Financial Inclusion through Islamic Banking

Abstract

Financial inclusion is a buzz word today. It plays an important role in driving away the poverty from the country. Financial inclusion is the process of ensuring financial services to the weaker sections of the society at an affordable cost. As per the Sachar Committee Report, Muslims in India are financially excluded. Even though they have an account, the extent of usage is very low due to the religious reasons.  The Non-Muslims also do not actively engage in the formal financial system due to the interest involvement. Islamic Bank can serve as a remedy for the financial exclusion of the Muslims as well as Non-Muslims community. The objective of this paper is to understand the extent of financial inclusion among the people in Kerala and their awareness and preference towards Islamic banking. Both primary and secondary data are collected for the study. Secondary data are collected from various secondary sources like published articles, journals, reports, books and websites. Primary data are collected with the help of questionnaire among people in Kerala. The study revealed that most of the respondents have accessed bank accounts but the extent of usage is only for namesake. Moreover the awareness and preference towards Islamic Banking is very high among the Muslims as well as Non-Muslims and suggested that proper care must be taken for introducing Islamic banking system in India. It will ultimately leads to the inclusive growth of our country.