Master trainers & beneficiaries of 'Jaadu Ginni Ka'

Hyderabad: Vodafone India Foundation, the CSR arm of Vodafone Idea Ltd., and Learning Links Foundation announced the successful completion of the first year of their flagship programme on financial literacy – 'Jaadu Ginni Ka'.

Launched in May 2018, one of the largest awareness programmes on financial literacy - Jaadu Ginni Ka, aims to educate 13 million Indians on financial literary and help them come under the ambit of financial inclusion.

Vice President of India, Venkaiah Naidu, the chief guest at the celebrations held in Hyderabad on Friday, awarded the certificate of completion to beneficiaries and master trainers. The Vice President spoke about the importance of making all citizens financially secure and noted how financial literacy and inclusion were important steps in that direction. He complimented the efforts made by Vodafone Foundation and the Learning Links Foundation towards this.

P Chinna Thataiah, MD, Mission for Elimination of Poverty in Urban Areas (MEPMA), Govt. of Andhra Pradesh was also present at the felicitation ceremony in which two beneficiaries got an opportunity to share their life changing learning experience in front of the dignitaries.

'Jaadu Ginni Ka' programme comprises of useful real-world topics such as basic financial concepts, borrowings, investments, financial planning, digital financial tools etc, that can significantly help underserved sections of the society.

Developed in consultation with leading financial experts, Jaadu Ginni Ka content is published in 10 Indian languages and is available as a free download for Android devices.

Since the launch of the programme last year, it has reached out to more than 3.8 million beneficiaries – with almost half of them being women - across 16 states, and has positively impacted their lives by helping them take more informed decisions.

Government of Andhra Pradesh's Mission for Elimination of Poverty in Urban Areas (MEPMA) has partnered the programme and set a target of training 2 million Self Help Group (SHG) members across Andhra Pradesh. Thus far, 200,000 master trainers have graduated from the 'Jaadu Ginni Ka' program and started cascading it amongst communities and end beneficiaries.

Speaking about the programme, P Balaji, Director, Vodafone Foundation, said, "Vodafone Idea strongly believes in giving back to the society and this is firmly embedded in our mission statement. Our focussed CSR initiative, 'Jaadu Ginni Ka', is aimed at promoting financial literacy amongst citizens, especially women in India. Last year, we kicked off the programme in Andhra Pradesh through our partnership with the state Govt.'s MEPMA and have already trained 200,000 master trainers who are cascading the benefits to millions of people in the state. It is our honour to have the Hon'ble Vice President of India to bless this program and award the certificates to the trainers and beneficiaries."

Speaking at the event, Dr Anjaliee Prakash, Chairperson and Founder, Learning Links Foundation, said, "Financial literacy is important for every individual irrespective of age, gender and socio-economic status. It is the people of a country who make it successful. When we empower men and women, young and old, rich and poor to take wiser financial decisions, we ensure a powerful economic future for India."

Vodafone Idea's CSR programmes touched nearly 8 million people in 2018-19 and the company aims to reach out to an additional 10 million people by 2020 through a range of transformational programmes in education, health, livelihood improvement.