HDFC Bank launches Dhanchayat in West Bengal

'Dhanchayat’ is an educational film created by the bank to raise awareness on the dangers of borrowing money from the unorganised sector, particularly in rural areas. This film has been launched under the aegis of Swachch Banking, the Bank’s latest CSR initiative.

Swachh Banking aims to create a better understanding about clean and convenient banking available through the organised sector. Through the film, the bank will showcase to the rural population the importance of transparency in financial dealings as also the dignity and self-respect of the individual in the borrowing process.

In Kolkata, the van was flagged-off by Atul Barve, branch banking head – East, HDFC Bank in the presence of other senior Bank officials.

West Bengal is the ninth state where the bank is rolling out this initiative. So far it has been launched in Maharashtra, Punjab, Tamil Nadu, Chhattisgarh, Odisha, Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh and Karnataka. The vans will cover 115 villages in the Howrah, Hooghly, Burdwan, Mednipur, Bankura, 24 Parganas (N) and Dakshin Dinajpur districts of the state.

The national launch of Dhanchayat took place in Mumbai, with the first van being flagged off by Aditya Puri, MD, HDFC Bank and Paresh Sukthankar, Deputy MD, from the Bank’s headquarters. HDFC Bank-branded Dhanchayat video vans will travel across East, West, South, North and Central India, covering thousands of villages across the country. The vans will stop at assembly points such as haats, bazaars, melas and village panchayats.

At a national level, the bank will cover 5000 villages in phase 1, encouraging the local populace to join the organized banking sector in line with the government’s vision for financial inclusion. The vans will also have micro-ATMs with biometric facility fitted in them to enable instant e-KYC and Re-KYC using Aadhar. 

Speaking at the launch event in Kolkata, Atul Barve, Branch Banking Head - East, HDFC Bank said, “At HDFC Bank, we believe that to create real financial inclusion, we need to go beyond merely providing financial access. Our Board-mandated objective to support inclusive growth cannot be achieved in an environment where misinformation and a lack of familiarity with organized finance is pushing people towards unorganized sources of finance. Through Dhanchayat we hope to change this.”