'Jobless growth' will not help Rural India: Expert

Bangalore, Jun 3 (UNI) ''Jobless growth,'' that the Indian economy is experiencing, in the wake of ushering in of global economy in the country, is a ''mere waste'' when it comes to empowering the rural community, Initiative for Development Foundation (IDF) President N K Thingalaya said today.

Speaking at a workshop on 'Role and Responsibilities of NGOs as Business Facilitators and Business Correspondents,' organised by IDF, he said the banking sector should work towards ''voiceless growth'' to help financial inclusion of rural masses and very little had been achieved so far.

The banking sector should do much better to give voice to the rural mass in India. Unless this section of the poopulation achieve financial growth, the success story of economic growth would be short lived, he said.

The areas like 'jobless growth, ruthless, futureless growth bootless and voiceless growth' would not help the village community.

''What is the use if the GDP grow at nine per cent and the farmers are ignored. Even today, money lender rules the rural economy,'' he said.

Dr Thingalaya, the former Syndicate Bank CMD, said according to 1991 census, the private money lender provide 17 per cent loans in the villages and during last year this had gone up to 29.6 per cent. According to a survey, more than 51.4 per cent of farmer households were financially excluded from both formal and informal financial sources. Among the non-cultivator households nearly 80 per cent did not have access to credit and were living on marginal conditions.

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