Metamon by samirajain

DIPLOMA PROJECT MetaMon: Money Management Metaphor Sponsor : MicroSave, Lucknow

Volume : 1 STUDENT : SAMIRA JAIN PROGRAMME : Post-Graduate Diploma Programme

GUIDE : SHASHANK MEHTA

2013 STRATEGIC DESIGN MANAGEMENT

The Evaluation Jury recommends SAMIRA JAIN for the

Diploma of the National Institute of Design IN STRATEGIC DESIGN MANAGEMENT

herewith, for the project titled "METAMON: MONEY MANAGEMENT METAPHOR" on fulfilling the further requirements by

Chairman Members :

*Subsequent remarks regarding fulfilling the requirements :

Registrar(Academics)

Chapters 1

Introduction

Synopsis Acknowledgements About NID About SDM About the company

Project background

Project brief Project objectives Project time line Fundersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; speak Why this project?: The gaps Chapter summary

Understanding the target segment

Target segment Why this segment? What is poverty? Poverty is multidimensional Characteristics of poverty Poverty in the urban and rural contexts Poverty and livelihood Elements of livelihood flows Livelihood assets: five categories of capital Theories of poverty and decision-making Poverty & spending behaviour Weddings of the poor: a big expense Associations of money in India Chapter summary

Money management

The meaning of money How do the poor manage risk Financial services for the poor Comparison study

The problem area

The crux of money management The mobile bank Problem area The solution Stakeholders The common platform Why this? Why a metaphor: Objectives

Metaphors

What is a metaphor? Understanding metaphors What is a contextual metaphor A few fine metaphors: clusters and systems Types of metaphors The others: differences Metaphors: relative, objective, contextual The context of metaphors Metaphor: a tool Visual metaphors Metaphors in political cartoons Metaphors in advertising Metaphors in games Interacting with metaphors The desktop metaphor Internet: a wide web of metaphors What is the right metaphor? The metaphorical associations of money Search for a good metaphor Chapter summary

Methodology

Approach Getting inspiration for the metaphor The working of a metaphor Mapping the target and the domain Research design Research questions The field guide Pilot testing Research methods Research tools Aids Scope of enquiry Potential challenges

Primary research

Which poor people are we concerned with Place of research About KGFS Profiles Data collection Focus group discussions

continued...

Analysis

Observations How it works: income Situations Goals/objectives Storage of wealth Assets Emergencies Framework Summary

Synthesis

Redefined brief Components: physical space psychological space personas Summary of insights

Ideation

Approach Clustering Concept representation

Conclusion

Way forward Implementation Strategy Challenges ahead Learnings Experience

MetaMon: Money Managment Metaphor

Chapter 1: Introduction Synopsis Acknowledgements About NID About SDM About the company

Introduction

Synopsis In recent years, much detailed research has gone into understanding the financial lives of the poor, through financial diaries, standardized household surveys, targeted market research, focus group discussions and ethnographic accounts. Evidence gathered from these methods shows that the poor still use expensive and clumsy credit as well as ham fisted savings techniques that leave them unshielded against financial disaster – this despite commercial, government and NGO efforts to champion the cause of inclusion. Despite the streams of data that are now available about the financial lives of the poor, most financial product development is not incorporating sufficient customer insight. One reason may lie in a failure to condense and abstract the knowledge into something that is more directly useful to innovativelyminded service providers. More fundamentally though, current research methods are effective in telling us what the poor do and don’t do, but not in telling us what drives their habits and decisions. There is lack of insight into the subterranean minds of the poor; the studies are charting only what happens at the surface. Without grasping deeper cues that inform financial behaviour, suppliers of financial services to the poor continue to pump out irrelevant, or even harmful, financial products. In an attempt to break away from this approach, project Metamon was born – a vision to understand what people think, rather than what they do. We

needed a common platform, by means of which the customers and the service providers could connect. This, in our opinion required a creative outlook rather than an analytical one. We condensed the data into a range of metaphors to creatively visualize the money management practices and decisions of the low-income groups. We saw metaphors as a tool to explain the unknown through the use of simple, known concepts familiar both to the consumers and well as the service providers. These would do two things for us: (i) validate our findings, if the metaphors resonated with the respondents themselves, and (ii) engage the service industry, which has so far been bombarded with charts and reports, in researchers’ intellectualized language.

their finances which they don’t feel comfortable sharing. This way we could introduce more variety of questions and situations, beyond their own personal circumstances, which might help us get a fuller and faster understanding of their attitudes towards money management. It was difficult at first to get people to talk to us, and the conversations would invariably move towards financial specifics of the household. There would be gaps in information that would arouse our curiosity to discover the ‘truth’. But soon, with the aid of our research techniques such as situation building, story telling, mind mapping etc., we began to understand their reactions and behaviours to the situations that they face in their lives.

A team of five (a mix of financial inclusion experts and creatives), we started out at the foothills of the Himalayas in Chamba, Uttarakhand, to explore the minds of the people in the small town and the surrounding villages. The challenge was to engage people without making them uncomfortable, so we could understand their attitude towards money management, without forming biases based on their observed choices and outcomes.

The project had two outcomes: an abstract financial model which synthesized a household’s financial strategies and the mental models surrounding them. The other outcome was of course the metaphors – a stab at creative solutions for the financial service industry to better relate to and connect with their customers. We hoped that these metaphors would relay people’s mindsets, their way of thinking and also the strategies they employ to counter certain situations.

We realized that we would have to develop our own set of research tools. We wanted to engage interview subjects more openly, without fear that they will be revealing private information about

Our goal was to come with a metaphor that is universal: it can be used in as many places as possible with as many people. But we decided to first study a group of people, derive insights and a metaphor

Introduction

that is relevant to them. We could take the developed metaphor and test it to see whether it resonated with other groups of people as well. With this project we hope that, with the insights we provide can be used to create products wherein the mobile phone can be more than a payment instrument â&#x20AC;&#x201C; it should be a more comprehensive tool for managing oneâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s money. The services presented on the phone should reflect the mental models that people carry in their minds, and should incorporate the discipline devices that people already use in their daily lives. Use of digitized financial services should naturally follow from the digitalization of entrenched money management practices.

The ultimate objective is being able to design a single, mobile-enabled, mass-customizable experience that puts customersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; goals and needs as the basis for the interactions between the bank and its customers.

Samira Jain | NID | SDM | Diploma Project | MicroSave | 2013

Introduction

Acknowledgements Many thanks to:

MicroSave For providing me with the opportunity to work on this project. Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation For funding the project and giving us their valuable inputs and feedback. Ignacio Mas For guiding us throughout this project with his valuable insights, understanding and experience. Premasis Mukherjee For taking care of all the logistics. Shashank Mehta For guiding me personally, for being patient and sharing his invaluable knowledge with me. For making this project successful. The entire Team Metamon For their support, motivation and making the experience such an enjoyable one. KGFS For their cooperation and for helping us find respondents.

Vipin For accompanying us throughout our time in Uttarakhand. Driving us through such rough terrain and helping us reach respondents without any problems. The people of Uttarakhand For being so hospitable, cooperative and providing us with all the information without which this project would not have been accomplished. The Institute For providing all the resources and guidance when it was needed. Also, for helping me approach the project with more confidence. Fellow NIDians, my friends For being so supportive. For sharing their knowledge and experiences with me. My family For being so understanding and motivating me throughout the duration of my project as well as in life. Thank you. I will always appreciate your contributions to this project.

â&#x20AC;&#x153;People seldom improve when they have no other model but themselves to copy â&#x20AC;&#x153; Oliver Goldsmith

Introduction

About NID The National Institute of Design (NID) is internationally acclaimed as one of the foremost multi- disciplinary institutions in the field of design education and research. The institute functions as an autonomous body under the department of industrial policy & promotion, ministry of commerce & industry, Government of India. NID is recognized by the Department Of Scientific & Industrial Research (DSIR) under ministry of Science & Technology, Government of India, as a scientific and industrial design research organization.

The postgraduate campus at the National Institute of Design, Gandhinagar, was established on 19 July 2004 to move the postgraduate courses from the heritage campus, National Institute of Design in Ahmedabad, as part of the expansion plan. Disciplines currently offered at the PG Campus are New Media Design (NMD), Strategic Design Management (SDM), Lifestyle Accessory Design (LAD), Toy and Game Design (TGD), Transport and Automobile Design (TAD), Photography Design (PHD) and Apparel Design and Merchandising (ADM).

It was as result of the Industrial Policy Resolution of 1953 that the government of India invited the design team of Charles and Ray Eames to recommend a programme of design to serve as an aid to small industries in India. On the basis of their document, ‘The India Report’, the government of India set up the National Institute of Design in 1961 as an autonomous national institution for research, service and training in Industrial Design and Visual Communication. NID has been a pioneer in industrial design education after Bauhaus and Ulm in Germany and is known for its pursuit of design excellence to make designed in India, made for the World, a reality. NID’s graduates have made a mark in key sectors of commerce, industry and social development by taking role of catalysts and through thought leadership.

Samira Jain | NID | SDM | Diploma Project | MicroSave | 2013

Introduction

About Strategic Design Management Strategic design management is concerned with integrative and collaborative business management requiring a new breed of managers who are skilled at working with a wide range of multi- disciplinary inputs and diverse team members in order to achieve holistic and sustainable business solutions. The Strategic Design Management (SDM) educational program is conducted within a design thinking framework. The program is project-oriented, human-centered, and interactive in approach. It culminates in an industrybased project with a view to connect students with the business world, and develop their skills and confidence in working with the real-life situations. The SDM students can specialize in specific areas such as user research, branding, retail design and management, new product development, environmental design, and social development. They can also perform applied research in design management with a view to develop new tools, methods and processes. Rated as the 15th best design management program world over by Bloomberg Business Week. The students and graduates from the discipline get to work on exciting assignments covering a large number of issues and with domains such as business stakeholders, social organizations, educational institutions and design and management consultancy organizations.

Introduction

About the Company MicroSave is an international financial inclusion

Sectors

consulting firm operating in ten offices around the

Microfinance and Banking

world, eight of which are in developing countries, for 15 years.

Digital Financial Services Private Sector Development

Mission

To alleviate poverty through providing real insights to and enhancing the capacities of businesses across different industries that provide financial inclusion and other socioeconomic development services and products. Approach

They believe in providing customer-driven solutions. When working with clients, the focus is to understand the real business needs and challenges. Time is dedicated to visit the ultimate low-income customers, in their homes to understand their circumstances, aspirations and difficulties. MicroSave believes that only through identifying the true needs and limitations can they provide high-quality, accessible, and affordable solutions to the consulting clients and their customers.

MSME Financing Responsible Finance Services

Offer end-to-end consulting services -- research to diagnose the problem, a strategy that addresses key issues, and support during implementation. Range of services include: Organization strategy and governance Institutional Strengthening and Capacity Building Marketing and Customer Service Product Development and Channel Innovation Trainings and Workshops Donor Programme and Policy Advocacy

MicroSave Market-led solutions for financial services

Samira Jain | NID | SDM | Diploma Project | MicroSave | 2013

Chapter 2: Project Background Project brief Project objectives Project time line Fundersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; speak Why this project?: The gaps Chapter summary

Project Background

Project Brief To develop the basic mental metaphors that drive decision-making and behaviour in the financial lives of the poor. The development of such metaphors can then more directly guide the practical development of financial products and tools that help people manage their money more effectively and at lower total cost.

Project Background

Project Objectives This project aims to shed light on a key link in the conceptual chain: the basic mental metaphors that drive decision-making and behaviour in the financial lives of the poor. The brief proposes to do this project at a high level of abstraction, using creative rather than analytical processes: by trying to tease out fairly universal metaphors by which people decide how to manage their money. The development of such metaphors can then more directly guide the practical development of financial products and tools that help people manage their money more effectively and at lower total cost. Key objective 1: To develop a â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;money management metaphorâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; as a mental model of how the customers manage their finances today, that will be later used in helping them understand and relate with what is being proposed to them in the form of financial products.

(building public commitment, signalling success or claiming social status); and (iii)certainty (knowing money is accounted for and safe, and getting a predictable return) versus surprise (feeling the elation of breaking the piggybank, or reaping an unexpected reward through a lottery).

We hope that developing such metaphors can then more directly guide the practical development of financial products and tools that help people manage their money more effectively and at lower total cost.

Key objective 4: The metaphor should be broadly representative, in the sense of being relevant across most people in most countries and sufficiently abstracted form of detail to fit many people and circumstances. The way the metaphor is expressed might need to be adjusted to make it culturally resonant, but the main thrust or plot would need to be fairly universal.

Key objective 2: To develop a metaphor that is expressed vividly and succinctly, so that it can be conveyed quickly through a variety of mediums. Key objective 3: The metaphor should capture the main tensions that underpin peopleâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s financial management practices, such as (i)liquidity (having the flexibility to meet changing goals and circumstances) versus discipline (worrying about tomorrow, avoiding decision fatigue); (ii)privacy (avoiding theft and social pressures to share bounties) versus social display Samira Jain | NID | SDM | Diploma Project | MicroSave | 2013

Project Background

Project Timeline

January Secondary research Research design Primary research Analysis Synthesis Ideation Final deliverable

February

March

April

Project Background

Funders’ Speak THE GOAL

To alleviate poverty by expanding access to digitallybased financial tools and services. THE CHALLENGE

Poor people do not live in a static state of poverty. Every year, many millions of people transition out of poverty by successfully adopting new farming technologies, investing in new business opportunities, or finding new jobs. At the same time, large numbers of people fall back into poverty due to health problems, financial setbacks, and other shocks. If available at critical moments, effective tools for savings, payment, credit, and insurance can help households capture an opportunity to climb out of poverty or weather crisis or emergency without falling deeper into poverty. Worldwide, approximately 2.5 billion people do not have a formal account at a financial institution, according to the World Bank’s Global Financial Inclusion Database. As a result, most poor households operate almost entirely in the cash economy, particularly in the developing world. This means they use cash, physical assets (such as jewellery and livestock), or informal providers (such as money lenders and payment couriers) to meet their financial needs—from receiving wages to saving money for fertilizer. However, these informal mechanisms tend to be insecure, expensive, and complicated to use.

And they offer limited recourse when major problems arise, such as a serious illness in the family. THE OPPORTUNITY

A growing body of evidence suggests that increasing poor people’s access to better financial tools can help accelerate the rate at which they move out of poverty and help them hold on to economic gains. However, it is costly to serve poor people with financial services, in part because most of their transactions are conducted in cash. Storing, transporting, and processing cash is expensive for banks, insurance companies, utility companies and other institutions and they pass on those costs to customers. The global revolution in mobile communications, along with rapid advances in digital payment systems, is creating opportunities to connect poor households to affordable and reliable financial tools through mobile phones and other digital interfaces. In fact, research has shown that the most effective way to significantly expand poor people’s access to formal financial services is through digital means. In addition to cost savings, digital financial services offer a wide array of benefits: They connect poor people to the formal financial sector and enable them to become customers and suppliers within the wider economy. Financial flows can be accurately tracked, resulting

in safer and speedier transactions and less corruption and theft. Providers can use financial histories to develop products that are better suited to customers’ needs, cash flow, and risk profiles, including fee-for-service offerings and smaller-unit transactions. Direct deposits (including wages and government assistance) allow money to “bypass” the home, helping users save rather than spend and often giving women more financial authority within the family. Automatic reminders, positive default options, and other choices offered via mobile phone menus offer convenience and save time. THE STRATEGY

We conduct research and nurture innovations that could lead to longer term improvements in delivering digital financial services on a broad scale.

http://www.gatesfoundation.org/What-We -Do/GlobalDevelopment/Financial-Services-for-the-Poor Samira Jain | NID | SDM | Diploma Project | MicroSave | 2013

Project Background

Why this Project: The Gaps

Gap 1: Mobile/digital money has a huge potential for expansion; it is seen largely as a means of payment but with little credit or storage of value

The mobile revolution has changed the face of India, even the poorest of the poor is connected with a mobile phone. This is the cheapest, fastest and the best medium, one can reach to those people. Therefore, this medium has a lot of potential for expansion of branchless banking services in the country. In fact, a paradigm shift is arriving which is necessary for inclusive growth of the country. Revolution at the Door Step by Mohd Mustaquim, http://www. ruralmarketing.org/

There has traditionally been a stark access barrier to financial services for the mass market in developing countries. Banks simply have not had the infrastructure and business model to deal with large numbers of low-value clients on a cost effective basis. Mobile phones are increasingly breaking the access barrier, and mobile money schemes are proliferating in many countries. But we are now seeing a relevance barrier: most mass-market customers with a bank or mobile money account simply do not use it very much or often, especially for storing value. For most people, mobile or digital money is only fulfilling half the role of money: as a means of payment, not as a store of value. This reality puts into question the broader impact of those accounts in customersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; lives, and even the potential to transform the payments landscape. People prefer to pay in whatever form of money they hold their value. If money is held physically, it is doubtful that electronic payments will make inroads into daily payments, and will remain relegated to situations where physical money really is at a disadvantage (mainly payments that are larger in size, occurring over longer distances, or in particularly unsafe environments). Why do so many people not value electronic accounts for their store-of-value or credit enhancement features? This likely happens because digital accounts in their current form are not compatible with many

of the informal money management practices that people are habituated to and comfortable with, such as fragmentation and mental earmarking of money earned, indivisibility and delayed liquidity of many physical savings instruments, social exchanges and peer pressure, etc.

Project Background: The Gaps

Financial services are a means to an end, and a full financial service is one where customers are presented with various options to achieve their objectives.

With today’s mobile money platforms, the value proposition for keeping money digital and driving up usage of digital payments is still thin. Mobile money is built on speed (real-time clearing) and liquidity (thousands of merchants where you can cash in and out). It is ready cash (an immediately accessible mobile wallet), cash to go (person-to-person money transfers, bill pay). But mobile money is a flexible tool that can be expanded from making payments now to helping people earmark funds for and build up to the things they want to pay for tomorrow. Savings and credit enable a shifting of expenditures in time. Therefore, savings and credit services are a logical extension of a payments service.

interactions are infrequent and not very consistent. In one month, a bank client typically listens to one bank advertisement on the radio or TV and walks over to a branch once, which means that communication is very limited and mostly one way. In this setting, the bank’s promotion has to be as simple as possible, and that means making it product driven. But when banks (or alternative financial service providers) and their clients are connected by mobile phones, the potential exists for the relationship to be much more frequent and interactive. There is less pressure to propose the right products to customers from the outset, because customers will guide banks on an ongoing basis as to what they need.

The sheer magnitude of the financial inclusion gap— 70 percent of households in developing countries are unbanked—calls for pretty radical solutions. We need to overcome an access barrier (last mile infrastructure), a relevance barrier (right-sized products and services), and a usability barrier (friendly and intuitive customer experience). These three aspects must come together at the marketing level to answer the three main questions customers will have: (1) what is it, what does it do; (2) why should I use it, what are the benefits; and (3) how does it work, where can I use it? Customer

To break out of this dilemma, what we need is a single mobile-enabled customizable experience that puts customers’ goals and needs as the basis for the interactions between the bank and its customers. The key driver for this experience will be less the underlying financial products that fulfill the service and more the user interface and customer information management systems that guide the interactions. The new microfinance handbook, Beyond Products: Building Integrated Customer Experiences on Mobile Phones

Samira Jain | NID | SDM | Diploma Project | MicroSave | 2013

Project Background: The Gaps

Gap 2: Research has tended to document what people actually do, less so what they think

In recent years, much detailed research has gone into understanding the financial lives of the poor, through financial diaries, standardized household surveys, targeted market research, focus group discussions and ethnographic accounts. Many of these field research efforts have been focused on telling us what the poor do and don’t do in increasing levels of detail, and much less on telling us what drives their decisions. It is hard to infer a model of the thinking brain by observing a history of financial transactions: we are left with mountains of data and lots of guesswork. We have lacked insight into the inner workings of the minds of the poor, and we chart mainly what happens at the surface. To understand the breach between desired outcomes and available options, let us look at two oft-cited examples of published work. Stuart Rutherford’s The Poor and their Money (PaM) simply and powerfully explains how various financial services available to poor people complement or substitute for each other: savings accounts, loans and ROSCAs are ways to save up, save down and save through. Portfolios of the Poor (PoP) neatly and didactically synthesizes how financial services can result in improvement

in people’s lives, by helping households smooth consumption, plan for investments and absorb shocks. Definitive and compelling as these two books are, there is a space in between them that seems yet unfilled: by what mental processes do people bridge the gap between the outcomes they seek (smoother consumption, more investment, lower risk – per PoP) and the instruments they have available (savings, credit, ROSCA – per PaM)*?

understanding about the functioning of the human brain, we need a fuller, more approximative and abstracted model of financial decision-making by the poor. We propose to do so by teasing out fairly universal metaphors by which people decide how to manage their money. We seek to develop these metaphors through a creative rather than analytical process.

