Why Dhan Gyan?

Youth financial literacy is often taken for granted. Most of the time it doesn’t really get the seriousness that it deserves. If you are not going to teach your teenage child about money, how do you expect them to manage their own money when they become adults? Financial education should be a continuous process, right from childhood to adulthood. Unfortunately, not even our learning institutions seem to recognize this fact. We tend to assume that people will somehow learn about money on their own. There needs to be a paradigm shift when it comes to financial literacy. 

The COVID-19 pandemic has endangered millions of lives around the globe and plunged several of those millions into a financial crisis. One of the critical lessons that the pandemic has taught us is the importance of being financially prepared. Financial education is a life skill which has a direct impact on one’s personal well-being. Basics like money management, savings, investing and debt can lay a strong foundation for money habits when imparted from a young age. Learning personal finances and important money skills at an early age provides lots of opportunities to apply them in real life. 

 The DhanGyan Programme, which has been discussed in great detail by the esteemed panelists, provides the youth with an opportunity to learn more about the realms of Budgeting, Insurance, Investments, Banking, Borrowing, the Working of the Stock Markets and even Retirement. Exploring these facets of financial literacy early on help mould the youth’s mind and prepare them to make sound decisions in the future.  

Schools may not teach every student to become a financially responsible citizen, but the DhanGyan programme does make up for the same. The benefits of  DhanGyan to the youth are four-fold in nature. 

Making a budget 

The DhanGyan programme helps one develop a basic understanding of how the financial world works and this in turn aids youngsters to formulate a basic budget for even the most trivial of matters in life such as deciding which is the best possible way to spend your pocket money or how much of the pocket money should you spend in the first place.

Education funds 

It is essential for students to understand how funding actually works in order to be better equipped with financial knowledge before entering a university. Students must know how funds are procured, the amount of funds needed, the limitations and the various schemes in place to aid the youth so that they may be able to make well informed decisions before heading off to a different university, a different country and onto financial independence in a way.  

 Understand and manage debts or loans 

Debt or loans have begun to become a popular source of financing education and understanding the concept of cash flow, taxes and how debts or loans work, helps students plan their finances better. A clear understanding of good and bad debts would help the youth make independent decisions with regards to their finances.  

 Retirement plan 

In a developing country like India, social security is not available to the younger generation. Hence even though retirement sounds as one of those far off things, to live comfortably even after retirement, one needs to save and invest as soon as they start earning. One needs to earn their financial freedom. 

 

Most policies and programmes in the field of economics tend to have something known as unintended consequences. The following unintended consequences of the DhanGyan programme could help encourage more youngsters to explore the same: 

It empowers them 

Information is power. The same thing applies to financial matters. Why do we go to school to learn about science, math and history? The answer is to empower us in those respective areas. Similarly, education about money being given the same priority as other disciples helps empower young people about money and how it works.  

 Financial illiteracy breeds ill-equipped adults 

Statistics indicate that young people who never received proper education on finances end up as irresponsible adults, particularly on financial matters. These behaviors are contrary to those of adults who were taught about money management while they were young. Such people are able to make informed financial decisions in their adulthood simply because they had a strong financial foundation in their youth. 

Lack of financial education makes it easy for youth to pick up bad financial habits 

Often, young people involved in poor money habits such as gambling had no or poor backgrounds in financial literacy. They can be easily influenced by others to engage in other poor financial habits. A person with a proper financial background won’t be easily lured to participate in activities such as gambling and Ponzi schemes which are basically investment frauds. 

 Financial literacy helps to better prepare the youth for emergencies 

Sometimes we are caught up in urgent situations that require large amounts of money. For a young person who is financially literate, it becomes a little easier to maneuver and come out of the situation compared to someone who is financially illiterate.  

 

Truth be told, the importance of financial literacy for our youth cannot be overemphasized. There’s nothing as dangerous as a financially illiterate youth. Someone who doesn’t have an idea on how to manage their finances can easily fall into vicious  financial traps. Teaching young people about money at an early age will impart them with vital knowledge and skills that will assist them to make informed decisions when it comes to financial matters and this has been made possible by the DhanGyan programme which is pivotal for this cause.  

 

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