successful micro-entrepreneurs.

The course has been prepared in Marathi (the local language) and is translated and distributed within the all areas of the Business School's operation.

This project received funding from Assocn. for India's Development (AID) Inc., Portland chapter"