The burgeoning research on behavioural economics applied to financial matters, goes in the direction of filling this gap. Daniel Kahneman’s Thinking Fast and Slow shows how many decisions are driven by simple heuristic responses rather than resulting from more deliberate optimization incorporating all available evidence. This creates a number of psychological biases which drive a wedge between what people say they might do on cool reflection and what they do in reality. Understanding these biases and heuristic decision-making mechanisms can help build a more realistic model of actual household financial management. In principle, it can also help us conceive of mechanisms that either reinforce or override them as appropriate, in order to lead people to better outcomes for themselves. But we are far from developing such a cognitive model of the brain, and the research is by necessity fragmentary. Given the important gaps in our

* PoP- Portfolios of the Poor by Daryl Collins, Jonathan Morduch, Stuart Rutherford, Orlanda Ruthven PaM- Poor and their Monay by Stuart Rutherford

Project Background: The Gaps

Gap 3: It is hard to aggregate a plethora of customer insights into a product development logic

Broader product take-up cannot happen in the absence of an appropriate customer experience or user interface layer which makes it easy for customers to:

The data available is fragmented and has not been condensed into one structure by which innovativelyminded service providers can draw direct co- relations between customers and products that they should use. We donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t have established ways of aggregating the granular knowledge that is being collected from the field into higher-level constructs that capture the logic without all the detail.

(i) relate financial services to how they think about their finances, and their needs and goals more broadly; (ii) discover new financial services or service features (on their own, or prompted by the provider); and (iii) understand how to use new services, in the light of their previous experience using other services.

Samira Jain | NID | SDM | Diploma Project | MicroSave | 2013

Project Background: The Gaps

Gap 4: So many products and such difficulties in marketing them

The search for relevance and the increasing mass of research data being generated, is taking us down the path of fragmenting customersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; financial needs into ever finer slices, so that we can tailor products to each need. But how realistic is it to expect customers, who do not have direct physical contact with their mobile or branchless banking provider, to discover the existence, the benefits and the rules of use of an increasingly wide range of financial services? Do we really expect or even want poorly trained and supervised agents to be promoting these services with customers?

India has a large unbanked population. With the widespread reach that Airtel has, Airtel Money is an attempt to bridge that financial inclusion gap. The difficulties faced by those citizens who are living in remote areas or villages are many. One of those is going to a far bank/post-office to get cash. And if they do not have a bank account, then they are considered out of the banking financial system. No efforts have been taken by Airtel mobile money to reach to these customers. Review about Airtel money

â&#x20AC;&#x153;One major problem that we face in rural areas is that of trained workforce. Financial illiteracy and poor infrastructure in rural areas are also major challenges. Even security remains a major worry in far flung areas and we have to identify some touch points, where our Banking Correspondents can work safely.â&#x20AC;?

Eko marketing their products in rural India

M Narendra, CMD, Indian Overseas Bank

Project Background

Chapter Summary The challenge

The project wants to bridge the gap between what the customer thinks and needs/wants and what the service provider has to offer.

What do they want?

Affordable financial services

Convenience & availability

Sustainable business opportunity

Financial life

Cater to the mass market of unbanked population

Product development

Untapped market

Reflection

Scope for expansion in terms of the services that the consumers need

Consumers do not see themselves reflected in the interface therefore find it hard to understand

Relevance

It is hard to customize for every individual and a more cohesive structure is required

Information gap

With more service options it is a task to inform the customers given the resources at hand

Samira Jain | NID | SDM | Diploma Project | MicroSave | 2013

Chapter 3: Understanding the target segment Target segment Why this segment? What is poverty? Poverty is multidimensional Characteristics of poverty Poverty in the urban and rural contexts Poverty and livelihood Elements of livelihood flows Livelihood assets: five categories of capital Theories of poverty and decision-making Poverty & spending behaviour Weddings of the poor: a big expense Associations of money in India Chapter summary

Understanding the Target Segment

Target Segment

Who? This work is largely about poor people. But it is not their meagre means that defines our target segment: instead it is the absence of formally contracted and fully salaried employment. Our focus is on people who are not guaranteed a livelihood by anyone. The informally, self- or unemployed form a large majority in all developing countries, and they do tend to be poorer, in general, than the formally employed. The salaried experience income as a steady drip, and this makes financial planning relatively straightforward. But if no one is guaranteeing you an income, you cannot live

Who are the poor?

There are a range of factors which poor people identify as part of poverty. These include:

Poor people do not have enough food, clothing, education or health care; they live in areas that are prone to disease, crime and natural disasters. Their basic civil and human rights are often nonexistent. Being poor means being deprived economically, politically and socially. It means:

Precarious livelihoods Excluded locations Physical limitations Gender relationships Problems in social relationships Lack of security Abuse by those in power Dis-empowering institutions Limited capabilities Weak community organizations

Few assets or opportunities; Low achievement as a result of inadequate education, health care and other basic social services; Higher vulnerability to natural disasters, conflict, crime, disease and other dangers; Little to no power over decisions that affect people’s lives Mathilde Snel, GRID-Arendal, UNEP

A poor person is someone who, compared to their fellow citizens, doesn’t have much money. Just because you are poor does not mean that all your expenditure will be in small sums.

by rules. Besides having to deal with greater income variability, you are also likely to have much greater exposure to expenditure shocks. Ignacio mas, project leader

The great irony of being poor is that you are ‘too poor to save, but too poor not to save’ Stuart Rutherford, The poor and their money

The World Bank’s “Voices of the Poor,” based on research with over 20,000 poor people in 23 countries

The poor live on the margins and inflows are highly unpredictable. Even the seemingly well-off feel the pinch of job and economic uncertainty and the pressure to generate greater incomes for themselves and their extended families. The cash flows of the poor are not just smaller, they are fundamentally different in nature, and that has a profound ripple effect on salient financial management decisions. FSD Insights, Financial capability and the poor: are we missing the mark?, Issue 02 Dec 2010

Understanding the Target Segment

Why this Segment

Proper financial planning is important for everyone. But we focus on the informal majority because financial planning plays a much more pervasive role in their lives. It is so much more top of the mind, and at the same time more instinctive. This means that they are particularly vulnerable to those heuristic biases which are inherent in habitual, almost instinctive decision-making.

The unbanked is estimated to exceed 2 billion people worldwide and this isnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t a problem limited to the emerging economies. Financial exclusion looms large in several growing economies across the world and not only reflects but also contributes to the stark socioeconomic divide that exists in these economies. In most countries, financial exclusion is a phenomenon which is restricted to rural areas where accessibility is limited and the population density is substantially lower. However, recently the phenomenon has also been observed in urban areas where some segment of the populace remains financially excluded in spite of the existence of bank branches, due to constraints such as access timings, and income potential.

Financial inclusion has a role to play both as a means to empower the poor and also as a market expansion opportunity.

For banks, this is a massive opportunity to serve a new demographic and tap into the previously untouched wallets of the unbanked. Traditional methods of serving the unbanked-ATMs and the banking correspondent model - have achieved tepid results. It is becoming increasingly clear that mobile is the way forward. Achieving Financial Inclusion by Leveraging Mobile Technology, Infosys

Samira Jain | NID | SDM | Diploma Project | MicroSave | 2013

Understanding the Target Segment

What is Poverty? Poverty is pronounced deprivation in well-being, and comprises many dimensions. It includes low incomes and the inability to acquire the basic goods and services necessary for survival with dignity. Poverty also encompasses low levels of health and education, poor access to clean water and sanitation, inadequate physical security, lack of voice, and insufficient capacity and opportunity to better one’s life.

In Ethiopia they say it is “[living from] hour to hour”; in Jamaica “living in bondage, waiting to be free” ; in Cambodia “working for more than 18 hours a day, but still not having enough to feed [yourself]” Mathilde Snel, GRID-Arendal, UNEP

Worldbank

Fundamentally, poverty is a denial of choices and opportunities, a violation of human dignity. It means lack of basic capacity to participate effectively in society. It means not having enough to feed and clothe a family, not having a school or clinic to go to, not having the land on which to grow one’s food or a job to earn one’s living, not having access to credit. It means insecurity, powerlessness and exclusion of individuals, households and communities. It means susceptibility to violence, and it often implies living in marginal or fragile environments, without access to clean water or sanitation. United Nations

Needs which are unmet can be defined only in relative terms to the society in which they are found. The needs which are believed to be basic or absolute, can be shown to be relative. Poverty must be regarded as a general form of relative deprivation which is the effect of misdistribution of resources, and that section of the population whose resources are so depressed from the means of enjoying the benefits and participating in the activities which are customary in that society, can be said to be in poverty. Peter Townsend, International Analysis of Poverty

There is more to it than income Poverty refers to lack of physical necessities, assets, and income. It includes but is more than being income-poor. Poverty can be distinguished from other dimensions of deprivation such as physical weakness, isolation, vulnerability and powerlessness with which it interacts Robert Chambers, 1983, Rural Development: Putting the Last First, Longman, Harlow

Income poverty is only one part of the overall concept of poverty – or deprivation as it is also called. Poverty can be defined as a condition in which a person is deprived of the essentials for a minimum standard of well-being and life. Therefore, poverty does not only refer to material resources, such as money, food or housing, but also to social resources, such as access to education and health care or meaningful relations with other people. Poverty may be defined either in absolute or in relative terms; relative poverty refers to a deprivation in relation to the conditions prevailing in a country. Income poverty in the European Union, European Working Conditions Observatory(EWCO)

Understanding the Target Segment

What is income poverty? ’Poverty’ has to be given scientifically acceptable universal meaning and measurement. Poverty is then defined as low income. This is the normal meaning of poverty among economists, and is used for measuring poverty lines, for comparing groups and regions, and often for assessing progress or backsliding within poverty in development.

“Poverty” is used in two main senses: in its first, common usage in development, it is a broad, blanket word used to refer to the whole spectrum of deprivation and ill being; in its second usage, poverty has a narrow technical definition for purposes of measurement and comparison. Poverty is then defined as low income, as it is reported, recorded and analysed, or often as low consumption, which is easier to measure. The Experience of Poverty: Fighting for Respect and Resources in Village India, Tony Beck, 1994

Peter Townsend

A poverty line based on income, expenditures or consumption is used to group people according to how far below or above the line they fall.

Who are the working poor? The working poor are working people whose incomes fall below a given poverty line. Depending on how one defines “working” and “poverty,” someone may or may not be counted as part of the working poor. The wages the working poor receive are insufficient to provide basic necessities and lead to people making choices between having food on the table or having a table. Because of low wages, the working poor face numerous obstacles that make it difficult for many of them to find and keep a job, save up money, and maintain a sense of self-worth.

Relative poverty vs Absolute poverty Relative poverty views poverty as socially defined and dependent on social context, hence relative poverty is a measure of income inequality. Usually, relative poverty is measured as the percentage of population with income less than some fixed proportion of median income .

Absolute poverty was defined as “a condition characterised by severe deprivation of basic human needs, including food, safe drinking water, sanitation facilities, health, shelter, education and information. It depends not only on income but also on access to services.” The term ‘absolute poverty’ is sometimes synonymously referred to as ‘extreme poverty.

Economic aspects of poverty focus on material needs, typically including the necessities of daily living, such as food, clothing, shelter, or safe drinking water. Poverty in this sense may be understood as a condition in which a person or community is lacking in the basic needs for a minimum standard of well-being and life, particularly as a result of a persistent lack of income. Copenhagen Declaration

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Understanding the Target Segment

Poverty is Multidimensional Poverty has various clusters of meaning: The first is income-poverty or its common proxy consumption-poverty. Economists usually use the word poverty in this reference. Poverty is what can be and has been measured, and measurement and comparisons provide endless scope for debate. The second cluster of meanings is material lack or want. Besides income, this includes lack of or little wealth and lack or low quality of other assets such as shelter, clothing, furniture, personal means of transport, radios or television, etc. This also tends to include no or poor access to services. A third cluster of meanings derives from Amartya Sen, and is expressed as capability deprivation, referring to what we can or cannot do, can or cannot be. This includes but goes beyond material lack or want to include human capabilities, for example skills and physical abilities, and also self-respect in society. What is Poverty? Who asks? Who answers?, Robert Chambers, Institute of Development Studies, Sussex, UK

Types of poverty dimensions

Economic dimensions of Wellbeing Physiological dimensions of Wellbeing Socioeconomic resource dimensions Sociocultural dimensions of Wellbeing

The fourth category, sociocultural dimensions encompasses those variables that attempt to identify well-being in terms of an individualâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s sense of belonging, their inclusion in society and social networks and their ability to participate in the society and the social dynamic. Matthew Hammill, Social Affairs Officer, Social Development Unit, Subregional Headquarters of ECLAC/Mexico

The first category of economic dimensions of wellbeing includes standard dimensions of economic well-being such as income and consumption. This category is one of the most commonly used for selecting dimensions to assess and measure poverty. The second category of physiological dimensions would include a subset of those dimensions commonly known in development literature as unsatisfied basic needs (UBNs) and the variables would measure well-being in basic physiological conditions such as adequate food and shelter for survival. The third category of socioeconomic needs includes those needs related to dimensions important for the socioeconomic well-being of the individual but not included in other categories, such as education and access to health care.

Poverty in Focus, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), December 2006

Understanding the Target Segment

Characteristics of Poverty To assess the dimensions and magnitude of poverty, information is needed not only about the number of people who live below a given poverty line, but also how many of those people experience: Severe and long periods of poverty (are destitute, with no assets or income); Chronic poverty (are permanently destitute or suffer long periods of poverty); Transient poverty (suffer seasonal or temporary deprivations because of illness or loss of employment); Recent poverty (arising from sudden shocks such as disasters, violent conflict or unexpected economic changes). FAO

Multidimensional

Contextually defined

Deprivations are not only related to basic material resources such as food, shelter and medical treatment, but also to social resources such as access to education, information and respect.

People are not poor in an absolute sense, but in relation to a particular socioeconomic context. Diverse contexts create different shared expectations of the goods needed for a decent life. The meaning and relevance of key poverty indicators also vary according to the availability and costs of public goods such as shared food and grazing, transport facilities, water and information.

Complex and dynamic

The conditions of poverty are interconnected, shared among people experiencing similar hardships and difficult to overcome. For example, weak social institutions, poor education and gaps in information flows restrict livelihood opportunities, perpetuating inadequate access to income and food, which continues the cycle of collective poverty and transmits it to the next generation.

Food And Agricultural Organization (FAO) of the United Nations

Learning: Understanding the characteristics of poverty

Avoidable

The idea of poverty implies that measures can be taken to prevent it. It also suggests that, in general, poor people need help from non-poor people to escape from poverty.

would help define the complexity of the target groupâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s situations. This would also help in the recruitment process as we were concerned with people who practiced some level of money management and were not suffering from extreme or chronic poverty.

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Understanding the Target Segment

What is deprivation?

What is vulnerability?

Indicators of deprivations of poverty include:

Vulnerability is not synonymous with poverty, but refers to defencelessness, insecurity and exposure to risk, shocks and stress. Vulnerability is reduced by assets, such as: human investment in health and education; productive assets including houses and domestic equipment; access to community infrastructure; stores of money, jewellery and gold; and claims on other households, patrons, the government and international community for resources at times of need

Income: the lack of means to purchase basic goods and services; Consumption: inadequate access to basic goods such as food and water; Capability: insufficient knowledge, health or skills to fulfil normal livelihood functions; Living conditions: poor housing, unhealthy or dangerous environment, and bad social relations

Chambers 1995, cited by Wratten 1995

FAO

Assets and Vulnerability

Deprivation can be conceptualized as a continuum which ranges from no deprivation through mild, moderate and severe deprivation to extreme deprivation

After one poor crop, we need three good harvests to return to normal. â&#x20AC;&#x201D;Vietnam 1999

I sold my land and now I have nothing. I can never buy my land back because the prices go up every year. â&#x20AC;&#x201D;Tanzania 1997 Dr David Gordon, Professor of Social Justice, School for Policy Studies, University of Bristol

The Multi- Dimensional Poverty Index (MPI), devised by Sabina Alkire and her colleagues at the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative.

Understanding the Target Segment

Poverty in the Urban and Rural Contexts Poverty is multidimensional. It varies in scale and context (political, social, cultural, ecological, historical, economic). The rural poor face different challenges from those in urban areas: they are concerned with natural resources (access, quality), whereas the urban poor care about access to energy, housing and sanitation, and about the quality and availability of water. Poor people have few economic opportunities due to lack of jobs, limited or unaffordable access to credit and markets, inadequate education, and restricted access to land and water. The rural poor often subsist through agriculture, fishing and gathering forest products, while many urban poor generate meagre livings from wage labour, petty hawking, provision of low-cost transport services and other activities.

For lack of other options, poor people are sometimes forced to scavenge, beg or engage in illegal activities (drug trafficking, prostitution). The poor suffer from sickness, illiteracy, limited mobility or disability. They have inadequate nutrition, lower life expectancy, higher risk of disease, and lack access to affordable health care and basic education, resulting in low school attendance and achievement. Yet it is the poor who often work the longest hours, in the most dismal conditions. Poverty leads to insecure livelihoods because poor people are often forced to live in unsafe, unclean housing and in areas prone to crime, conflict, natural disasters and pollution. Many urban poor can only afford badly built housing in areas where pollution and crime rates are high, while the rural poor often live on the less productive, degraded lands.

Learning: Those who might not be poor by one condition can severely be disadvantaged in another sense. It is not necessary that the rural poor are living in chronically poverty ridden conditions. They might have physical assets such as land and animals but do not have liquid wealth to spend on other necessary needs.

Mathilde Snel, GRID-Arendal, UNEP

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Understanding the Target Segment

Shelter, Urban Poverty, Hudco- Human Settlement Management Institute Publication, Vol 13 No. 3 & 4 April 2012

Financial characteristics of different income groups

FSD Insights, Financial capability and the poor: are we missing the mark?, Issue 02 Dec 2010

High and middle income

Low income

Earning money and managing money are separable tasks. Financial management is more about resource allocation: distributing a regular cash inflow across immediate expenditure, intermediate savings, and more distant investment to maximize value available for life events and old age.

In the absence of reliable lifetime employment, earning and allocating money are inseparable. Individuals and families seek to maximize income flows, even those with salaries seeking additional business investments to boost income.

Cash flows are orderly.

Cash flows are erratic and unpredictable.

Financial decisions tend to be large, analytical, and infrequent. Maximising outcomes therefore requires specific knowledge and skill in understanding and interpreting sector vocabulary and the terms of financial products.

Financial decisions that affect family living standards are small, daily expenditure and savings choices, requiring discipline more than analytical skill.

Individuals compartmentalise financial decision making, setting aside time to review portfolios, seek advice.

Financial decisions are relentless, unavoidable, and urgent.

Consequences of financial decisions are felt in the medium to long term.

Consequences of financial decisions are often immediate and painful, particularly for those living on the margins of survival.

Individuals get themselves into financial trouble by reaching for an asset (for example, taking on an unaffordable mortgage) or failing to save enough for the distant future.

Individuals fall into financial trouble from indulgence, from succumbing to consumption temptations. Our respondents most frequently pointed to drugs, alcohol, and multiple partners.

Financial capability is concerned with knowledge and analytical skills; thus, building capability is associated with more traditional forms of education.

Financial capability is about character (particularly restraint) as much as skill, and as such, people believe that it is a function more of natural ability and experience than more analytical types of education.

Financial management is more like designing and implementing a personal strategic plan. Individuals need specialised knowledge, foresight, and proper use of financial instruments of varying maturities.

Financial management is like managing your diet, in which the long term vision is subordinate to daily decisions. Commitment devices are particularly powerful tools for reinforcing the discipline to make preferred daily choices. Samira Jain | NID | SDM | Diploma Project | MicroSave | 2013

Understanding the Target Segment

Learning: By setting the poor in comparison with the other class people gives perspective and gives more insight about the target group. The differences help understand the various situations and measures that they might have Satirical drawings by Paul Kuczynski

to take.

Understanding the Target Segment

Poverty and Livelihood The rich have one permanent job; the poor are rich in many jobs. —Poor man, Pakistan

When the poor talk about financial capability, they associate it, not with allocating funds into financial investments, but instead with generating income. They are concerned about using loans and savings to make investments in business opportunities to boost overall family income. FSD Insights, Financial capability and the poor: are we missing the mark?, Issue 02 Dec 2010

Livelihood: ‘the means of gaining a living’ (Chambers 1995, vi) or ‘a combination of the resources used and the activities undertaken in order to live’. A mobile and flexible term, ‘livelihoods’ can be attached to all sorts of other words to construct whole fields of development enquiry and practice. These relate to locales (rural or urban livelihoods), occupations (farming, pastoral or fishing livelihoods), social difference (gendered, age-defined livelihoods), directions (livelihood pathways, trajectories), dynamic patterns (sustainable or resilient livelihoods) and many more.

Learning: Poverty is closely linked with the livelihood patterns of the consumers. To sustain a livelihood for people with irregular source of income is much tougher than for one with a regular source of income.

A livelihood comprises the capabilities, assets (including both material and social resources) and activities for a means of living. A livelihood is sustainable when it can cope with and recover from stresses and shocks, maintain or enhance its capabilities and assets, while not undermining the natural resource base. Ian Scoones, Livelihoods perspectives and rural development,

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Understanding the Target Segment

Elements of Livelihood Flows Ways in which deficient flows determine the nature of rural poverty

Poor people can survive without financial capital. For example, they can use cow dung and agricultural waste for cooking without owning cattle or fields, and they can eat fruit without

Energy

Motivation

Rural people find it harder to access reliable supplies of electricity and fossil fuels. Fuel wood and animal traction may fill this gap for subsistence purposes, but the lack of energy constrains opportunities for new businesses that could lift people out of poverty.

