Comics help women become super savers in India: see the pages
Comic books about characters like themselves help women in India and other developing economies learn about personal finances, researchers found.Photograph: Institute for Money, Technology and Financial Inclusion and Institute for Financial Management and Research Leveraging Evidence for Access and Development
From the slums of India, two comic book heroines have sprung.
Researchers with the Institute for Money, Technology and Financial Inclusion (IMTFI) – Deepti KC and Mudita Tiwari – found that a tool meant to educate women about the power of a safe banking channel must appeal to children and their mothers, be respectful, and show the challenges that female entrepreneurs face when managing their income without access to convenient financial services.
A comic book with illustrated characters mirroring these women is the perfect teaching vehicle. So Tiwari and KC worked with worked with Creative Rats, a design company based in Baroda, India. The resultant comics tell stories of two characters in a big urban slum: Saraswati, a vegetable vendor, and Radha, who has a job at a food factory making wafers.
Eight tales document the financial problems – based on real life in Mumbai – that the characters face, and how they resolve crises.
Some sample pages:
Deepti KC and Mudita Tiwari developed this comic to help women from low-income communities to save money.Photograph: Institute for Money, Technology and Financial Inclusion and Institute for Financial Management and Research Leveraging Evidence for Access and DevelopmentIn the comic, Rahda tells her friend Saraswati all her worries about using a bank – reflecting the same concerns as the book’s target audience.Photograph: Institute for Money, Technology and Financial Inclusion and Institute for Financial Management and Research Leveraging Evidence for Access and DevelopmentIn the first tale of the comic book series, the protagonists’ children get sick – but only one has savings to deal with the unexpected medical expense.Photograph: Institute for Money, Technology and Financial Inclusion and Institute for Financial Management and Research Leveraging Evidence for Access and DevelopmentHere, Saraswati tells Radha about one long-term benefit – compound interest – when saving at a bank.Photograph: Institute for Money, Technology and Financial Inclusion and Institute for Financial Management and Research
