Palakkad: Some three decades ago, Naxals tried to free the poor of Malabar from the clutches of greedy money lenders. Bitten by romanticism, they then used sickles and guns to silence them. In retrospect, one can’t help recall what flowed along the waters of Bharathapuzha. That too at a time when Palakkad—once the beehive of naxalite activity—has become the first district in all of India to achieve Total Financial Inclusion (TFI) status. It’s ironical, because TFI’s predominant aim is to weed out money lenders through a massive movement of the people.

“Today, every household here has a bank account. We achieved this task in September 2006 itself and we’ve notified RBI. Very soon, we’ll hold a massive function for formal announcement,” says K M Sathyanathan, manager, Canara Bank, which led a consortium of banks in this task. Ever since the State Level Bankers’ Committee picked up Palakkad for implementing its TFI programme following RBI’s annual policy statement for 2005-06, a total of 5,30,216 savings bank accounts were opened in the district. Of this, 1,40,343 were no frills accounts, opened with zero deposit. Now, it’s estimated that 3,89,873 accounts were opened with deposits ranging from Rs 300 to Rs 10 lakh. RBI’s annual policy had envisaged identification of at least one district in every state, including Union territories, for achieving 100% financial inclusion and issuance of general purpose credit cards towards extending need-based loans.