Uncertain rights, expropriation of common resources, conflict and change often leave rural people indifferent about the fate of the natural resources on which they rely. This mind-set reduces their disposition to cooperate and their chances of escaping from poverty.

owning trees. However, they cannot live without flows of energy, nutrients, water, information, motivation, income and social transactions. FAO

Food

Availability of food may not be a key problem, but food security can be an issue in lean seasons and bad years, or when external markets for cash crops adversely affect local food production. Water

Scarcity of water means that critical trade-offs must be made between using it for drinking and washing, for livestock or for irrigation. Because many poor people do not have access to safe drinking-water, they are more exposed to water-borne diseases. Information

Inadequate flow of information is a major cause of rural poverty, especially when people can no longer rely on traditional knowledge to understand ecology and plant growth, disease and markets.

Social Transaction

When rural institutions are strong, people are often able and willing transactions to share labour, redistribute resources and pool risk. However, rapid changes in the use and management of forests, especially by States or external businesses, adversely affect traditional management and cooperative arrangements. Income

Rural people usually have much lower incomes than urban dwellers. This may not matter for meeting subsistence needs, but matters when money is needed to purchase goods and services from the outside. While poverty can be alleviated without additional income, low income makes people unable to move out of poverty. It also leaves them vulnerable in times of crisis and when expropriation and commercialization for external markets deprive them of public goods such as forest products, food crops and water.

Understanding the Target Segment

Livelihood Assets: Five Categories of Capital Development workers draw on five categories of assets or capital to explore the various dimensions of well-being and the means for achieving it. They are: Physical capital

Land and material belongings Social capital

Extent and nature of social networks such as kin, neighbours, and associations Human capital

Health, education, training, and labour power Financial capital

Impact of physical capital

Impact of human capital

Poverty is because of the land; the person who doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t have any must obligatorily leave to do day labour.

If you donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t have money today, your disease will take you to your grave.

Ecuador 1996

An old woman, Ghana 1995

If one does not own land, a house, household property, or domestic animals, then the person is considered to be poor.

If I had gone to school, I would have got a job and I would have obtained a husband who has a salaried job.

Uganda 1998

Livestock are part of the yearly household reserves, if they get a disease and die we have nothing to support us in between harvests.

Impact of natural capital

Trees, forests, water, and non-timber products The definitions of poverty, Worldbank

Kenya, 1997

Vietnam 1999

Cash and material wealth Natural capital

The poor live at the whim and mercy of nature.

Impact of social capital

Learning:

The most important asset is . . . an extended and well-placed family network from which one can derive jobs, credit, and financial assistance.

Most of the times the focus is on liquid and material wealth at the time of research.

Senegal 1995

When concerned with the rural segment especially, the various other dimensions also have to be accounted for.

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Understanding the Target Segment

Theories of Poverty and Decision-making “Poverty bears down heavily on all portions of a man’s expected life. But it increases the want for immediate income even more than it increases the want for future income. A small income, other things being equal, tends to produce a high rate of impatience.” Theory of interest, Fisher (1930: 81)

Learning: There might be a basic difference in the consumers’ thinking and behaviour because of facing continual stressing situations. This could be reflected in the strategies and choices they make. Dean Spears, Economic Decision-Making in Poverty Depletes Behavioural Control

Understanding the Target Segment

Poverty & Spending Behaviour And the peculiar evil is this, that the less money you have the less you are inclined to spend it on wholesome food. When you are unemployed, you donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t want to eat dull wholesome food. You want to eat something a little tasty. There is always some cheap pleasant thing to tempt you.

Another explanation for their eating habits is that other things are more important in the lives of the poor than food. It has been documented that poor people in developing worlds spend large amounts on weddings, dowries and christenings probably in part as a result of the compulsion not to lose face.

Instead of raging against their destiny, they have made things tolerable by reducing their standards. But they donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t necessarily reduce their standards by cutting out luxuries and concentrating on necessities; more often it is the other way around- the more natural way, if you come to think of it- hence the fact that in a decade of unparalleled depression, the consumption of all cheap luxuries has increased.

The decision to spend money on other things than food may not be due entirely to social pressure. Generally, it is clear that things that make life less boring are a priority for the poor. This maybe a television, or a little bit of something special to eat or just a cup of sugary tea.

George Orwell, The road to Wigan Pier

Learning: What might be logical and straightforward to us might not be the same for the consumers.

This basic human need for a pleasant life might explain why food spending has been declining in India. Today television signals reach into remote areas, and there are more things to buy, even in remote villages. Cell phones work almost everywhere, and talk time is extremely cheap by global standards. This would also explain why countries with a large domestic economy, where a lot of consumer goods are available cheaply, like India and Mexico, end to be the countries where food spending is the lowest. Every village in India has at least one small shop, usually more, with shampoo sold in individual sachets, cigarettes by the stick, very cheap combs, pens, toys or candies, whereas in a

country like Papua New Guinea, where the share of food in the household budget is 70% (it is 50% in India), there may be fewer things available to the poor. We are often inclined to see the world of the poor as a land of missed opportunities and to wonder why they donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t put these purchases on hold and invest in what would really make their lives better. The poor, on the other hand, may well be more sceptical about supposed opportunities and the possibility of any radical change in their lives. They often behave as if they think that any change that is significant enough to be worth sacrificing for will simply take too long. This could explain why they focus on the here and now, on living their lives as pleasantly as possible, celebrating when the occasion demands it. Abhijit V. Banerjee & Esther Duflo, Poor Economics

They face different situations and therefore think differently.

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Understanding the Target Segment

Weddings of the Poor: A Big Expense If a family marries a poor local family – well known to everyone in the village, this may also be an occasion for celebration - but lavish displays are no longer necessary since not much can be gained by signalling.

Learning: There are many underlying reasons for the decisions made. These reasons vary from culture, society and personalities.

A large proportion of marriage costs are in the form of dowries - transfers made from the bride’s family to the groom’s. The rest of the money is spent by the bride’s family in celebrating the wedding. To an outsider these weddings can seem extremely lavish, especially in contrast with the extreme poverty of rural Indian life, with large numbers of people invited for feasts and ceremonies that can go on for several days. Such celebrations are, of course, not unique to India but are of special relevance in very poor societies where the money spent on weddings can be particularly wasteful given its high opportunity cost. Wedding celebrations have a lot to do with social status and prestige. Mobility within a village is often achieved by imitating the behaviours of families of higher social orders. A great deal of effort and expense is devoted to the presentation of external attributes. Household decisions are often made with an emphasis on how one’s family will be viewed by others: What will others say? Status is a value in itself. While it may also generate some secondary benefits like greater access to networks and information, families clearly gain direct utility from simply moving up the social ladder and being associated by marriage with a prestigious, wealthy pedigree. For the parents of a daughter, marriage is potentially the most important source of mobility since marrying into a “good family” can greatly enhance how a family is viewed by its peers, and a prestigious match is an

occasion for great celebration and status displays. Francis Bloch, Vijayendra Rao and Sonalde Desai, Wedding Celebrations as Conspicuous Consumption: Signaling Social Status in Rural India

Understanding the Target Segment

Education: The Perception Parents seem to see education primarily as a way for their children to acquire (considerable) wealth. The anticipated route to those riches is, for most parents, a government job (as a teacher, for example), or failing that, some kind of office job.

Learning: Some skills/resources might be acquired for reasons different from ours.

Case study There are greater mental pictures associated to

Exercise conducted in Udaipur: Parents with help of their children make collages from cut out pictures and represent what they thought education would bring to their children. The collages looked similar- with pictures of gold and diamond jewellery, and various recent models of cars.

tasks which would need to be understood.

The most common dream of the poor is that their children become government workers. Among very poor households in Udaipur, 34% parents would like to see their son become a government teacher and another 41% want him to have a nonteaching government job. The emphasis on government jobs, in particular suggests a desire for stability, as these jobs tend to be very secure even when they are not very exciting. Abhijit V. Banerjee & Esther Duflo, Poor Economics

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Understanding the Target Segment

Associations of Money in India The religion of money

Money has very religious connotation in India. Goddess Lakshmi is believed to be the goddess of wealth, prosperity and fortune. Also called Mahalakshmi, she is said to bring good luck and is believed to protect her devotees from all kinds of misery and money-related sorrows. Respect for money A poster above the entrance of a house in a village in Samastipur, Bihar.

In many areas of India it is customary that, out of respect, when a person’s foot accidentally touches money (which is considered as a manifestation of Lakshmi) or another person’s leg, it will be followed by an apology in the form of a single hand gesture with the right hand, where the offending person first touches the object with the finger tips and then the forehead and/or chest. This also counts for books and any written material, which are considered as a manifestation of the goddess of knowledge.

Learning: It may be possible that insights could be derived by understanding the sample group’s associations with money in different contexts.

Understanding the target segment

Chapter Summary

Factors to consider

Relative

Economic dimensions

Physiological

Sociocultural

Socioeconomic Resource

Dimensions

Rural context

Livelihood

Behaviour

Absolute

Psychology

Urban context

Resources

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Chapter 4: Money Management Money management The meaning of money How do the poor manage risk? Financial services for the poor Comparison study

Money Management

The Meaning of Money Money is fungible: Able to replace or be replaced by another identical item 1. A medium that can be exchanged for goods and services and is used as a measure of their values on the market, including among its forms a commodity such as gold, an officially issued coin or note, or a deposit in a checking account or other readily

Source

liquefiable account.

Income:

2. The official currency, coins, and negotiable paper

The amount of money or its equivalent received during a period of time in exchange for labour or services, from the sale of goods or property, or as profit from financial investments

notes issued by a government.

Goods and Services

Present

Required for an individual to fulfill basic survival needs and other aspirational needs

Future

Learning: The meaning of money is understood in a

3. Assets and property considered in terms of

market sense in our economy. Is it the same

monetary value; wealth

for the target group?

www.dictionary.com

In the case of the poor, money doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t stay in their hands for too long. There is a constant

The main functions of money are distinguished as: a medium of exchange; a unit of account; a store of value; and, occasionally in the past, a standard of deferred payment. Wikipedia

fight to make ends meet, to fulfill basic needs such as food, shelter, clothing for the family apart from other needs such as education.

Money Management

Money Management What is it, why one needs to do it and how one does it

What

“Financial management is a constant, inseparable cycle of earning and allocating uncertain, erratic cash flows.”

An individual’s capacity to translate day-today financial decisions into adequate savings and investments for future financial needs.

Daryl Collins and Julie Zollmann, FSD Insights, Financial capability and the poor: are we missing the mark?, Issue 02 Dec 2010

Why

It is needed to meet life cycle needs, to cope with emergencies, and to grasp opportunities to acquire assets or develop businesses. How

It depends on fulfilment of several constraints such as (1) knowledge, skills and ability to make financial decisions towards a secure financial future;

The need to find a safe place to keep savings is so strong that some poor people willingly pay others to take their savings out of their hands and store them. Stuart Rutherford

Poverty appears to have made economic decisionmaking more consuming of cognitive control for poorer people than for richer people: poverty makes even routine economic decisions more difficult. Dean Spears, Economic Decision-Making in Poverty Depletes Behavioural Control

(2) having access to and understanding the advantages of using formal banking institutions; and (3) awareness about personal behavioural biases and attitudes towards financial management

Managing money well begins with hanging on to what you have. Making that choice- the choice to save rather than to consume- is the foundation of money management. Much tougher is keeping the cash safe from the many claims on it- claims by relatives who have fallen on hard times, by importunate friends, alcoholic husbands, creditors and beggars. That the poor do succeed in saving something is shown by their habit of lending each other small amounts of money (as well as small amounts of rice or kerosene or salt). ‘In this reciprocal lending’ I lend you a few cents today on the understanding that you’ll do the same for me at some other time. This practice is as common that such loans form the bulk of financial transactions that poor people get involved in, even if the amounts involved add up to only a small proportion of the total value in circulation through financial services of the poor. The practice depends entirely on the poor’s capacity and willingness to save. Poor and their Money, Stuart Rutherford

Money management is steeped in virtue. Those who move ahead in the community are revered, often respected as leaders, less for their savvy use of financial instruments and successful investments, than for their being successful in avoiding vice. FSD Insights, Financial capability and the poor: are we missing the mark?, Issue 02 Dec 2010 Samira Jain | NID | SDM | Diploma Project | MicroSave | 2013

Money Management

How do the Poor Manage Risk? For the poor, risk is not limited to income or food, health is also one major source of risk. There is also political violence, crime and corruption.

Common misconceptions persist about the saving habits of the poor. (1) Poor have insufficient and irregular cash flow and savings. (2) Poor do not have the discipline to save due to lack of self-control and temptation spending. (3) Informal savings institutions are not a viable solution for the poor. Research however indicates otherwise; not only do poor households save based on their income levels, they usually save in small amounts throughout the year, withdrawing savings for lumpy and large expenditures for life events and emergencies; and the poor regularly use diverse informal savings channels. Karlan & Morduch, 2009; Rutherford, 1999

Farming households in India use marriage as a way to diversify the â&#x20AC;&#x153;risk portfolioâ&#x20AC;? of their extended families. When a woman moves to her in-lawsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; village after marriage, this creates a link between the households she came from and the household she married into, and the two families are able to call on each other when in trouble. Consumption Smoothing, Migration and Marriage: Evidence from Rural India, Mark Rosenweig and Oded Stark

Strategies for risk management include crop and field diversification; a portfolio of occupations; and the strategic migration of family members. Strategies for coping with risk include those that smooth consumption over time (through saving behaviour, including borrowing and lending in formal and informal markets, accumulating and selling assets, and storing goods for future consumption) and those that smooth consumption across households (through risk sharing) Do the poor insure? A synthesis of the literature on risk and consumption in developing countries, Harold Alderman Christina Paxson

Learning: The context of risk is different for this target group: the risks faced are different. The strategies used to manage them might also vary.

Money Management

Financial Services for the Poor Several studies indicate that the poor turn to informal savings despite the risk of losing a portion of savings to expensive fees, fraud or theft products because (1) There is either an absence or a significant constraint to formal financial institutions;

The job of financial services for the poor, then, is to provide them with mechanisms to turn savings into lump sums for a wide variety of uses (and not just to run micro enterprises). Good financial services for the poor are those that do this job in the safest, most convenient, most flexible and most affordable way.

(Availability)

(2) Informal institutions provide flexibility and convenience, given the sporadic and relative smallness in savings amounts by the poor; (Flexibility)

Learning: Since the target consumer is mostly financially excluded, the services they use are specialized. There are misconceptions about the poorâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s

Poor people can save and want to save, and when they

money management practices.

do not save it is because of lack of opportunity rather than lack of capacity.

Their criteria for choosing financial services are well defined.

(3) Unlike the seemingly burdensome and complex process instituted by the banks to open savings accounts, poor can easily opt into timely and relatively uncomplicated informal savings products (Uncomplicated)

(4) Informal savings devices are often provided by someone known to the client such as neighbours or local depositors etc., garnering a sense of trust in personal relationships (Trust) Savings and the Poor, CMF- IFMR

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Formal banks

Microfinance Institutes/ ROSCAs

Comparison study A comparison overview of the various financial services used by the target consumers: pros and cons.

Centralization ensures security and safety of the customersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; interests

Enables people to make transactions at a micro level: savings, credit, insurance

Centrally regulated interest rates

No collateral is required to take out loans

It showcases the potential of mobile banking industry

The poor feel comfortable dealing with one of their own

and the advantages it has over other existing services.

The banks are not equipped to accommodate micro transactions which the poor need High transaction costs for the bank deter them going into small transactions

Easy accessibility and convenience: deposit collectors, meetings, small branches There is scope for flexibility

Most of the times, the poor do not have access to a bank branch. Therefore, they end up spending on travel. Formal banks have stringent guidelines and documentation and paperwork is required to even open an account Banks have No collateral no credit policy, which means high risk for the banks and makes it harder for the poor The interest rates on loans are too high for poor people to pay The poor do not feel comfortable and therefore also do not trust the banks. Most of the processes are too complex for the poor

Multiple loans are taken from multiple companies resulting in the debt cycle Poverty due to deprivation is replaced with poverty due to debt The poor are potentially exploited under the garb of helping by smaller unknown organizations

Money lenders

Ease of access and availability

Mobile banking

Highly flexible; with low transaction rates, the cope for flexibility increases and clients can customize according to their needs Personal control; the clients have full information and control over their transactions

Very high interest rates on credit

Minimal transaction costs; a wide network of the telecom service providers makes this possible

Dictating terms and conditions without regulations

Ease of access and availability; the model incorporates local stores to act as mediators providing easy accessibility to clients

Only credit services: no scope for savings or insurance

Maximum client reach; use of mobile phones is extremely widespread, making it easier to reach clients

High value collateral demanded

High potential for customized approach: specialized customer needs can be catered to

To return the loan value taken, more loans are taken creating a debt cycle for the customers which more often than not, they are not able to get out of.

High growth potential, wide customer base

Learning: Mobile interfaces are a great opportunity to explore to develop applications for the poor The market is unexplored and under developed

Scope for service expansion: more services can be introduced once the idea is more prevalent

Technological barrier: lack of trust, clients are apprehensive, scope of making mistakes while conducting transactions No one big telecom service provider; this barrier can be overcome with better technology in the near future which would allow transactions between different service providers Hard to keep a tab on clients; cheap rates and changing schemes does not allow customer loyalty and clients tend to switch between providers

Samira Jain | NID | SDM | Diploma Project | MicroSave | 2013

The developing world has already gone mobile creating a huge void for useful apps to be introduced.

Learning: If a relevant application is designed, the time taken for the consumers to adopt will be very less. The target consumers are keen adapters; there is a market opportunity for well designed products.

http://web.worldbank.org/2012

Chapter 5: The Problem Area The crux of money management The mobile bank Problem area The solution Stakeholders The common platform Why this? Why a metaphor: Objectives

Problem Area

The Crux of Money Management fulfil needs safety & security/risk emergencies

Financial

Social

Flow of capital

future use

}

Savings Credit

availing opportunities

Insurance

growth & expansion

Money transfers

Physical

within a poor household

}

financial services

A financial service is the medium by which the decision maker manages his/her financial and to some extent physical wealth. A service or a range of services are chosen by the decision maker on the basis of need, availability, convenience

No services include the other capital of the household creating a customer- service gap/ barrier

Human

Environmental

Problem Area

The Mobile Bank Consumer Mobile Experience Almost no focus has been there on the consumer interface aspect of mobile banking.

The mobile banking platform consists of multiple layers: (i) Service providers

The back end where the technological and conceptual aspects are taken care of

Agents, sales team

(ii) Range of products

Products that are devised to cater to the customers (iii) Sales

Product range

New products are developed by the service providers individually to suit the â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;needsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; of their clients

Mobile money platform

Maximum concentration is on the back end with the technical know-how and feasibility of the service

Marketing and actual selling of the products to the customers (iv) Platform interface

The direct interaction with the consumers Much of the research and practice today is focused on the bottom layer (how to build mobile money systems and cash merchant networks) and the filling in the middle (what products do customers need). Very little emphasis is placed on the top layer, and this risks leaving customers behind â&#x20AC;&#x201C; they are interested in the whole deal, not the constituent parts.

The key requirement is that the user interface be intuitive, engaging and consistent. This can only be achieved if the user interface, and the products it is linked to, are derived from a deeper understanding of how customers are expected to relate to the entire service experience. Samira Jain | NID | SDM | Diploma Project | MicroSave | 2013

Problem Area

The Problem Area THE PRODUCT

THE CLIENTS

THE RESEARCHERS

The current process: A part of the system is studied and translated in fragments

Consumer Interface

Sales

The researchers collect tonnes and tonnes of data on the granular details of the target consumers but there is:

Product range

Financial

Loss of data

The details captured in the field are not translated at the product logic level.

Social

Flow of capital

Physical

within a poor household

Lack of insights

The details are captured about peopleâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s financial lives but not at a system level with focus on flow of capital Lack of translation

The insights generated are not in a format that can be scaled and translated directly.

Human

Environmental

Back end: service provider

Problem Area

The Solution For effective product development and a good service design: The researcher has to collect all the necessary data and map the system The data has to be synthesized in such a way that the details are not lost by the time it reaches the product development stage

Researcher

Flow of capital

The service provider understands the data and translates it into a product logic while keeping the consumer in mind Financial services are personal and if the customer does not relate/understand/trust the service, it will not work; the interface and experience for the product is as important

Service provider

Financial

}

what

Social

Physical

how why

Human

Environmental

Samira Jain | NID | SDM | Diploma Project | MicroSave | 2013

Problem Area

The Stakeholders

THE COMMON PLATFORM/GROUND Is a link to explain the clientsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; financial mental models to the service providers, by the researchers for the clients to relate to the products they finally use.

