Institute for Money, Technology & Financial Inclusion

The rollout of Unique Identification (known as Aadhaar or UID) numbers and cards for every Indian might be a financial inclusion game-changer by offering urban rickshaw pullers the means to meet banks' Know Your Customers (KYC) norms. Similarly, the mobile money services offered by several banks using the business correspondent (BC) model could address the financial needs of these poor migrants. These processes, however, are riddled with challenges, including behavioral changes among the rickshaw pullers, which are yet to be understood. This study attempts to use an unorthodox route of social activism cum experimental research to find answers to these concerns by providing handholding support to rickshaw pullers to facilitate their financial inclusion, while simultaneously documenting behavioral changes and the challenges they face in the transformational process to obtain access to formal financial services.