Researcher

Client

Service provider

This platform should: Condense data without loss of knowledge Include all stake holders Directly useful for service providers Capture detail without intellectualizing

Should synthesize the data for easy translation without losing detail Should be able to communicate both with the client as well as the service provider

Should be able to relate to it. The product is for them to use and therefore should be fully understood by them It should be intuitive for them, making it easy for them to navigate, to see their real financial lives being reflected in it.

Should be able to understand the customer Able to translate into a meaningful product for the consumers

Could translate into a potential interface for customer experience Serve as a simple validation method

Problem Area

The Common Platform The common platform is one that explains the concept of the clients’ mental models around money in a compact, vivid and accurate manner and resonates with the clients themselves. It is the common language that all the three groups of stake holders understand.

Vivid

Compact

Accurate

THE COMMON PLATFORM

The clients’ mental models of financial management

Metaphor

“Understanding one thing in terms of another”

Content

Medium

Samira Jain | NID | SDM | Diploma Project | MicroSave | 2013

Problem Area

Why a metaphor?

Who is it for?

What will it do?

A metaphor will help explain a complex concept in

The metaphor is for practitioners of the financial

It will help close gaps between three representations

simple, uncomplicated and succinct manner through

service industry to develop better products for the

of money: as physical token (cash), as digitized

a known concept

target segment. It is to communicate the lives of the

accounting entry (electronic), and as mental (neural)

poor succinctly to them.

model.

Usage

unknown

Access

known

The neural model of money defines the decisions behind the way one manages money

Electronic money is a cost effective service and holds great potential of product development

The poor mainly deal in cash and think in a cash economy.

Problem area

Why a Metaphor: Objectives These metaphors might inform financial service providersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; marketing efforts in a variety of ways: Product development

Deciding what products and features are required to give customers fuller support around their money management.

The metaphor should speak to clients themselves; if presented to them, clients should see themselves

Unlike much of modern research which strives

reflected in it. This is the best way to ensure that the

for increasing levels of detail and completeness,

metaphor is real and effective. This is in contrast

we wanted to come up with simple constructs

with most research outputs, which represent

which could be stretched, by analogy, to

an intellectualization of reality and speak the

shed light on the issues faced by a variety of

researchersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; specialized language.

customer profiles in a variety of situations. We had a pipe dream: to be able to express all

User interface development

Providing coherence to the range of products and features offered to customers, through an intuitive and consistent (or, better, single) user interface. Customer targeting

It should be easier to draw attention from and engage

this through a graphic metaphor. We called

with practitioners, who are ultimately the target users

it Metamon (short for money management

of the metaphors. They tend to have little time and

metaphor)

inclination to read long papers.

Ignacio Mas

Permitting a more precise identification of services offered with client benefits sought and key client segments which stand to benefit most from them. Customer communications

Articulating a marketing and communications campaign in an easy to-understand and customerengaging way. Financial education

Developing tools that extend customersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; understanding of their own financial situation, constraints and available options, directly linking understanding with usage.

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Chapter 6: Metaphors What is a metaphor? Understanding metaphors What is a contextual metaphor A few fine metaphors: clusters and systems Types of metaphors The others: differences Metaphors: relative, objective, contextual The context of metaphors Metaphor: a tool Visual metaphors Metaphors in political cartoons Metaphors in advertising Metaphors in games Interacting with metaphors The desktop metaphor Internet: a wide web of metaphors What is the right metaphor? The metaphorical associations of money Search for a good metaphor Chapter summary

Metaphors

What is a Metaphor?

Noun 1. A figure of speech in which a word or phrase is applied to an object or action to which it is not literally applicable. 2. A thing regarded as representative or symbolic of something else, esp. something abstract.

“The word metaphor itself is a metaphor, coming from a Greek word meaning to “transfer” or “carry across.” Metaphors “carry” meaning from one word, image, or idea to another.” (Richard Nordquist, About.com Guide)

“A metaphor is the swift illumination of an equivalence. Two images, or an idea and an image, stand equal and opposite; clash together and respond significantly, surprising the reader with a sudden light.” (Herbert Read, English Prose Style. Beacon, 1955)

Synonyms: Image (Oxford Dictionary, 2013 edition)

“A metaphor expresses the unfamiliar (the tenor) in terms of the familiar (the vehicle). Metaphors are ways of thinking--and also ways of shaping the thoughts of others.” (Richard Nordquist, About.com Guide)

“Metaphor is a cognitive rather than a linguistic phenomenon, and that the metaphorical expressions we find in language merely reflect the metaphors that exist at a conceptual level.” (George Lakoff and Mark Johnsen (2003) Metaphors we live by. London: The university of Chicago press)

“It is precisely through metaphor that our perspectives, or analogical extensions, are made--a world without metaphor would be a world without purpose.” (Kenneth Burke, Permanence and Change: An Anatomy of Purpose, 3rd ed., University of California Press, 1984)

If “the essence of metaphor is understanding and experiencing one thing in terms of another,” then the vehicle or the source domain is responsible for elucidating the tenor or target domain. One measures the relationship between these domains, the tenor and the vehicle, with “ground” and “tension.” Ground concerns the similarities between the domains and tension represents the dissimilarities. (George Lakoff and Mark Johnson, Metaphors We Live By, 1980), (Andrew Ortony, “Metaphor,

Metaphors

Understanding Metaphors Early propositions about how metaphors were understood stemmed from poetic and rhetorical research. That is, if a sentence cannot be interpreted literally, then it must be interpreted figuratively. To illustrate, the assertion “my child is a pig” is initially illogical, so the receiver would then move on to figurative interpretation. Once that determination is made, the mind sets about finding meaning from the expression. This theory argues that once the statement is deemed false, the statement is treated like a simile, or a comparison statement, by identifying traits or attributes in the source domain (the pig: sloppy, slovenly, fascinated with mud) that would be applicable to the target domain. (Alan Paivio and Mary Walsh, Psychological Processes in Metaphor Comprehension and Memory, Univ. Pr., 1979/1993) Language, and Thought, 1993)

Danger!: Overdrawing metaphors

The partial nature of metaphors

Metaphor is used by teachers to communicate novel concepts, but always brings the danger that students may over-extend the metaphor and draw inappropriate analogies.

The mappings between A and B are, and can be, only partial.

(Rita Nolder, Metaphor, Mathematics Teaching and Learning, 1991)

The theory of conceptual domains speaks to both the unidirectional nature of metaphors as well as the “systematicity” that allows the interpreter to selectively identify the aspects that are consistent and discard the aspects that are inconsistent with the metaphor.

Only a part of concept B is mapped onto target A and only a part of target A is involved in the mappings from B. We need to ask which part(s) of the source are mapped onto which part(s) in the target. (Zoltán Kövecses, Metaphor: A Practical Introduction, 2010)

(George Lakoff and Mark Johnson, Metaphors We Live By, 1980)

“What I object to is several fold: First, these mnemonic gimmicks are not very useful for presenting the ideas in the first place; second, their resemblance to any real objects in the world is so tenuous that it gets in the way more than it helps; and third ...the metaphor becomes a dead weight...The visualizations become locked to some sort of continuing relation to the mnemonic. It becomes like a lie or a large government project: more and more things have to be added to it”

Learning Metaphors are partial in nature A good metaphor talks only about the relevant factors and is careful to not overstretch.

(Nelson in Laurel, 1990)

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Metaphors

Design Direction

The Metaphor Unfamiliar

This project aims to derive key links in the conceptual chain: the basic mental metaphors that describe the decision-making and behaviour in the financial lives of the “low income”.

The target

The vehicle

The strategies employed and the mental models behind the target consumers’ financial decisions

Used to carry over the meaning of the source, A known concept, widely understood, relatable to people

The metaphor is required to shed light on the money management practices. So the tenor or the target is those money management practices and the vehicle or the source is what this project wants to derive. In order to device an appropriate metaphor, the unfamiliar needs to be expressed in terms of the familiar. The “unfamiliar” being the financial lives of the “low income” would need to be made familiar in order to equate to something that is known and will be able to carry across the meaning or be easily understood by both the “low income”/customers themselves as well as the service providers.

Familiar

Relevant ideas

What are the unfamiliar aspects?

Who wants to know?

What are the similarities and the dissimilarities between the target and the vehicle?

Service providers: banking products are of limited use to the customers as of now. Can this improve if the metaphor shapes the thoughts of the service providers and helps them understand the “unfamiliar “ better?

How do we understand these mental models?

The project needs to draw the similarities and the dissimilarities between the two concept domains and understand the grounds and the tensions. The consistency of the derived metaphor will need to be focused on for it to be effective, identifying the relevant aspects and deter from overdrawing the metaphor. Can the target be explained in terms of the vehicle?

How do we know it’s the right vehicle? If the “customers” relate to this vehicle and understand the link.

Metaphors

What is a Conceptual Metaphor? “Conceptual Metaphor Theory rejects the notion that metaphor is a decorative device, peripheral to language and thought. Instead, the theory holds that metaphor is central to thought, and therefore to language. From this starting point a number of tenets are derived, which are discussed here with particular reference to language. These tenets are: - Metaphors structure thinking; - Metaphors structure knowledge; - Metaphor is central to abstract language; - Metaphor is grounded in physical experience; - Metaphor is ideological.” (Alice Deignan, Metaphor and Corpus Linguistics. John Benjamins, 2005)

“Basic conceptual metaphors are part of the common conceptual apparatus shared by members of a culture. They are systematic in that there is a fixed correspondence between the structure of the domain to be understood (e.g., death) and the structure of the domain in terms of which we are understanding it (e.g., departure). We usually understand them in terms of common experiences. They are largely unconscious, though attention may be drawn to them. Their operation in cognition is almost automatic. And they are widely conventionalized in language, that is, there are a great number of words and idiomatic expressions in our language whose meanings depend

upon those conceptual metaphors.” (George Lakoff and Mark Turner, More Than Cool Reason, 1989)

“In the cognitive linguistic view, conceptual metaphor is defined as understanding one conceptual domain in terms of another conceptual domain. Examples of this include when we talk and think about life in terms of journeys, about arguments in terms of war, about love also in terms of journeys, about theories in terms of buildings, about ideas in terms of food, about social organizations in terms of plants, and many others.

involves a set of fixed correspondences (technically called mappings) between a source and a target domain. This set of mappings obtains between basic constituent elements of the target. To know a conceptual metaphor is to know the set of mappings that applies to a given source-target pairing. It is these mappings that provide much of the meaning of the metaphorical linguistic expressions (or linguistic metaphors) that make a particular conceptual metaphor manifest.” (Zoltán Kövecses, Metaphor: A Practical Introduction, 2nd ed. Oxford University Press, 2010)

A conceptual domain is any coherent organization of experience. Thus, for example, we have coherently organized knowledge about journeys that we rely on in understanding life. The conceptual domain from which we draw metaphorical expressions to understand another conceptual domain is called source domain, while the conceptual domain that is understood this way is the target domain. Thus, life, arguments, love, theory, ideas, social organizations, and others are target domains, while journeys, war, buildings, food, plants, and others are source domains. The target domain is the domain that we try to understand through the use of the source domain. Understanding one domain in terms of another Samira Jain | NID | SDM | Diploma Project | MicroSave | 2013

Metaphors

Design Direction This project aims to structure thinking and knowledge through metaphors of all that is known and understood by the low income group but needs to be conveyed to the people providing the services to them. Understanding one concept domain (financial mental models) in terms of another requires drawing correspondences between the two concept domains through Mapping.

Common Experiences

These mappings are based on common experiences that could surface through an unconscious use of language. The project would need to focus on language usage in terms of money and other aspects to unearth these conceptual metaphors.

k la ba na r t A ma

Metaphors

A Few Fine Metaphors: Clusters & Systems ARGUMENT is WAR

TIME is MONEY

Your claims are indefensible. He attacked every weak point in my argument. His criticisms were right on target. I demolished his argument. I’ve never won an argument with him. You disagree? Okay, shoot! If you use that strategy, he’ll wipe you out. He shot down all of my arguments.

You’re wasting my time. This gadget will save you hours. I don’t have the time to give you. How do you spend your time these days? That flat tire cost me an hour. I’ve invested a lot of time in her. I don’t have enough time to spare. You’re running out of time. Put aside some time for ping pong. Is that worth your while? Do you have much time left? He’s living on borrowed time.

ARGUMENT is WAR metaphor is one that we live by in this culture; it structures the actions we perform in arguing. It is not that arguments are a subspecies of war. Arguments and wars are different kinds of things—verbal discourse and armed conflict—and the actions performed are different kinds of actions. But ARGUMENT is partially structured, understood, performed, and talked about in terms of WAR. This is an example of the way in which metaphorical entailments can characterize a coherent system of metaphorical concepts and a corresponding coherent system of metaphorical expressions for those concepts.

Imagine a culture where an argument is viewed as a dance, the participants are seen as performers, and the goal is to perform in a balanced and aesthetically pleasing way. In such a culture, people would view arguments differently, experience them differently, carry them out differently, and talk about them differently. But we would probably not view them as arguing at all: they would simply be doing something different.

In our culture TIME IS MONEY in many ways: telephone message units, hourly wages, hotel room rates, yearly budgets, interest on loans. These practices are relatively new in the history of the human race, and by no means do they exist in all cultures. They have arisen in modern industrialized societies and structure our basic everyday activities in a very profound way. Corresponding to the fact that we act as if time is a valuable commodity—a limited resource, even money—we conceive of time that way. Time as the kind of thing that can be spent, wasted, budgeted, invested wisely or poorly, saved, or squandered.

(George Lakoff and Mark Johnsen (2003) Metaphors we live by. London: The university of Chicago press)

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Metaphors

Design Direction The project would need to identify the system of metaphors around money, the role of money and other financial aspects. But the financial behaviour of people is not in isolation and forms a part of a bigger system. This system might comprise of various clusters of conceptual metaphors around life, people relationships, social structures etc. which are associated with their financial lives that would need to be probed in order to arrive at an appropriate money management metaphor. We would need to build this system in order to capture a cohesive mental model. This should include the person, their financial behaviour (individual, family, community, formal/ informal sector), the behaviour in various situations, the resources (accumulation and choice) they use, the change in behaviour, their connect with their environment, the nonmonetary financial transactions, the various roles in which money emerges, the various purposes it tries to accomplish.

The money management metaphor

Metaphors

Types of Metaphors Ontological Metaphor

Orientational Metaphor

Structural Metaphor

A metaphor in which an abstraction, such as an activity, emotion, or idea, is represented as something concrete, such as an object, substance, container, or person to refer to, to quantify, or to identify aspects of the experience with. Personification is a form of ontological metaphor where human qualities are given to nonhuman entities using of one of the best source domains we have—ourselves. In personifying nonhumans as humans, we can begin to understand them a little better.

The name “orientational metaphor” derives from the fact that most metaphors that serve this function have to do with basic human spatial orientations, such as up-down, center-periphery, and the like.

Structural metaphors are a way of understanding one concept often an abstract one, in terms of another, often a more concrete one. The source domain provides a relatively rich knowledge structure for the target concept.

His theory explained to me the behaviour of chickens raised in factories. Life has cheated me. Inflation is eating up our profits. Cancer finally caught up with him. The computer went dead on me.

Conscious is up; unconscious is down: Wake up. He sank into a coma.

The mind is a brittle object Her ego is very fragile. You have to handle him with care. She is easily crushed. The experience shattered him. I’m going to pieces. His mind snapped.

More is up; less is down: Speak up, please. Keep your voice down, please. Healthy is up; sick is down: Lazarus rose from the dead. He fell ill.

Control is up; lack of control is down: I’m on top of the situation. He is under my control. Happy is up; sad is down: I’m feeling up today. He’s really low these days. Virtue is up; lack of virtue is down: She’s an upstanding citizen. That was a low-down thing to do. Rational is up; non-rational is down: The discussion fell to an emotional level. He couldn’t rise above his emotions.

This set of mappings structures our notion of time in a clear way. The TIME is MOTION conceptual metaphor exists in the from of two special cases in English: 1. time passing is motion of an object and 2. time passing is an observer’s motion over a landscape.

Time passing is motion of an object The time will come when . . . The time has long since gone when . . . The time for action has arrived. Time is flying by. The mappings not only explain why the particular expressions mean what they do but also provide a basic overall structure, hence understanding, for our notion of time. Without the metaphor it would be difficult to imagine what our concept of time would be.

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Metaphors

Design Direction The project will focus on the various ways the metaphor might appear in. Level of abstraction

attached with money. Its connotation as an animate or inanimate object or person. Emotional connect

to the financial behaviours and elements, Its orientation (sad, stressful, happy etc.). Structural nature

of the behaviours: the concreteness of the ideas. Is there a framework that the metaphor can be mapped on to?

Metaphors

The Others: Differences Metonymy

Symbols

Icons

Simile

A figure of speech that substantiates the name of a related object, person or idea for the subject. For example, crown , for monarchy or Shakespeare for the Works of Shakespeare.

A symbol is a sign that represents or infers something else, such as ‘$’ is a symbol for dollars, ‘+’ is a symbol for plus, and a flag is a symbol of a country. A symbol is a convention or a substitution.

An icon is an image, a representation, of a person, thing or idea that is widely understood. So, we use ‘icon’ for little pictures on the computer that represent something that most people can understand. An icon is a graphic entity that has meaning both as a visual image and as a machine object.

A simile is a metaphor, but not all metaphors are similes. A simile is a type of metaphor in which the comparison is made with the use of the word like or its equivalent. Analogy

An analogy is what is expressed; the metaphor is how it is expressed.

Design Direction The project should also focus on aspects such as symbols, icons, similes, idioms and other figures of speech used by the target group being studied. They might appear consciously or unconsciously in their everyday lives.

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Metaphors

Metaphors: Relative, Objective, Contextual

“The notion that meaning is created through the experiencing individual must not be confused with the extreme subjectivist standpoint of absolute relativism. The individual mind does not operate in isolation from the culture and society we live in, and there will therefore be some constraints on our mental representations.” (Carita Lundmark, Metaphor and Creativity in British Magazine Advertising)

Since abstract conceptions and imagined worlds are ultimately grounded in real-world bodily experience, the products of all minds and even the most diverse cultures are to a certain extent commensurable and mutually accessible. (Langacker, ‘The Contextual Basis of Cognitive Semantics’, 1997)

The culture of metaphors: specific vs universal Cultural variation in metaphor and metonymy is due to the difference in the broader cultural context- the governing principles and the key concepts in a given culture.

The natural and physical environment shapes a language, primarily its vocabulary, in an obvious way; consequently, it shapes metaphors as well. Given a certain kind of habitat, speakers living there will be attuned (mostly subconsciously) to things and phenomena that are characteristic of that habitat; and they will make use of these things and phenomena for the metaphorical comprehension and creation of their conceptual universe. Most cultural variation in conceptual metaphor occurs at the specific level, whereas, universality in metaphor can be found at the generic level.

The Universality of metaphors:

English, Chinese, and Hungarian are three typologically completely unrelated languages and represent very different cultures of the world. The question arises: How is it possible for such different languages and cultures to conceptualize happiness metaphorically in such similar ways? Happy is up (Giving a high, on cloud nine, lifted my mood), Happiness is light (he beamed, she has a sunny personality), Happiness is a fluid in a container (Heart filled with happiness, contain his joy) How do such different languages and cultures as English, Hungarian, Japanese, Chinese, Zulu, Polish, Wolof, and Tahitian produce a remarkably similar shared metaphor—the pressurized container metaphor for anger and its counterparts? The reason is that, as linguistic usage suggests, English speaking, Hungarian, Japanese, and Chinese people appear to have similar ideas about their bodies and seem to see themselves as undergoing the same physiological processes when in the state of anger, düh, ikari, nu, and so forth. They respond physiologically to certain situations (causes) in the same ways. Zoltán Kövecses, Metaphor: A Practical Introduction, 2010)

Metaphors

The Context of Metaphors

Instead of having clearly defined meanings inherent in themselves, words are understood as representing conceptual categories. These

Ideas are food

Ideas are money

This paper has raw facts, half-baked ideas, and warmed-over theories. Let’s stew over that for a while. We don’t spoon-feed our students. He devoured the book.

Let me put in my two cents’ worth. He’s rich in ideas. That book is a treasure trove of ideas. He has a wealth of ideas.

categories include encyclopaedic information, and as a result, meaning is open ended and naturally fuzzy. Meaning is always dependent on context, and what traditionally are

Ideas are fashions Ideas are people

The theory of relativity gave birth to a number of ideas in physics. Whose brainchild was that? His ideas will live on forever. He breathed new life into that idea.

regarded as matters of pragmatics are always

That idea went out of style years ago. Marxism is currently fashionable in western Europe. That idea is old hat! That’s an outdated idea. Understanding is seeing; ideas are light-sources;

relevant to some extent.

Ideas are plants

(Carita Lundmark, Metaphor and Creativity in British Magazine Advertising)

His ideas have finally come to fruition. Chemistry is a mere offshoot of physics. Science has many branches. I planted that idea in his mind. He has a barren mind.

discourse is a light-medium

I see what you’re saying. It looks different from my point of view. Now I’ve got the whole picture. Let me point something out to you. It’s a transparent argument.

Ideas are products

We’re really turning (churning, cranking, grinding) out new ideas. His intellectual productivity has decreased in recent years. Its a rough idea; it needs to be refined. Ideas are commodities

It’s important how you package your ideas. He won’t buy that. That idea just won’t sell. There is always a market for good ideas. That’s a worthless idea. Ideas are resources

He ran out of ideas. Don’t waste your thoughts on small projects. Let’s pool our ideas. We’ve used up all our ideas. That’s a useless idea. Samira Jain | NID | SDM | Diploma Project | MicroSave | 2013

Metaphors

Design Direction

The universal nature of some metaphors:

The cultural nature of some metaphors:

The contextual nature of the metaphor:

In an ideal situation, the metaphor derived will be widely understood world over. Money as a concept exists in all cultures and is dealt with on an everyday basis. The challenge of the project would be to resonate with all the communities of the world and arrive at a common metaphor.

To arrive at a universal metaphor, local metaphors will first need to be understood and derived. For this the two main aspects would be:

The context in which the metaphor is used, is an integral part of the study. Money can be used and seen in various roles and forms and it will be important to understand what context of money do we want to talk about. And therefore it is important to understand what the metaphor is trying to achieve through that particular â&#x20AC;&#x153;vehicleâ&#x20AC;?.

Note: The project will start with creating a contextual metaphor based on the research findings of a particular group and then can be taken forward as inspiration for bigger groups and to arrive at a universal concept.

(a) The culture of the people and the place (b) The language used in a certain habitat, the change in vocabulary It would be necessary to compare and combine the various money management practices to understand the cultural context or universality of a certain concept.

For the project we should connect the dots through keywords. The various contexts put together might construct a system of metaphors than can be used at a metalevel.

Metaphors

Metaphor: A Tool

“If you can tell a good story about something, or spin a good metaphor, it makes sense to people. This is where the meaning of design comes from. A clear metaphor is the strange idea that connects

Metaphors may be most useful during first encounters with a new technology. Declaring that a new technology resembles a familiar one, even if that apparent resemblance is only skin-deep, may lower anxiety and help people transfer existing skills to a new tool.

“Real world metaphors allow users to transfer knowledge about how things should look and work.” (Mandel 1997)

“Metaphors make it easy to learn about unfamiliar objects.”

(Mike Kuniavsky, Smart Things: Ubiquitous Computing User Experience Design)

(Hill 1995)

isn’t a computer, it’s a desktop! Along with

Metaphors enhance user experience. They:

“Metaphors help users think about the screen objects much as they would think about real world objects.”

the metaphor, we also need a variety of

Give Concreteness to Abstract Concepts Create Awareness Generate Feelings Generates User Interest Stimulate Action

(Hackos and Redish 1998)

(Mohsen Al Mudalal, Metaphoric Web Design, 2012)

(Saffer, 2005)

two things; for example the cloud and the bolt of lightning, saying—Ah hah! This

scenarios, to understand the context of Who is using it, Where are they, and What are they trying to accomplish?” (Bill Verplank in Designing Interactions by Bill Moggridge, 2006)

The use of metaphors is widely known in:

Interaction design Interface design Marketing, branding, advertising Service design Media

Almost any metaphor, even an arbitrary one, can trigger new ways of thinking about a product or new solutions to a design problem.

If metaphors are primarily conceptual, then they must manifest themselves in other than linguistic ways. That is, if the conceptual system that governs how we experience the world, how we think, and how we act is partly metaphorical, then the (conceptual) metaphors must be realized not only in language but also in many other areas of human experience. These manifestations are called the realizations of conceptual metaphors. (Zoltan Kovecses, Metaphor : A Practical Introduction, 2010)

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Metaphors

Design Direction

The metaphor is a powerful tool that can be used to explain complex systems and concepts in terms of the easily understood. This way knowledge can be processed and communicated to all interested through a simple media. The metaphor should bridge the knowledge gap between the target audience and the service providers in order to serve each partyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s interests.

For the service providers:

For the target audience:

Communicate to the consumers the various products through a single, intuitive interface.

Access cheap financial individual needs.

Get the consumers to navigate through new technology and products easily, reducing anxiety of using unknown things thereby creating more opportunities for product development.

Help the service provider transform and evolve the products according to their needs.

services

according

Metaphors

Visual Metaphors The representation of a person, place, thing, or idea by way of a visual image that suggests a particular association or point of similarity is a visual metaphor.

L(a le af fa ll s) one l iness â&#x20AC;&#x153;Lonelinessâ&#x20AC;?, a short poem by E.E. Cummings is a visual metaphor. He associated loneliness with the falling of a leaf, and also visualized the experience by isolating letters as they fall down the page.

Metaphors in movies The longer duration of a film entails that a metaphor is more open to development: a director can gradually present new potential mappings from source to target, thereby enriching or qualifying the metaphor. Metaphorical targets may have to be supplied by the viewer on the basis of relevance and sociocultural knowledge. Incidentally, to pass censors it is presumably always necessary for a film (or a different work of art) to afford a plausible non-metaphorical or an innocent-metaphorical reading. (Charles Forceville , A Course in Pictorial and Multimodal Metaphor, Lecture 5)

Choclat used chocolate as a metaphor for the liberating powers of pleasure. Sumptuous candies aroused an escalating battle between passion and moral indignation. Movie posters use metaphors to summarize the content. Courtesy: Minimal Bollywood Posters

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Metaphors

Metaphors in Political Cartoons Most cartoonists use visual metaphors and caricatures to address complicated political situations, and thus sum up a current event with a humorous or emotional picture.

Jeff Koterba (Omaha World- Herald), portrays the shipwreck as a metaphor for the euro zone sovereign debt crisis.

Paul Thomas (The Daily Express), uses a medical metaphor to comment on the crisis facing the European Single Currency, aka, the Euro. The US political scenario. Learning: A complex and complicated situation can be expressed through a single image. A single image can be immensely impactful and communicate all the various underlying meanings

Metaphors

Metaphors in Advertising NIKE

“Nike shoes are faster than competing brands”. Their solution was to show an in-store shoe display in which non-Nike shoes have been replaced with tortoises. The visual metaphor packs a punch and brings a smile to the face of the consumer. Simple and sophisticated, this Nike shoe advertisement is a sure-fire winner.

SCRABBLE

The Scrabble “Slices” campaign perfectly captures the product itself. The way in which the parts of the guitar are organized is even reminiscent of the Scrabble tray that holds the letters, as if it were sitting there waiting for you to organize it on the board for a triple word score. What is so captivating about this campaign is the simplicity of the image and how that communicates so strongly the brand image. It’s playful, fun, and a little weird. Also, when you’re looking at the pieces, it’s difficult to see how they might go together, such as the elephant, but you know immediately what it is when you look at it.

http://www.admadness.co http://www.rubyporter.com

Metaphors merge two seemingly incompatible images or concepts in an effort to create symbolism. Metaphors are frequently used in advertising as a way to enhance the perceived value of a product or to make it seem more personal. They can also help to create a particular brand image. An advertising metaphor often combines a verbal phrase with a visual image to dramatize the effect.

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Metaphors

HUTCH INDIA

JOHNSON AND JOHNSON The metaphor can be used to market products by the service providers. If the structure of the metaphor is well understood by the service providers, they will be able to tap the large potential market of the ‘unbanked’ people and draw them towards using their services that may be beneficial and suitable for them.

The commercial is about this cute little dog that keeps following its master (a little boy) wherever he goes. Irrespective of what the boy is doing or where he is going, the mutt sticks to his heels, doing its best to keep up with its master. And even though the boy seems rather unmindful of his pet, the dog loyally tails him… in a way only dogs can tail their masters. ‘Wherever you go, our network follows. Hutch,’ is all it has to say.

This way the target group also gets power to choose which products they like better.

“Reach. For the places your toothbrush hasn’t been to in a long time.”

The concepts can be relayed visually for maximum impact, through videos, prints, interfaces to communicate ideas. The metaphor should convey and sum up the meaning in minimum visuals and words for maximum impact. This would entail understanding what media works with the target audience the best and what aspects work and the ones that don’t.

Metaphors

Metaphors in Games “All play in some sense represents something from the non-play universe” (Crawford 2003, 29)

Football

Tax Evaders

Tax evaders came about as a national project to understand how corporations have changed the laws in order to avoid paying their fair share of taxes. The game facilitates a certain idea and it’s consequences by way of a metaphor.

Monopoly is an American classic that teaches real estate, saving, making business moves, negotiations, money managing and above all how to dominate a market by means of ruthlessness and greed. http://oligopoly.wordpress.com/

Learning

In the case of football we speak of “the attacker”, “the shot”, “to defend the goal”, “an explosive game” etc. and thus understand football (one kind of thing) in terms of war (another kind of thing).

Overtly political games (eg. tax evaders) work through procedural rhetoric by building metaphor into the rules of the game, and, as a consequence, by having the metaphor reinforced in the player by virtue of interaction. Ian Bogost, Persuasive Games

Metaphors and games are great examples for simplifying and making complex concepts engaging, fun and user friendly. Game metaphors create experiences that spark emotion and thought.

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Metaphors

Interacting with Metaphors A command “menu” can be understood by analogy to a customer choosing one of the dishes listed on the menu in a restaurant. A dialogue “button” can be understood by analogy to pressing a button on a control panel. A “carriage return” helped typists understand how a word processor works because this is what a typewriter did (when you reached the edge of the page, the carriage mechanism moved back to its original position). A “scroll” describes a multipage document in which the bottom of each page (originally parchment or papyrus) is glued to the top of the next. Constructing effective metaphors is to some extent a “literary” skill because it depends on the talent and insight of designers to see new analogies, perhaps drawing on theoretical research findings in order to choose the right set of correspondences. (Alan Blackwell, The Reification of Metaphor as a Design Tool)

“Familiar metaphors provide a direct and intuitive interface to user tasks. By allowing users to transfer their knowledge and experience, metaphors make it easier to predict and learn the behaviours of softwarebased representations.” (Microsoft Corp. 1995)

“You can take advantage of people’s knowledge of the world around them by using metaphors to convey concepts and features of your application. Use metaphors involving concrete, familiar ideas and make the metaphors plain, so that users have a set of expectations to apply to computer environments.” (Apple Computer Inc. 1992)

Bill Verplank: process of interaction design

Metaphors

The Desktop metaphor Computer developers came to the realization that computers need to be understood by novice users like office workers. Computer developers needed to come up with metaphors that resonated with a different type of user in that user’s own world. The desktop metaphor was released in the mid-80s, and was highly successful, and to this day is arguably the most successful computer metaphor. Metaphors during this time became the core of designing (the “Golden Age” of metaphors began in 1985). “The desktop metaphor was invented because one, you were a stand-alone device, and two, you had to manage your own storage. That’s a very big thing in a desktop world. And that may go away. You may not have to manage your own storage. You may not store much before too long.”

Alan Kay had always talked about the desktop metaphor and he came up with the idea of overlapping windows, from a metaphor of papers on a desktop. “You can have a lot more papers on a desk if they overlap each other, and you can see the corner of one, pull it out and put it on top.” Alan Kay

“Someone’s got a document and they want to file it, so they walk over to the file cabinet and put it in the file cabinet; or if they want to make a copy of it, they walk over to the copier and they make a copy of it; or they want to throw it away, so they reach under their desk and throw it in the trash can.”

He describes how the idea of a desktop came to him as part of an “office schematic” that would allow people to manipulate entire documents, grabbing them with a mouse and moving them around a representation of an office on the screen. They could drop them into a file cabinet or trash can, or onto a printer. One of the objects in the office was a desktop, with a calendar and clock on it, plus in- and outbaskets for electronic mail. Tim Mott’s reconstruction of his sketch on the bar napkin

Tim Mott

Steve Jobs

The desktop metaphor was not directly motivated by any coherent theoretical stance regarding metaphor, but was chiefly a product of technical evolution and historical contingency. (Gentner and Grudin, 1996)

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Metaphors

Internet: a World Wide Web of Metaphors “Metaphors such as “the World Wide Web” or the “information superhighway” provide users scaffolding for grasping the Internet’s potential, functions, and interactions. To understand something as dynamic and abstract as the WWW is difficult or impossible without the aid of a metaphor for contrast.”

Note: The metaphor, once formed should have scope for the customers to customize, add their own meaning and contribute to the service design

(M.L. Kent, Managerial rhetoric as the metaphor for the World Wide Web, 2001)

Metaphors provide an initial structure to Internet experiences. When invoking metaphors related to the Internet, people choose to invoke common metaphors or create new metaphors entirely depending upon their experiences. (S. Wyatt, Danger! Metaphors at work in economies, geophysiology, and the Internet, 2004)

of the products beings used by them. New meanings should be derived and the metaphor should be adaptable to those specific uses.

The Internet is an Ocean

Ocean (source)

Internet (target)

To surf, surfer

Virtual travel, web traveller

Ocean

Vast amount of information

Hits, when fishing

Finding data or sites

Navigate Navigator, Explorer Piracy

Act of accessing sites Tools to navigate the Net Stealing intellectual property

Metaphors

What is the Right Metaphor? The â&#x20AC;&#x153;Melting Potâ&#x20AC;? has been the metaphor for America, as it relates to the gathering and amalgamation of various people groups in this country. This may not be the correct metaphor for how things really are. And furthermore, it is not the metaphor for what we really should desire things to be, if we are culturally competent. If we want to embrace all types of cultures, ethnicities and races in our country and we want to support them maintaining their culture, tradition, customs, and language, then what are we to do? What is necessary for this to occur? What might this look like? And if this is what America is, what is the right metaphor? How about a fruit salad? (Julie Hunt, Exploring Human Diversity Together, 2012)

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Metaphors

The Metaphorical Associations of Money “If you ask me to name the proudest distinction of Americans, I would choose—because it contains all the others—the fact that they were the people who created the phrase ‘to MAKE money.’ No other language or nation had ever used these words before; men had always thought of wealth as a static quantity—to be seized, begged, inherited, shared, looted, or obtained as a favor. Americans were the first to understand that wealth has to be created. The words ‘to make money’ hold the essence of human morality.”

Saving seems ingrained in cultural mores

Popular idioms

When asked about proverbs relating to money management, nearly all participants recalled lessons about saving. For example:

Garibi mein atta geela (Hindi) The dough is runny in poverty Meaning: In adversity, everything takes a bad turn.

“Haba na haba hujaza kibaba.” Saving small-small will fill the container.

Paisa hath ka mael hai (Hindi) Money is dirt Hard work will pay off

Ayn rand

“Ukipata shilingi mbili kula moja weka moja.” When you get two shillings, save one and eat one.

“Akiba haiozi.” Savings don’t rot.

FSD Insights, Financial capability and the poor: are we missing the mark?, Issue 02 Dec 2010

Khoon pasine ki kamai (Hindi) Earnings of my blood and sweat Hard work Baap bada na bhaiya, sabse bada rupaiya (Hindi) Neither is the father nor the brother are big, only money is big. Meaning: Money rules over relationships as well. Boond boond se ghada bharta hai (Hindi) Drop by drop the pot fills Meaning: With regular small savings you can accumulate money duDDE doDDappa (Kannada) Money by itself is like a godfather. Translation: Money is everything in real/practical world.

Metaphors

A Search for a Good Metaphor Metaphors are cultural What is the purpose of using the metaphor? What exactly do you need it to accomplish? What associations is it supposed to evoke and what actions will the metaphorical associations make easier?

Different cultures have different conceptual frameworks, especially about abstract ideas like time. Not only are metaphors culturally specific, but they can also be limited to specific audiences within that culture. The Desktop metaphor is relevant for those who donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t have a desktop. Metaphors are contextual

Metaphors should describe deep functional similarities, not superficial resemblance. A wellchosen metaphor maps many of the experiential qualities of one kind of interaction to another. Magic wands in myth, for example, are swung around and pointed at objects to activate actions. The Nintendo Wii captures these qualities well, creating a relatively clear relationship between familiar stories and a new game controller. A game controller that looked like a traditional magic wand (glittery star on top, etc.) but operated like an ink pen would be simply confusing. (Mike Kuniavsky, Smart Things: Ubiquitous Computing User Experience Design)

What can work in one medium or domain may not work elsewhere. The subject matter of most projects will likely be rich with its own metaphors. Finding and utilizing them can make powerful connections between the product and its context of use.

Other metaphoric choices (an envelope instead of a folder, say) may not have scaled so well. (On the other hand, using the metaphor of a workbench instead of a desktop might have supported many activities, not just working with paper.) Metaphors are an extension of people

When we propose that a computer be presented as a metaphorical office or typewriter, one of the things we are really describing is the intended user of this computer, describing him or her as an office worker or typist.

Metaphor should fit to the functionality, not the other way around

Metaphors should support concepts, not be supported by concepts or be the concept. Metaphor should not ruin key features

All metaphors can obscure as much as they illuminate, and they should choose their metaphors so they do not obscure or distort key features. Metaphors should be appropriately scalable

The desktop metaphor has lasted as long as it has because it scales very well. Many varied tasks fit well into its framework; likewise, the folder metaphor. Samira Jain | NID | SDM | Diploma Project | MicroSave | 2013

Metaphors

Chapter Summary

Based on the summary of what metaphors are, their task, role and characteristics, I tried to answer these questions in context of this particular project. This gave clarity in terms of what the metaphor should eventually accomplish and what I am looking for.

What is the purpose of the metaphor?

Metaphors are cultural

Metaphors should be appropriately scalable

To comprehend the money management practices of the â&#x20AC;&#x153;low income groupâ&#x20AC;? in a simple, easily understood manner.

The money management mental models of people might exist in different systems, although all people need to deal with money at an every day level. What are these systems that they have built around them and are their cultural differences seen in these systems? Can money have a universally understood metaphor?

In order for service providers to utilize the metaphors derived in this project, they have to be widely understood and should have the scope to build stories around them; the scalability would impact both the service providers as well as the consumers.

What will the metaphor accomplish?

The metaphor should relate both with the service providers as well as the customers to create a better financial sector environment for the future.

Metaphors are contextual What associations is it supposed to evoke and what actions will the metaphorical associations make easier?

The metaphor should make it easier for the service providers to provide better products because of the better understanding. The metaphor should also make the banking sector approachable for the low income group and help them meet their financial needs better. In the future, the metaphor should also help in designing the interface that customers might use.

People have various mental models of money management depending on the situation. One person might boast of various models and strategies according to the situation they are faced with, to fight it in the best possible way with the resources they possess. What are the various contexts and in what situations does money appear in and what is its role? Metaphor should fit to the functionality, not the other way around

A structure for the mental models needs to be defined so as for the metaphor to fit the skeleton of this framework. Metaphor should not ruin key features

There are key features of the mental models that should be highlighted and thus a metaphor would be created to support these key features.

Metaphors are an extension of people

The metaphor should instantly resonate with the people and they should identify with the persons being personated by the metaphor. What is the role of people in this metaphor?

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Chapter 7: Methodology Approach Getting inspiration for the metaphor The working of a metaphor Mapping the target and the domain Research design Research questions The field guide Pilot testing Research methods Research tools Aids Scope of enquiry Potential challenges

Methodology

102

Approach The poor often resist the wonderful plans we think up for them because they do not share our faith that those plans work, or work as well as we claim. Abhijit V. Banerjee & Esther Duflo, Poor economics

What poverty is taken to mean depends on who asks the question, how it is understood, and who responds. Our common meanings have all been constructed by us, non-poor people. They reflect our power to make definitions according to our perceptions. Whose reality counts? Ours, as we construct it with our mindsets and for our purposes? Or theirs as we enable them to analyse and express it?

But poverty and deprivation are functions of polarisation, of power and powerlessness. Any practical analysis has to examine the whole system: -“us”, the powerful, as well as “them” the powerless. Since we have more power to act, it is hard to evade the imperative to turn the spotlight round and look at ourselves. Our views of the realities of the poor, and of what should be done, are constructed mainly from a distance, and can be seen to be constructed mainly for our convenience. (Poverty And Livelihoods: Whose Reality Counts?, Robert Chambers, 1994)

It is the sensitivity to social context and cultural moment that makes the results of the design research resonate with a public or a market. Peter Lunenfeld, Design research, methods and perspectives

These ideas (policy stances) rarely have space for average poor women and men, with their hopes and doubts, limitations and aspirations, beliefs and confusion. If the poor appear at all, it is usually as the dramatic persona of some uplifting anecdote or tragic episode, to be admired or pitied, but not as a source of knowledge, not as people to be consulted about what they think or want to do. Is anything special about the poor? Do they just live like everyone else, except with less money, or is there something fundamentally different about life under poverty? And if it is something special, is it something that could keep the poor trapped in poverty? Abhijit V. Banerjee & Esther Duflo, Poor economics

Learning: The research is conducted through a set of inherent biases of the researcher. One has to be aware of the power dynamics that can come in the way. The respondents are a source of great knowledge; they know what is best for them.

Methodology

Stage

Getting inspiration for the metaphor

Ideating the metaphor

Objective

Action

The first stage involves listening as clients talk about how they think about money, budgeting and their savings in a variety of contexts. We will record the recurring themes, the hot buttons, whatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s really important to them. Equally, we will capture the key words and themes that come up. The objective is to generate a catalogue of ideas. In this phase we will refrain from proposing metaphors to customers, as this may bias the way they talk about their money.

Primary research: Ethnography

This stage is about creating a synthesis of the ideas and imagery collected by creating a higher-level metaphor. It involves a much high level of abstraction than what customers are likely to be saying spontaneously. Objective: to create abstractions that have as many points of contact as possible with their stories.

Analysis: Deriving keywords

Validating and refining the metaphor

This final stage involves presenting the chosen metaphor to clients and capturing their reactions. The metaphor has to work very quickly, without elaborate descriptions. The key focus at this stage will be on improving the way the metaphor is expressed, so as to maximize its relevance and power.

Observation research In-depth interviews

House visits

Focus Group Discussions

Other research tools

Common themes

Mental models

Skeleton for the metaphor

Conceptualization: Associating imagery to the structure

Engaging the consumers with the metaphor Note: this process is an involved project in itself and should be carried out by a separate team.

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Methodology

Getting Inspiration for the Metaphor To understand the financial lives of the poor, a certain target group was to be chosen and interacted with. The team was divided into two groups. One team was to stay in Lucknow and conduct the research in the village surrounding Lucknow. My team and I were to go to Chamba, Uttarakhand and interact with people there. But before going to the field we had to have a plan of action and have our research material ready.

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Methodology

The Working of a Metaphor Purpose

Personification

To find an appropriate metaphor, The various elements that create a metaphor have to be understood. Also, the characteristics and the various ways in which it relates to this particular project have to be understood.

Relatable

Visual

Vivid Scalable

Detail

Accurate

Compact

Abstraction Contextual

Culture

Language

METAPHOR

Medium

Content Structure System

Visual Visual

Visual Imagery

Visual Aural Functional

Tensions

Behaviour This map shows the various attributes of a metaphor.

Conceptual

Objective

Drama

Emotion Samira Jain | NID | SDM | Diploma Project | MicroSave | 2013

Methodology

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Mapping the Target and the Domain Financial management

The financial model process has to be broken down and then mapped with the workings of a metaphor.

Metaphor

The financial management process has been broken down into the following steps: Overall decision driver

Mental models Behaviour Emotion

Strategy

Why

Objective State of mind

How

System Relationships

What

Situation

Constraints

What: What is it that the consumers do. The event or the situation they engage in. This could be monetary or nonmonetary but should reflect the capital flow within the consumerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s system of financial management. How: This step reflects how the consumer tackles situations and events, what support system they rely on and what is the social structure available to them.

Social structure

Why: This step is concerned with why the consumer chooses to make certain choices, what constraints they face while making that decision and why is it that certain choices are made over others. Overall decision driver: What is the meta-behaviour observed while going through the process for a certain event and what was the key decision driver in the minds of the consumers.

Methodology

Research Design The keywords were further narrowed down. The characteristics of the money management process that need to be reflected in the metaphor were identified.

These are: Objective

Needs, goals, aspirations: what is it that people work towards. Do they have a clear picture of what they want? What

Objective

How

Constraints Relationships

Why

Motivations (Competence, autonomy, relatedness): What is it that motivates people to move ahead. Situations: what are the various situations faced by people. Why do these situations arise, what are the factors that create them and how do they tackle them.

Emotion Behaviour

Constraints

Trade-offs: while making decisions, people choose between various trade-offs such as: Flexibility to meet changing goals and circumstances, versus the discipline to hold money and avoid temptation Privacy to avoid theft and social pressures to share bounties, versus social display of building public commitment, signalling success or claiming social status.

safe, and getting a predictable return, versus surprise feeling the elation of breaking the piggybank, or reaping an unexpected reward through a lottery. Are there more such trade offs that people make? (Such as dissipation of wealth now, versus seeing it grow for future) Relationships

Interactions and transactions: What is the support system that people exist in and create for themselves? Collaborations: How competitive are they? Do they like to achieve and accomplish things together? Emotions

Personas: What are the various roles people play (For e.g. caretaker, adviser, leader in their lives) Narratives Ideal me vs Real me: The aspirations people have and look up to. The realities of their surroundings as compared to what they would like it to be

Certainty of knowing money is accounted for and Samira Jain | NID | SDM | Diploma Project | MicroSave | 2013

Methodology

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Research Questions Based on the 4 main areas identified, I listed down research questions that need to be answered under each category which would be further elaborated in the field guide with more specific questions.

OBJECTIVE

RELATIONSHIPS

Do people have defined financial goals (both in short

How do interpersonal dynamics of relationships

term and long term)?

impact financial behaviour(trust, etc)?

The factors (needs, motivation, and purposes) that

How do different forms of formal/ informal

determine people’s financial planning

collaboration effect/ influence financial decisions?

How do life situations determine people’s financial

To what level and extent do social factors impact F.M

behaviour?

(peer pressure, status symbol, competition)?

What type of financial behaviour produces a sense

How do people leverage social capital and what

of achievement (how is financial behaviour related to

role does it play in influencing people’s financial

feeling a little successful/sense of achievement)?

decisions?

What financial avenues are people using and how are

From the perspective of financial planning, what are

their objectives aligned with the avenues?

the various typologies of relationships that can be identified? In what ways do different interactions/ transactions shape and define different kinds of financial and nonfinancial relationships?

Methodology: Research Questions

CONSTRAINTS

EMOTIONS

Flexibility vs Discipline

Real Me vs. Ideal Me - How do you actually manage

Privacy vs Social

money and how you wish to manage your money?

Certainty vs Surprise

What are the things you aspire for in terms of assets

Risk vs Return

(under different circumstances)?

In diverse life circumstances, which of these

What is the philosophical and theological view on

constraints play a dominant role? - What factors

money? Is there a value system associated with

influence decision making across these constraints?

money?

What degree of autonomy do people have while determining between these trade offs? - Factors, if any, determining the degree of autonomy (social norms, social pressure etc) Is there a certain hierarchy or level of importance between these constraints? What other constraints/trade-offs do people face/ make? And why?

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Methodology

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The Field Guide Based on the basic research questions a field guide was prepared to help us in the field while talking to respondents. The purpose of the field guide was to help formulate some questions so that the researcher has a reference if they get stuck (in the form of sample questions) oulining basic areas that they had to cover during the duration of the interview.

OBJECTIVE Do people have defined financial goals (both in short term and long term)?

Probe into sources-single/multiple, skills, modes of income (where is the money coming from? Money owed to person, daily wage etc) fluctuation in flow of income, form of income. Authority of managing expenses.)

These questions should follow after a general introduction about the personâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s background. 1. Where are you from originally? Since when have you been living here? 2. How many members do you have in your family? 3. What do they do? How many bread earners are there in your family? 4. What do you do? Since when are you doing this job/work/profession?

expenditures of you and your family? How do you manage that? Who in your family manages that (probe into finding out who is the decision maker in the family) 8. Do you have a steady source of electricity? Do you have to pay for it? 9. Where do you get your water from? 10. What other necessities do you spend on? Besides basic necessities, what else do you spend or would like to spend your money on? (Probe into whether they have goals, short term and long term long term expenses/investments/savings)? 11. How about other members of your family? What would they like to spend their money on? (Probe into gender differences) 12. Do you have any children? How old are they? Do they go to school? Who pays for their fees?

5. What is the main occupation of this community?

13. How do they commute? Do you have any future plans for them? If yes then, what have you done about it?

6. What is your earning cycle/income pattern? Daily/ monthly/yearly? 7. What are the major daily, weekly and monthly

14. What other things would you like to spend on in future? (probe into long term goals if any)When was the last time you got paid (or your husband handed

Methodology: The Field Guide

over his pay to you)? What was the first thing you did when you received it? (Probe into what the person did with the money the instance he/she got the cash in hand; moment of determination) 15. How do you decide where to use your money? (Probe into factors such commitment to purpose, variability of commitment or importance/ meaningfulness of a given commitment) 16. Do you maintain any record of your expenses or incomes or can you show us how you manage your income when you get paid? (quick mind map exercise)

balance between their financial standing and their needs and desires. What are the motivating factors? Is planning an intrinsic approach towards attaining solutions to situations?

Key Probes: Needs: Food, Shelter, clothing, hygiene, communication, entertainment, occupational, commute, health, religion, comfort, education, social, individual, family, seasonal, community, geography.

17. Do you have a bank account? How often do you use it? Apart from that how do you keep your money safe?

Desires: Wishes, hopes, ‘Akanksha’ (aspiration), quality of life.

18. Of total household income, how much is appropriated privately and how much with the knowledge of both?

Motivation: Satisfaction, sacrifice, responsibility, duty, faith, trust, happiness, greed, conscience, pride, shame, anxiety, jealousy, fear.

19. How is common pot split and who manages it or each part of it?

For Example; 1. Do you think your current income can help you meet your needs?

The factors (needs, motivation, and purposes) that determine people’s financial planning

Probe into the aspect of how these people strike a

2. What other needs do you have that are not currently being fulfilled? How do you plan to meet them? (Probe into other needs such as studying further, etc)

3. What steps are you taking or want to take to meet your future financial needs? (Probe into how they are planning -whether they are saving or investing into assets (physical or others) 4. Do you have trouble keeping a steady income? 5. Do you think the money you have would enable you to settle down in the future? 6. Would you like to study more if given an opportunity? How do life situations determine people’s financial behaviour?

Probe into various situations, their outcomes and the way people handled those situations, leading to a particular financial behaviour/decision. These situations can be created by desires; they can be expected or unexpected, known or unknown. These situations can present various other options and they can arise through capturing opportunities. Key probes: Life cycle events, emergency events, fulfilment of needs, external unknown factors determined by others’ decisions. For Example; Samira Jain | NID | SDM | Diploma Project | MicroSave | 2013

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1. Have you ever faced a situation when you really needed money but did not have? What did you do in such circumstances? (Probe into whether they plan for emergency and other life situations and how they deal with them)

peer’s wish?

2. Have you thought of any other situation that may come up where you would need money in future? How do you plan to deal with such a situation?

The researcher must probe into the various present/ past formal and informal avenues of storage of wealth. It could be anything from insurance, savings accounts, to cattle, jewels and other material possessions around the house.

What type of financial behaviour produces a sense of achievement (how is financial behaviour related to feeling a little successful/sense of achievement)?

The researcher must probe into the person’s high points in life, any financial decision that made him feel proud, happy, content etc. Key probes: Social minded, basic/primary needs, pressure, sacrifice, profit, convenience, comfort, functionality, future, resources and means. For Example; 1. When was the last time you felt good about a financial decision and why? 2. The occupation that you chose was your own personal decision or family’s decision for you? 3. Did you purchase any product in the past against

What financial avenues are people using and how are their objectives aligned with the avenues?

For Example; 1. How do you currently meet or plan to meet your future financial needs? (Probe into financial channels/ avenues used for meeting needs, including cattle etc) 2. How do you make decisions around which financial avenue to rely on to meet your needs? (Probe into factors such as the vividness of a financial avenue, immediacy of a particular financial avenue) 3. What did you purchase this Diwali? What plans have you made for any upcoming festival? 4. Have you ever planned to purchase a gift for distant relative’s marriage or any other occasion? (in cash or kind) 5. Do you keep cattle? When did you acquire them? What purposes do they serve?

6. How have these financial avenues helped you out in times of difficulties? 7. What other avenues do you rely on to meet your needs in emergency and other situations? CONSTRAINTS

This section will probe into the various trade-offs that people make during financial planning and the factors that determine these trade-offs, their hierarchy of importance. Flexibility vs Discipline Privacy vs Social Certainty vs Surprise Risk vs Return In diverse life circumstances, which of these constraints play a dominant role? What factors influence decision making across these constraints? For Example; 1. When or at what age in life, did you start making your own decisions around money? 2. Do you disclose your money matters or financial standing to your family members and others in the community? If yes, how? If not, how do you hide it

Methodology: The Field Guide

from them? (This will give you cues around privacy vs social display, including visual cues around such behaviour) 3. Do you recall a situation/s when you had to make a difficult financial decision? Why was it a tough decision to make ? (probe into factors/trade offs that are considered while decision making , whether they vary based on situation and degree of importance/ priority) 4. Have you made any hasty financial decision that has caused you problem later? 5. Tell us about any instance where you were surprised? Was it good or bad? 6. When it comes to issues related to money do you prefer surprises or surety of the rewards you will receive? (Probe into how the trade off between certainty and surprise plays off) Have you taken any risks related to financial decisions? If yes, under what circumstances and why? (Probe into trade off between risk and return)

collaboration effect/ influence financial decisions? Is there a certain hierarchy or level of importance between these constraints?

To what level and extent do social factors impact F.M

What other constraints/trade-offs do people face/

(peer pressure, status symbol, competition)?

make? And why?

This part will involve follow up questions from the situation narrative and may not necessarily be in the same order. Researcher will have to construct impromptu questions based on the responses in order to probe further For Example; 1. Do you think it worked in your favour eventually? What do you think you would have done differently, given a choice? 2. What were the major factors that led you to make that choice? Did you face any social pressure at that point in time? 3. Do you think that these social pressures or (other factors) influenced your decision? If yes then how? RELATIONSHIPS

What degree of autonomy do people have while determining between these trade offs? - Factors, if

How do interpersonal dynamics of relationships

any, determining the degree of autonomy (social

impact financial behaviour(trust, etc)?

How do people leverage social capital and what role does play in influencing peopleâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s financial decisions? From the perspective of financial planning, what are the various typologies of relationships that can be identified? In what ways do different interactions/ transactions shape and define different kinds of financial and nonfinancial relationships?

This section will involve observation of various financial transactions in both home and work context of the respondent as well as understanding the social dynamics with the community. Researcher will attempt to map out the relationship dynamics of the respondents and its implications on his/her financial behaviours.

norms, social pressure etc) How do different forms of formal/ informal Samira Jain | NID | SDM | Diploma Project | MicroSave | 2013

Methodology

For Example; 1. Who do you go to when in need, for any financial emergency? Why? 2. Do you rely on your friends and extended family for financial assistance of any kind? Under what circumstances have you used their support in the past? (Probe into the relevance of social capital) 3. Who else in your network do you borrow from or lend to? (Probe into how this is based on nature of relationship, and how financial transactions define relationships) 4. Do you send/receive money to/from any other source? Do you often lend money to your friends and family? If so, then do you charge an interest or is there any other motivation behind doing this? 5. Do you maintain any written agreement about your debts and credits? 6. Who stores all your important documents? Where do you store all your important documents? 7. Where do you buy your daily consumables from? Do you buy them on credit? 8. Who in your household is key decision maker? Who makes key decisions when it comes to finances?

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EMOTIONS Real Me vs. Ideal Me - How do you actually manage money and how you wish to manage your money, also things you aspire for in terms of assets (under new set of circumstances)? User Segment - How do you put philosophical, theological, value system part in money?

Probe into peopleâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s idea/perception of money. 1. What is the role of money (shree) in society? What meaning or value does it hold in your life? (Probe into value sets attached to money) 2. Do you think money plays an important role in leading a happy and content life? How? 3. What are your most prized possessions and why? 4. During celebrations do you visit religious places of your faith? 5. How important are birthdays in the family? 6. How many times in a year do you celebrate other occasions? How do you plan for them? 7. What are your means of entertainment? With family, with friends?

Methodology

Pilot Testing A local MFI in Lucknow took us to some of their clients and gave us an opportunity to talk to one of their clients

Name: Naval Kishor Mishra, Saroj Mishra Place: Outskirts of Lucknow Occupations: Lorry driver Family members: 5 Wife and 3 daughters

OBJECTIVES

Me: Where are you from? How long have you been living here? Mishraji: My village is 200km from Kanpur. I have been living here in Lucknow for the past 15 years. Me: Have you been living in this house since the beginning? (Based on the response, I will have to probe to know

Mishraji: I have lorries and they run in the surrounding areas. (People are uncomfortable when being asked about their income. Also, we are not concerned with the amounts)

Me: Do you drive on your own? Mishraji: (with pride) I have hired drivers. I have two vehicles.

more about the respondent and his background)

Me: How did you buy the vehicles?

Mishraji: No. We used to live in a rented house close by. Then through the LDA scheme we got 1 room. Me: How did you build such a big house?

Mishraji: I took a loan for 7 lacs from the bank.

Mishraji: It has been 6 years since we built this house. It was built in instalments. The upper floor is still under construction.

Mishraji: My brother helped me. He had already taken a loan once. He told me how to go about it.

closed. She was suspicious of my motive.

Me: All three floors are being used by you?

(It is easy to get distracted and question about family,

(Note: the interview has been translated from Hindi to English)

Mishraji: The upper level we have given out on rent.

Note: Before talking to Mishraji his wife Saroj is the one I had started talking to. Mishraji was doing his morning prayer and therefore not paying attention to us. While talking to Saroj, her responses were vague and

Me: Did you have any problems taking the loan?

but might lose focus on this probe)

Me: How did you plan the construction?

Me: What about papers, did you find the process complex? Mishraji: For business, I had to do it.

Mishraji: Sometimes when the business is good, more money comes and then I invest it in constructions. Me: What do you do?

Me: Have you paid the loan back?

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Methodology

Mishraji: Yes. I have to pay Rs. 8730 as instalment every month. They gave me a period of 15 years but I paid it off early. Thankfully business has been good. Me: Do you have any future plans for your business? Mishraji: I want to buy another vehicle, expand business Me: How will you accomplish that? Mishraji: I will have to take another loan. Or might sell the first vehicle, it is quite old now. Me: I saw a motorcycle parked outside, is that yours? (Questions need to be prompted through observation)

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loan from the Self Help Group?

Me: What about rations? Grains?

Mishraji: Needed money for the household.

Mishraji: That comes from the village. My mother is in the village and she has hired people to cultivate the land. We get enough for a 8-10 months a year.

(This can be seen as a budgeting tool. They prefer saving down than saving up:

Me: Do you have problems repaying the instalments every month? Mishraji: No, not really. But once or twice if we are unable to pay then another member pays for us. And then we return the money. (There is no clear boundary between OBJECTIVES, CONSTRAINTS and RELATIONSHIPS. The segregation

Me: What about milk? Mishraji: We have our own cows. They give milk for 6 months. The rest we buy from someone else. Me: So you must be able to save from your income. Where do you store your money? (There was discomfort in answering this question)

will have to be done at the analysis level.)

Mishraji: It gets spent

Me: Who takes care of all the finances?

Me: Do you have bank accounts?

Mishraji: All the money earned, I give to my wife. She runs the household.

(Try another approach)

Turning to wife. Me: You do all the shopping for the household?

Me: When do use them?

Mishraji: Yes. I bought it a few years ago. Me: Did you take a loan for that? Mishraji: No. I had enough cash. Me: have you taken a loan from the SHG? Mishraji: Yes. Me: Is this the only one that you have taken? Mishraji: No. There is another one. Me: Your business is doing well. Why did you take a

Mishraji: No. I buy all the vegetables for the week. The little other we need, my wife buys on a monthly basis.

Mishraji: Yes. But donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t use them that often.

Mishraji: If I get a big amount from a big job, then I deposit that money in the account. Me: Do you invest that money?

Methodology: Pilot testing

Mishraji: No it gets spent, in construction or something else.

Me: So how will you take care of the wedding expenses?

Me: do you have any other schemes that you have enrolled in?

Mishraji: Will see when the time comes. (More probing)

Mishraji: LIC for two daughters. Rs. 1800/3 months. Me: Why? Mishraji: One should have it. (Vague answer, no clear mental labelling. Or is it possible that he does not want to disclose all details)

Me: Have you thought of your daughter’s future?

Mishraji: Will have to borrow or sell the land in the village or find more work. Me: What about the cows? You could sell them? Mishraji: No, no. Every Hindu has to have cows at home, it is important for the milk. One should not sell the cow. (Making connections from earlier responses. Also

Mishraji: Not really. We will take it as it comes.

cultural connotations- cows are productive assets but

(There is no picture of a future, there are no clear

not material assets)

goals)

Me: What about their education? Mishraji: All of them go to school. They go for tuitions also everyday. They can study till whenever they like. Me: What about their marriage? Is there a system of dowry in your community? Mishraji: Yes. 4-5 lacs is normal.

Me: What do you do if you need emergency fund, if one of your daughter’s fall ill? Mishraji: Whatever money we have saved at home or if else borrow from relatives.

am gifting her a metal cupboard. CONSTRAINTS

Me: Is it a norm to give such gifts? Mishraji: It is essential. This way I am helping the family in the dowry. Now when my daughter gets married they will have to help me out. That’s how we work. (Thinking more...) Even if there is nothing to eat at home, giving a gift is essential. (Important aspects come out while there is continued discussion on one topic)

Me: Apart from that? Are there any other expenditures that you will bear at the time of the wedding? Mishraji: Buy new clothes and jewellery for the girls. Me: Are you digging in your savings to pay for all of it? Mishraji: Some from income, some from savings

Me: Do you have many relatives you can borrow from? Mishraji: I have 5 brothers. All of us help each other out. My brother’s daughter is getting married soon. I

Do you have any other big festivals that you celebrate? Mishraji: Diwali is a very big festival in our community.

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Methodology

Me: How do you celebrate it? Mishraji: Puja, crackers, new clothes for the children. Me: Are birthdays important in your family? Mishraji: Of course, at least a 100 people are called for the party. Me: How much a party like that cost you? (Is this question important? It tends to create a bias in the researcherâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s mind therefore avoid asking specific amount questions)

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Mishraji: We are a huge Sai Baba devotees. We travel to Shirdi 2-3 times a year? Me: You and your entire family?

Me: What about your mother, do you consult her? Mishraji: I try and visit my village, once in a year. My mother manages everything on her own.

Mishraji: The entire community goes. But everyone takes care of their own expenses.

(Gets a phone call and the interview has to end. He has to go for work)

Me: Are you able to leave your business and go so often?

Learnings:

Mishraji: This is important. We have to go. Me: Do you do any other activities as part of the community?

Me: Do you plan before hand? (and do some sort of a budgeting)

Mishraji: Every year 4-5 of us come together to sponsor a Bhandara. It goes on the whole day, we feed whoever comes to the temple.

(Have to be careful about asking leading questions)

RELATIONSHIPS

Mishraji: Not really. Usually something or the other works out. Otherwise have to make sure that I get work at the time.

Me: Do you consult your brothers when making important financial decisions?

Me: Are you religious? Do you have any special traditions?

Mishraji: Yes. We all help each other out, thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s why sometimes when I need money, I go to them or they come to me.

(Looking at the little temple inside the room, I decided to ask the question, observation of environment is important)

Since these are not formal interviews, there might be events that could disrupt the interview, or distract the respondent. Other research methods such as shadowing might have to be employed. If the respondent is part of a MFI, it does not indicate his financial status. This respondent was comfortable talking also because the MFI interacts with them many times; the level of comfort might vary in other cases and might take

Me: What do they do? Mishraji: They are all businessmen.

much longer. This interview lasted for 1 hour 45 minutes. We would need much more time with each respondent depending on how much time they take to become comfortable with us.

Methodology: Pilot Testing

It is not the assets we are concerned with but how

or whether their expenses added up to their income

they build them and the strategies people employ in

or not.

various situations The way forward was to employ more tools and use Women respondents are more shy than the male

this as a guide for unstructured interviews.

respondents. They have details but are unwilling to share easily. Reasons: they are uncertain about who we are and why we are looking for this information. What if the information disclosed presents a problem for them to get more loans from the MFI? There cannot be a clear boundary between the questions pertaining to OBJECTIVES, CONSTRAINTS and RELATIONSHIPS. They come depending on the topic we are at. People get uncomfortable with a camera in the room. We have to ensure we take permission before hand and if that they are not comfortable, we should use the resources we can. There is no such thing as a bad respondent. We should collect all the information we can. This research was not about finding the truth. So my probing and focus had to not be the actual amounts Samira Jain | NID | SDM | Diploma Project | MicroSave | 2013

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Research Methods Apart from the field guide we realised that we would need more tools. Ethnography

Ethnographic methods are well suited to inform the design and innovation processes to ensure that the outcomes resonate with people, both today and in the future.

Ethnography was one of the most integral and most central research approach used in the field. Ethnography can be seen as a broad research approach or even a research style, rather than one specific methodology. It covers a variety of different qualitative methods, such as participatory observation, semi-structured interviews, and video diaries that can be combined as needed to bring answers and insights to the surface.

In ethnographic research, approach and attitude are everything. With the right methods and a healthy dose of curiosity one can uncover new insights and develop new opportunities for almost any given topic. But with this power comes the responsibility to always be ethical when conducting research.

I talked to the respondents one on one for long hours so as to get as many insights from them as possible. They were also more comfortable having regular conversations with us. With the help of the field guide, the interviews were made more unstructured while keeping the main points in mind.

Key pointers: Listen Carefully Write all the ideas down Analyse immediately

Ethnography aims to get under the skin of human behaviour, to better understand the world and the specifics of the cultures we live in. The focus of the research can be anything from current cultural tendencies, to changing values, attitudes and norms, or concrete human behaviour and its motivations within different situations and contexts.

In-depth conversations

Read between the lines

Focused group discussions

We talked to groups of people to understand their overall understanding of money and its management.

Methodology

Research Tools We had to be prepared before going into the field. We knew the potential challenges that we could be faced with and based on that I came up with a set of tools that could be used in the field: Conversations starters

It is sometimes not easy for respondents to open up. Tools had to be created for us to be able to strike conversations with them without them feeling awkward or conscious. To make people comfortable

The respondents would be talking to strangers and they would be talking about personal matters. To understand the flow of capital

The financial planning process, the various goals and strategies that people have.

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My situation

To help the respondent open up to us, we could talk to them about ourselves, give them situations from our lives and we could discuss those situations. This could help build trust and we could understand their thought process. Situations could be: 1. Short term goals: Computer broke, need to buy one immediately, donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t have enough funds

Shadowing

Participant mind mapping

2. Medium term goals: Want to go for higher studies but donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t have money to sponsor self. Parents cannot pay.

We would follow the respondent around everywhere to get a grasp of their regular lives and how they negotiated with it. This also helped in making the respondents comfortable around us.

Involve the family to mind map. It would give a clearer picture as well as less chances of receiving loose answers.

3. Long term goals: Get a job

Methodology: Research Tools

Feb

March April

May

June

July

...

Event

Jan

Relationship map

Time line

Responding to situations and image clustering

To map how and to what extent social relationships influence financial transactions, particularly saving and credit avenues.

To map peopleâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s sense of planning and their idea of time vs event.

Given different situations, peopleâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s reaction and solution to those. This captured their views and their ideas of money management.

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Note: People find easier to relate to and talk about other peopleâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s problems. They find it easier to advice others on how things should be. This exercise would help us get feedback on what they think happens, things that they donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t agree with.

Story in motion

We made a short animation about a person struggling to find solutions to his problems regarding managing finance. We played the animation and asked the respondent to provide solutions. We would further need to probe into the respondentsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; solution, to understand the logic why she/he thinks that way.

Methodology

Aids Word association

To create an environment of fun and ease, with some of the respondents we could play games such as word association. The game is to say the first word that comes to mind when prompted with another word. This game would help in also extracting sub conscious thoughts.

Picture cards

Blank cards

A range of picture cards were made to be taken with us on field. They could help us generate more research tools by giving us more flexibility to create situation/respondent based exercises.

We carried blank placards with us in case we needed to create more situations based on the context/ forgot to account for it in the beginning.

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Mind mapping

Design diaries

Cameras

We carried roles of chart papers to conduct mind mapping exercises with the respondents to determine their mental models.

I made copious notes in my diary. People may mind other tools of data recording like the camera and voice recorder but the diary helped in making specific notes while talking to the respondents.

Cameras were multipurpose tools for recording, video and sound and capturing still images.

Methodology

Scope of Inquiry The first challenge we faced is one of nomenclature. The language we normally use revolves around the financial planning that helps people meet their daily needs and attain particular goals by managing certain instruments. Each of these words is problematic.

do to provide for and balance between present and future needs involves physical assets, human capital investments, social capital building and the application of their own labour, which may in fact never be obtained with or exchanged for money.

Planning and goals are too definitive. People often donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t have very explicit intentions beyond the daily procurement of food and paying the next set of bills. Their longer-term desires are not fully prioritized a priori. To the extent that they do have longer-term intentions, but may lack a mental scheme or plan to achieve them.

The notion of instruments is also rather arbitrary. Many poor households would view a cow as an income supplement rather than as an investment instrument. Many of us would view education as a goal, rather than as an instrument, though having successful children may be the best thing you can do to secure your retirement. Indeed, the notions of income, goals and instruments are intertwined, and begin to take distinct meanings only for the fully banked wage earner.

The word needs is often used as some objectified notion of subsistence, and invites a moralizing distinction from wants. The term may have meaning only for the most wretchedly poor, and even then it ought to be understood not only in physiological terms (calories, shelter, medicine) but also in psychological and cultural terms (tasty food, occasional small rewards, religious or communal donations). For everyone else, a need is anything youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve become accustomed to or which most of your neighbours enjoy, whether strictly necessary for survival or not. Needs are therefore hard to separate out from other goals.

Finally, there are distinct perspectives that operate on people, as they may variously seek to provide for their own needs, or those of their household, extended family or clan. Their approach to money matters therefore needs to cut across multiple entities.

It is also impractical to delimit the range of decisions encompassed in such planning, but it surely goes beyond the purely financial. Much of what people Samira Jain | NID | SDM | Diploma Project | MicroSave | 2013

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Potential challenges Communication

Recruiting

A specific dialect might be spoken in the Garhwal region of Uttarakhand and the people might not be fluent in English.

Step1: Talking to KGFS agents and requesting us to help us in recruit in a particular area

The field of research

The research required talking to people about their finances and financial behaviours. This could be a sensitive issue and people might not be completely comfortable or open while talking about them. Recruitment

KGFS, our partner client in Uttarakhand was responsible for introducing us to potential respondents. KGFSâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s operations are based on a special model where a different branch takes care of a specific district. The communication between branches is uncertain and therefore the recruiting had to be done by the team. Weather

The research was conducted in January when the weather conditions are extremely cold with rain and hail. The challenge was to travel and find willing respondents to talk to.

Step 2: Recruiting respondents and fixing time and place of meeting Talking to the respondents

Step 1: Informing the respondents about our purpose of visit and our expectations from them Step 2: Putting them at ease Step 3: Engaging them to tell us about their financial identities Step 4: Recording data with their consent

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Chapter 8: Primary Research Which poor people are we concerned with Place of research About KGFS Profiles Data collection Focus group discussions

Primary research

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Which Poor People are we Concerned With For the purpose of the project, we had to restrict our observations and study to a specific region to ensure detail and quality data. We chose to partner with a micro finance organisation called Sahastradhara in Uttarakhand who could help us with identifying potential clients and recruiting respondents.

Uttarakhand is strategically located at the foothills of the Himalayan ranges and has a mountainous topography. It forms part of the northern boundary of the country, sharing its borders with Nepal and China (Tibet). It touches Tibet in the north, Himachal Pradesh in the west and northwest, Gangetic plains of Uttar Pradesh in the south and Nepal in the east. Starting from the foothills in the south it extends to the snow clad mountains in the north.

Primary research

Uttarakhand is one of the fastest growing states of India. The State’s economy grew more than 9% during the last decade. The tertiary sector contributes around 49% in GSDP followed by the secondary and primary sectors at 34% and 17% respectively. Share of Industry sector in the state’s economy has shown excellent growth during recent years. Per capita income of Uttarakhand is Rs 42031 (FY2010) which is slightly lower than national average of Rs44,345 (FY2010). According to the latest comparable data (FY2008), Uttarakhand is ranked at the 12th position in terms of per capita income among all the Indian states. The state of Uttarakhand has 16,414 villages, 80% of them are small sized and scattered. 74% population of this state lives in rural areas. Although Uttarakhand is one of the fastest growing states of India but poverty is still a major bottle neck in the development of the state. Poverty level in the state is 39.6% which is quite high as compared to the national average of 27.5%. Share of rural population is very large in the state’s BPL (Below Poverty Line) population. According to BPL survey 2002‐03, there are 6.24 lakh rural BPL families in Uttarakhand, which is 47% of the total rural families in the state.

According to the 2011 census, literacy rate in the state stands at 79.60%. In order to achieve 95% literacy target, a threefold strategy ‐‐100% enrolment, 100% retention, Continuous Education Programme is being adopted by the state government Samira Jain | NID | SDM | Diploma Project | MicroSave | 2013

Primary research

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Place of Research Chamba is a town and nagar panchayat in Tehri Garhwal district in the state of Uttarakhand, India. It is situated at a junction of roads connecting Mussoorie and Rishikesh with the Tehri Dam reservoir and New Tehri

Chamba, Garhwal

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New NewTehri, Tehri,Garhwal Garhwal The New Tehri area is newly developed due to the construction of the Tehri Dam. A lot of people were affected by the constructions. People were displaced from near the river in which they suffered loss of property.

Jadipani, Garhwal

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Rishikesh, Garhwal

Primary research

About KGFS Sahastradhara KGFS is a Strategic Business Unit (SBU) of IFMR Rural Channels and Services Private Limited in the Tehri, Garhwal regions of Uttarakhand. It offers a range of financial products and services customised to meet the financial needs of the people living in the remote hilly regions of Uttarakhand. KGFS is currently headed by Col. Vinod Thapliyal, an ex-army officer. With a tight geographical focus in mind Sahastradhara KGFS operates with a mission â&#x20AC;&#x153;To maximise the financial wellbeing of every individual and every enterprise by providing complete financial services in the remote rural parts of the hills of Garhwalâ&#x20AC;?.

We did not always get KGFS clients. Their representatives would take us to the village and maybe introduce us to a client. We would wander off ourselves to recruit more people, requesting them to give us some time and talk to us.

Samira Jain | NID | SDM | Diploma Project | MicroSave | 2013

Primary Research

Profiles WHO ARE THE PEOPLE HOW MANY PEOPLE DO WE NEED? ON WHAT CRITERION SHOULD THEY BE SELECTED? While recruiting it was imperative that we took people of varied professions and therefore different income patterns. This would affect the way they plan their lives and manage money. We went to multiple KGFS branches in various districts to find people of varied backgrounds. The professions ranged from shopkeepers, daily wage workers, drivers, goat breeders to government workers.

140

Primary Research: Profiles

Dil Singh Bhandari, Jajal Village

Dinesh Singh, and wife Savitiri, Nael gaon

Family of 4: two sons in school

Wife, 4 children (1 girl married, 1 boy working outside, other girl living with sister)

Runs a lorry service from Rishikesh to Chamba

Contractor. Out of work for the past year. Puran Singh Negi, Nael Village

Dhiraj Singh, Bhinu village

Family of 5: 1 daughter, married, 2 sons working

Family of 6: 1 daughter two sons in school, 1 small son

Goat breeder

Wage labourer.

Udham Singh, Nagini Village

Family of 4: 1 daughter, married, 1 son in school Postmaster, also owns a shop

Samira Jain | NID | SDM | Diploma Project | MicroSave | 2013

Primary Research: Profiles

142

Rukmani Devi, Nagini village

Deewan Singh Rawat and wife, Agarakhal

Family of 3: 2yr old son, husband in Pune working in the hotel business

Lives in a joint family, 3 daughters, 1 son

Runs a tea shop

Used to drive a truck, currently unemployed, subsistence farming Bir Singh Gosai,Nagini Village

Wife, and 3 grandchildren Shopkeeper, used to be in the army. Gets pension from the state government.

Devendra and Rajeshwari Kumar, Nagini

Family of 5: 2 sons, 1 daughter, all in school Moved from Dehradun after motherâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s death, now running a small cosmetics store Ravinder, Rishikesh

Family of 4: Parents, 1 sistermarried Photographer. Earns on a daily basis. Wants to open own studio.

Primary Research: Profiles

Jiten Singh, Rishikesh

Family of 4: 2 daughters Caretaker of a guest house.

Shiv Shakti, New Tehri town

Mahendra Singh, Nagini village

Family of 5: Father, wife, one son and one daughter in school

Family of 6: 2 daughters, married, 2 sons in school

Runs a garments shop. Interested in politics, local Congress representative. Father also has a shop close by.

Shopkeeper control (ration)

Narendra Singh, Nael village Udham Singh, Nagini village

Family of 5: 1 daughter, married, 2 sons working Truck driver

Family of 4: daughter and son studying Postman, Shopkeeper

Samira Jain | NID | SDM | Diploma Project | MicroSave | 2013

144

Data Collection

Primary Research: Data Collection

Data was collected on field using the tools mentioned before. The information was recorded mostly in diaries apart from other rich media like photographs and videos. But a lot of respondents were not comfortable with being photographed and therefore the researcher had to make sure that all the information was being captured in the written form.

The data collected was further categorized with the help of colours to understand patterns across various respondents. This would help us later in understanding thought process and behaviour of the group as a whole. The categorization was done on events and outcomes that were related to:

Once the information was completed it was segregated to be used later and to generate insights and conclusions. The data was first categorized on the basis of: Event

The description of the event or incident described by the respondent

Curbing expenditure Planning

Objective

This would define the objective of the event that was carried out Tension

What were the constraints/issues/trade-offs that they had face while making the decision

Income generation Human capital Assets

Behaviour Trait

What the event, objective and the tensions faced by the respondent tell us about their behaviour and their psychological space.

Social interactions

Samira Jain | NID | SDM | Diploma Project | MicroSave | 2013

Household Profession

Event

Objective

Tension

Behaviour trait

146

Dinesh Singh, Nael village Family of 5: three sons in school

Wants to sell truck

To repay loan and get rid of stress

Giving up source of income to get out of debt cycle

Move towards stability like finding a job.

Part of a union

Equal work opportunity

Less competition, less work

Everyone is treated equal and there is stability and regularity

Runs a lorry service from Rishikesh to Chamba

Bought a buffalo from money given by mother at the time of a family wedding

Milk for household: saving on expense/ generating small income

Immediate temptation vs future

Make use of unexpected money to buy productive asset

Peer pressure “Fridge to sabke paas hai”

Bought a fridge

Comfort

Chose comfort vs absolute need

Multiple loans taken from family to repay bank loan

Loan taken for business

Formal loan vs informal loan (discipline vs flexibility)

There is more leniency with informal loans

Gave donation for building community temple

Want a place of worship in the village

Gaining community goodwill

However unstable, find money to pay for religious activities

Constructed own house: took 4 years

Build own house

Sold previous buffalo few years ago

Lump sum to invest in building house

Big amount over regular smaller returns

Bought a computer 2 yrs ago, funded by mother

Children could learn, now used to watch movies

Social status, capitalism

Wife works for NREGA sometimes

Generate income

Added physical effort

Take up every opportunity to generate any amount of income for the household

Wouldn’t have to travel specially

On credit

Social structure, trust

Calls people in Chamba to recharge phone for him

Building house as investment and saving mechanism: brick by brick construction Creating large amount to achieve a big goal Tendency to think in the moment. Money was not invested.

Household Profession

Event

Objective

Tension

Behaviour trait

Security

Extra effort and expense

Houses built away from the rest of the community need security, symbol of social status

Has a few chickens

For eggs for home

Need to keep them safe from wild animals

Income supplementing, also convenience; eggs not available close by

Deposits Rs. 100 in a local SHG on a monthly basis

Lumping money

Low rate of interest

Opening an avenue through which loan can be taken

Took a loan of Rs. 7000 from the SHG, returning it with interest

Helped in the construction of the house

High rate of interest to return the loan

When in need, every avenue seems to be a viable option

Kids go to Chamba for tuitions everyday

Do well in school

Expense of travelling, time consuming

Education is a vital investment. Kids will take care of parents later

Has a big guard dog

Went to Meerut to attend wedding

Social obligation

Expense of travelling, gift, leaving work

Even if only one member of the family attends the wedding, it is a must. This creates the obligation for the other family to be there when someone in this house is getting married

Nephew from Agra got married off from their house, major expenses were covered by them

Social obligation

Expenditure, effort

Mother and brother contributed money to the household. Family is important, and such life events are above everything else

Investment, need for more space

Spending of a big amount

Information/advice

Trust

Bought own land (7-8 nalis) in 2007

Asked the researcher about what would be a good line for their children to choose after school

Land was bought using own savings/ money from mother. Once there was land, the foundation was laid for the house. Seeking advice from people perceived to be knowledgeable or aware

Samira Jain | NID | SDM | Diploma Project | MicroSave | 2013

Household Profession

Event

Dhiraj Singh, Bhinu village

Wants to get credit from bank to buy a few goats.

Family of 5: 1 daughter two sons in school

Has a small piece of land in front of his house used to cultivate vegetables

Wage labourer

Objective

Rear goats for a living so that he can sell them for a profit

Risk vs return, Fragmenting wealth to get frequent returns

Educated daughter; better marriage prospects

Encouraging son to study hard

Educated son

Regular source of milk for home and some income by selling it

Behaviour trait

148

Large sum spent to buy multiple assets of smaller value that can be reconstituted and used to create small amounts of wealth Utilizing productive asset as a saving mechanism

Grow food for the household

Encouraging oldest daughter to study as much as she likes

Invested in a buffalo few years ago

Tension

Social stigma of getting girls married earlier vs giving her a better future

Future investment: Less dowry would have to be paid if the daughter is married in an educated family. Less dowry = less loan Future investment: education is seen as an investment. The son would be able to support the parents later.

Taking care of the buffalo, cost of feeding

A productive asset is a saving mechanism apart from helping in generating income Investment in productive asset regularly pays off through produce

Rented trees to feed buffalo

Surrounding land owned by others, therefore has to pay

Saves seeds wrapped in fabric for next season

Save cost of buying seeds

Not consuming/selling the produce completely

Has taken the construction work for the school

Get lump sum money

Single handedly working

This job gives regularity and certainty which gives motivation to work alone for longer time.

Bought a TV

Entertainment

Using that money to invest/save

Entertainment is an essential expense which cannot be avoided.

Has a stove at home but still use fire wood and choolah

Cheaper alternative

Longer time to cook, smell and smoke

A natural resource readily available and that it cheaper is the chosen option over more expensive but convenient ways

There is some sense of foresight. People are aware of things that happen on a regular basis

Household

Event

Objective

Tension

Behaviour trait

Profession

Deewan Singh Rawat, Agarakhal lives in a joint family, 3 daughters, 1 son Used to drive a truck Currently unemployed

Got first daughter married lavishly, Spent all savings

Social status, first wedding in the family

When working as a truck driver- used to get salary, made income on the side by giving lifts etc,

Run household using extra money earned

Took salary at an interval of a few months

Avoiding temptation Creating large amounts

Instant gratification vs future

No savings- no money Loan was taken from bank for agriculture

Compromise on social status

A pair of bullocks was bought

Give them on rent during the sowing season

Require more food than cows but also give high returns

Grow cash crops like ginger, turmeric, chillies

Generate income

High risk crops, pay more but higher chances of crop failure

Third daughter is finishing school

No future plans

Attend wedding functions in the village

Attendance, socially active

Compulsion

Prefers being unemployed here than to go to a big city to work

Canâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t afford the city life: no saving

Cash vs kind

If friends come over, alcohol and meat are highlights

Pleasure and company

High expenditure, Social status

At the time of the second daughterâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s wedding, loan was taken, small wedding in a temple

Social status vs moderate spending

Weddings are important social events and are non-negotiable Regular and frequent source of income used to pay regular expenses

Stress now or later

When regular expenses are taken care of, the focus is on creating larger lumps of money Lack of planning. Specific loans given by bank may not be used for that purpose alone. It is easier to take loan, save and pay than save up. Income supplementing Not the main source of income. Large lump sum biannually- have to make it last for half a year. No budgeting. Proximity to event decides the measures to be taken Social obligation: investment Gifts given now would need to be returned at the time of wedding in gifterâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s family, forging an obligation Hard for unskilled labourer to move to the city and work. Lesser problem of food and stay, in village atleast Social obligation: must serve the best even if it has to be taken on credit from the shopkeeper. Any event out of the ordinary can disturb the financial balance of the household Samira Jain | NID | SDM | Diploma Project | MicroSave | 2013

Household Profession

Rukmani Devi, Nagini village Family of 3: 2yr old son, husband in Pune working in the hotel business Runs a tea shop

Event

Objective

Tension

Behaviour trait

150

Saves Rs. 50 everyday with the Social Mutual Benefits Company Ltd. (2 yr scheme) but deposits upto Rs. 400/day at the end of the month

Saving an a regular basis for her child

Discipline over flexibility

Regular daily income helps to save on a daily basis as well. Saving small lumps to generate larger amount

3 loans taken from KGFS till now and repaying an instalment of Rs. 440/week

Business capital for the shop

Formal loans over Informal loans

Doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t like to depend on relatives for money: absence of social network

Husband left for Pune to work. He deposits money on a monthly basis to an SBI account. She gets passbook entry every month.

Takes out money when necessary (if not enough is generated from the shop)

Prefers spending her money before withdrawing from bank account

The money in a formal bank account holds more value and therefore should be used only for events of consequence

Father got an LIC in her name and has been depositing money for 15 years. Set to mature in 5 years.

Wants to buy jewellery with it once it matures

Lumping to create a big amount (Discipline)

The knowledge/certainty of the large amount in the future helps zero in on a goal

Lives behind the shop. Rented premises

Not confident of finding work in the city, to be able to work and save in the village

Living away from husband, taking care of child alone.

By not living with her husband right now, her cost of living is low, helping them save more

Future plans: dreams of moving to Dehradun, buy house, educate son

A secure stable life

Used to keep mobile recharge as a product option in the shop but removed it

Strategy against lax customers; customers would promise to pay Re.1/2 later but would not do so

Losing customer base

There is awareness even about small transactions and a strict account is maintained

Gave multiple packets of chips to the child during the course of the day

Indulgence

Reducing stock

Indulgence on a regular basis but in small quantities is observed

Went to the main market Chamba by local bus for a day

Visit to doctor, bank work, outing, shopping

Close shop for the day

Multiple tasks are combined for convenience and affordability

Serves tea in the bank

Loyal clients, bulk order

Has to leave shop for some time, leave behind child

Education is the key to getting out of a financially stressful life

Maintaining good relations with the bank, building long term relationships

Event

Objective

Tension

Sometimes cannot pay the Rs. 50 on a daily basis, then gives 2-3 days instalment together

Stick to the goal and make it happen

Convincing collector that the instalment will be paid

Records accounts in a notebook

Keep a count of transactions

Time and effort

Buys stock from the truck that comes from Chamba weekly

Stock replenishment in bulk

Slight mark up for the service being provided

Bought cabbage and noodles from a shop down the road

Immediate need

Higher price

Parents live in the village close by, father visits few times a week

Check on his fields and on his daughter

Sister in law accompanied Rukmini and son to Chamba

Help while travelling, safety as well as taking care of the child

Behaviour trait

Trust, some level of flexibility is required, mutual understanding Helps keep tab of money coming in and more importantly credit being given out Convenient re- stocking. Doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t want to loose out on any business even if it means making a little less profit for the day. The social structure is still maintained. Father is still worried about his daughter and makes sure that she is ok.

Leaving own work to accompany

Social dependence in one way or the other, if not financial.

Furniture stored in the in-laws house in the village above

Safety of belongings

Occupying useful space

Plan to use when move into own house: foresight

Does not live with the in-laws

Earn a livelihood

Family support, single mother

Daughter- in- law living with inlaws will not be allowed to work.

Husband visits on festivals like Diwali and in the summers

Special celebrations, spend time with family

Family support, single mother

This arrangement is more convenient and affordable than they visiting him.

Doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t have a ration card, buys in black from across the road

Buy ration at affordable rates

Paying higher prices

Paperwork is too cumbersome, find best possible ways to get by.

Hasnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t thought about having more children

Uncertainty about future

Being prepared for the future

Family planning does not really exist.

Samira Jain | NID | SDM | Diploma Project | MicroSave | 2013

Household Profession

Shiv Shakti, New Tehri lives with parents, wife and 2 children

Event

Save monthly in a recurring deposit, bank and post office

Objective

Tension

Behaviour trait

152

Saving

Discipline

Took loans from the local bank

No clear purpose but invested in business

Availability vs need

Gives credit to people often

Small interest, goodwill of people

Could be depositing the money in a scheme for higher rates of interest but this gives social importance

Social obligation: perceived social image of the person has to be maintained to earn respect “credit dena padta hai”

Doesn’t invest in schemes with long lock in period

Medium term planning

Flexibility over higher returns

Don’t want to lock in the money, should be available in times of need and emergencies

Bought TV and a fridge recently

Comfort

Available savings: spend over invest

Interested in politics, active congress representative

Power, responsibilty

Popular choice to ask for favours

Savings is for emergencies

No goal defined planning

Extra income is either saved in a FD or spent on something like a bike

Depending on need/ temptation

Garments shop owner

Purpose not defined, accounts are opened in the name of the children and children are seen as a purpose of saving Loan was taken when banks were advertising low interest rates. “jab sab le rahein hein, mein bhi le loon”

A large expense is incurred only when a large part of the sum is in hand. Depending on that there is confidence to accumulate the balance in the future. A person with perceived power is expected to give out credit There are only imminent expenses, no long term planning

Discipline vs temptation

There is no one clear goal as to what to do with extra income: but it is either converted into a buffer or aspirational goal

Household Profession

Ishra Devi, Uniyal village Family of 6: 3 daughters, 1 boy, all studying Husband works in Mumbai Housewife

Event

Objective

Tension

Behaviour trait

Husband sends money order from Mumbai

Husband deposits money in account. Visits bank to withdraw money

Trust over convenience

Doesn’t trust ATM: feels scared, stories about people getting duped

Takes groceries in bulk on credit from the local shop

Nearest market 1/2 hr walk

Convenience

Credit is returned in instalments and according to convenience: importance of trust and social dependence

Sold buffalo to pay medical expenses

Lack of funds

Sell productive asset for emergency

Selling a productive asset is preferred over pawning or selling jewellery

Managed to keep one buffalo

Milk for the household, give to villagers in goodwill

Social goodwill vs generating income

When their buffalo won’t be giving milk, they could get milk from other villagers. Social exchange.

Used to have goats when motherin-law was alive; then were sold

Assets of smaller value, goats are time consuming

Convenience over effort

Goats have a cultural connotation. Since they are sold for meat, it is associated with very poor households

LIC in her own name

Saving mechanism “bachat ho jati hai”

One of the daughter’s was at home during the day

Had to do house choreswash clothes

Haven’t visited husband in Mumbai

Expensive, wishful

No future plans; no concrete goals, no planning for daughter’s wedding

Sells vegetables on the bend

Too stressful

Income supplementing

No clear intention but mostly for the children, Got it done when everyone in the village was getting it done Human capital

Priorities are based on need

Don’t work towards a goal, when money is in hand, they decide at the time Options: sell buffalo, contract labour work, get credit from husband’s work place Cannot depend

Does not believe in wishful thinking. “ Jaisa sochte hain vaisa nahin hota, ulta par jata hai” There is stress on creating extra income at all possible opportunities even though there is no certainty

Samira Jain | NID | SDM | Diploma Project | MicroSave | 2013

Household Profession

Event

Taken up land on rent to grow food Bir Singh Gosai, Nagini Village Wife, and 3 grandchildren Shopkeeper, ex army man

Objective

Tension

Grow food for family

Behaviour trait

154

Saving mechanism: cuts down amount spent on food when bought from the market Even though he gets pension, running a shop to pay his regular expenses

Gets pension from the army

Saves most of it

Recurring deposit in the post office

Lumping money; acquaintances going towards the post office can deposit for him

Gave credit to a friend

Helping a friend

Paid hefty medical bills for wife’s illness from savings

Use savings for emergencies

Doesn’t like keeping too much cash on person

Avoid spending or lending

Three grandchildren live with him rather than with their parents

Proximity to school

Responsibilty and duty

Importance of education, giving the best, convenience for the children

During break, grand kids came to the shop and took candies

Indulgence

Depleting stock

Indulgence on a regular basis but in small quantities is observed

Living in rented room: house gave to sons

Make them self dependent and not on his pension money

Comfort, extra expenditure

Does not like any sort of dependence on his children or vice- versa

Complain about monkeys destroying fields

There is no protection against them

Losing crop to pests

It is a community problem but certain threats cannot be avoided. The risk has to be taken

Convenience over low interest rates

Didn’t approve of late payment by friend, loss on interest

Proximity, simplicity of the service makes it popular, social dependence Since he is financially sound to some extent, doesn’t like the reliance on friends/family Gives importance to saving for future, not dependent on anyone Social structure: cannot refuse a friend asking for money. If doesn’t have money, it is ok to say no

Household Profession

Narendra Singh, Nael village Family of 5: 1 daughter married, 2 sons, working Truck driver

Event

Objective

Tension

Behaviour trait

Wife keeps all jewellery at home in metal box

To keep it safe at home

Lack of security

Feel safe in community, not aware of any other way, no availability

Both sons out working- one in Goa, one in Kuwait

Better opportunities

Kids away from home

Future planning: children can take care of parents

Married daughter: gave a lot of gifts

Social signal

High expenditure

A lavish wedding is a community must

Constructed own house

Fixed asset

High expenditure

Having own house is a must. Even if it takes time, building ‘pakka makan’ is required.

Suffering from illness- could not work for a long time

High expenditure

Various forms of security such as remittence, income supplementing activities do not put so much stress on household income

Owned a truck- sold it

Arranging for funds for wedding and house building

Selling subsistences asset

Chose to sell subsistence asset over selling land, jewellery

Single pool savings

Save for emergencies, life events, and other purposes

Highly raidable

One doesn’t know when the money will be required.

No debt taken for building house

Debt free asset building

All savings and other assets spent in this

Even though the social support is present, don’t want to lean on it too much or for very big expenses

Prefers saving in post office than in bank

Accessibility

Losing out on interest rates

The post office provides more liquidity. That is preferred due to the erratic expenditures

Deposits money in a SHG

Accumulation of funds

Flexibility and availability

Strengthening social support. When money is required, creating an option

Part of a union

Fixed monthly salary even if there is less work

Certainty

Even if the monthly salary is not very high, the stability and certainty helps manage household soundly

Samira Jain | NID | SDM | Diploma Project | MicroSave | 2013

Event

More work in summers, nothing in winters

Objective

Seasonality of work

Buffalo to get milk and other milk products

Income supplementing: Sell Ghee

A little vegetable patch to grow vegetables

Vegetables for home

Modern kitchen with gas stove. but still have a firewood choolah

Use available natural resources

Tension

Behaviour trait

Low income

Have to rely on other forms of cash inflows

Cannot depend through out the year

Every form of cash inflow is stressed upon Curb expenditure by buying less

More effort required

Way of curbing expenditure and utilizing available resources

156

Household Profession

Dil Singh Bhandari, Jajal Village Wife, 4 children (1 girl married, 1 boy working outside, other girl living with sister) Contractor

Event

Objective

Tension

Behaviour trait

Out of work for the past 1.5 years

Unavailability of work

Running the household

Supplementing income takes care of regular expenses

Wife works for the mid day meal scheme- cooks at the local school

Income generation

Responsibility of earning as well as doing housework

Wife gets income in SBI account every 2-3 months

Government policy

Has to wait for income

With other supplementary income, little sums of money help save, buy things in bulk

Bought a puppy recently

Security, fondness

Another member to be taken care of

Houses standing in isolation feel the need to have dogs as security, symbol of social status

Moved houses from Khadi village 12 years ago

Could buy own land surrounding house here

Given house in Khadi on rent

Supplementing income

Could have sold the house to get large amount at once

Regular source of income is chosen over one time return

Given some land to labourers from Nepal to live and cultivate

Get a share of the produce

Putting effort and getting full returns vs no effort, little return

Based on need, effort is put in

Wife asked husband to bathe the buffalo, but husband wasnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t too keen

Participate in the housework

Man doing household work

Usually the women do all the work. Because the woman is earning money for the house, it is expected for the husband to chip in.

Sent son to Mumbai to work

Lack of opportunities in their area

Away from home, lack of resources

Parents are willing to send kid outside in the hope of better opportunities

Children work in summer holidays and save for themselves

Make them self sustainable

Focus on making money

If young adults get the opportunity to work, they do to fulfil aspirational needs like mobile recharge

Made an extra room in the house 2 years ago

Additional space in the house

Accumulating money

Bit by bit construction

The woman of the household cannot choose one role

Source of food is essential, must grow

Samira Jain | NID | SDM | Diploma Project | MicroSave | 2013

Event

Objective

Tension

Behaviour trait

Part of a tender community; one person pays the cost for tender

Equal work for everyone

No work for long periods of time

Equal opportunity: social structure

Gives work to the â&#x20AC;&#x153;gareebâ&#x20AC;?

Gets work done from labourers

Cheap labour

Hierarchy in the social order.

Woman came to ask for help with official forms

Help community member

Time and effort

It is the norm to help people in the community; use knowledge

158

Household Profession

Devendra and Rajeshwari Kumar, Nagini village Wife, 3 children (2 boys, 1 daughter studying Husband and wife run a small cosmetics shop

Event

Objective

Tension

Behaviour trait

Used to work in Dehradun, had to move to village

Take care of mother and the shop

Leaving behind a faster lifestyle

Dependency within the family creates certain situations and their effects

Bought a second hand scooter

Easy travel between shop and home

Recurring cost of repair and fuel

Some assets that are essential to life must be spent on

Left leg paralysed; unable to walk long distances

Cannot put too much stress on leg

Increased commute expenses

Some expenses that cannot be avoided have to be borne some way or the other

Husband goes home in bus if scooter not working; wife walks 5 kms

Save commutation costs

Time and effort

Curb expenditures as much as possible

Wife saving at home

For the children

Temptation vs emergencies

Most of the times money goes in medical expenses: children falling sick

Sells dried grass to feed othersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; cow

Income supplementing

Get 1/2 litre milk a day in exchange of grass

Run a household

Cannot afford more than that

Make best of whatever resources are available

Taken a loan from MFI

Stock in shop as well as running household

Pay instalment weekly

Arrange funds from wherever possible

Depleting stock in shop; waiting to go to Chamba

Closest town for shopping

High travel cost; dependent on weather and public bus

People are highly dependent on environmental and social factors

Wife made extra sales to a woman on the basis of not having change

Make maximum sales

Children travel long distances to go to school

Education

Create opportunities from as many resources available

Good business sense

Inconvenience

Education as a skill that cannot be compromised on

Samira Jain | NID | SDM | Diploma Project | MicroSave | 2013

Primary Research

160

Focus Group Discussions Exercise

To talk to children of 17-18 years of age, still in school but who are soon going to step in the real world Purpose

To see if the principles of money management resonated with the children in the household Situations were given for the students to assess and come up with their solutions to the problems. 1. Sudden income: 2. Regular income of Rs. 10000 a month 3. No job, subsistence farming

Primary Research: FGD

Certain points came out based on what the students thought was appropriate and what they related to the most.

Entertainment was given importance through televisions. Some chose to associate a bike with entertainment as well.

Every group chose to have cattle. : source of milk was essential for each. In times of need they chose to sell the goat rather than the cow. They thought that the goat is mainly for this purpose and can be bought again later. All students decided to reserve wealth for education: they see it as an integral skill. The most popular choice of profession amongst the girls was doctor/teacher. The boys preferred teaching/ private job. Girls and boys had slightly different view points about marriage. The boys seemed to think that girls should not work after their marriage but girls did not think so. Most girls agreed that the trend was to get married immediately after school but did not want to. They thought of expenses first. They chose to buy gold before they chose to put money in the bank.

Inference

The students do tend to follow what their parents seem to do. They don not have a clear idea of why this is, but seem to think that it is the right way.

Mobile phones were seen as an essential item of need than want. Samira Jain | NID | SDM | Diploma Project | MicroSave | 2013

Primary Research: FGD

162

Exercise

To talk to a group of men who were doing MNREGA (Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Gurantee Act ) commissioned work in the village Purpose

To understand the overview and general perception of managing a household. A lot of placards with pictures of various resources were kept in front of them. They chose to pick them on the basis of what they thought was most important for them in their lives. It was a collective effort resulting in a hierarchical order of resources.

Primary Research: FGD

The group came up with a certain hierarchy for how they deploy resources and the logic behind each. Uniyal’s guide to a settled life “Phir budhapa tayar ho gaya”

Family’s immediate needs - school, food, medicines, and clothes

Immediate household needs (“Sabse pehle meri family aur meri family ki zarooratein)

Debt repayment

Clearing outstanding debt (“Woh to chalta rehta hai”)

Strengthening pashudhan (“isse meri aamdani aur badhegi”)

Income generation through suitable livestock (the selection is based on convenience and utility)

TV, Phone, Scooter, etc.

Improving quality of life (through fulfilling secondary needs/desires)

RD in post office

Structured savings (usually for children)

Home improvement: repair, toilet, adding a new room, etc.

Improving quality of living

Immediate and short term

Medium term

Higher education for kids Investment

Long term

Gold Bank savings

Emergencies

Samira Jain | NID | SDM | Diploma Project | MicroSave | 2013

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Chapter 9: Analysis Observations How it works: income Situations Goals/objectives Storage of wealth Assets Emergencies Framework Summary

Analysis

Analysis of data is a process of inspecting, cleaning, transforming, and modelling data with the goal of discovering useful information, suggesting conclusions, and supporting decision making. Primary data was collected over a period of 4 weeks and then analysed. This data served for analysis for both qualitative as well as quantitative methods. Quantitative data was analyses with a statistical data analysis. This involved three major steps: Data preparation: Categorizing information Data representation: visualizing data in a way that it is easily understood Data inference: inferences and conclusions were derived using the data Qualitative data was analysed with a content data analysis. This involved: Observations: all the observations were put down and inferences were derived. Data preparation: data-entry (transcripts) Coding: data was categorized Classification of data: based on the data given, it was

166

classified based on actions Conclusions and framework: made on basis of this classification or further analysis in which relations are examined between different classes.

Analysis: Observations

Observations Every house that was visited had a single or multiple mobile phones

Inference

The poorest household with the most uncertain and irregular income pattern was also observed to have a mobile phone.

Good adapters: intuitive interfaces

The mobile phone has become a basic need now and a must have for all households. Communication has been recognized as a basic need and is fulfilled by people of all income groups.

Communication to connect

Quick learners

Look for convenience

This also suggests that people are technologically aware even if it means just making a call. This has nothing to do with the literacy or education of a person but gives an idea of how rapidly people can adapt to new technologies as long as it has purpose and interface that are relatable. Another indication of this observation is that most people have access to some form of electricity in their homes. Respondents were also seen to be careful about charging their mobile devices.

Samira Jain | NID | SDM | Diploma Project | MicroSave | 2013

Analysis: Observations

168

Facilities like electricity are no longer a worrying issue

All households have metered electricity in their households. The amount given and consumed are negligible and therefore they do not have to worry about payment of bills.

Inference

Resources are taken for granted once they have been made available Well equipped households

Analysis: Observations

Old style architecture of houses is almost extinct, people want â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;pakka makanâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; on their own land

Inference

Construction in Uttarakhand is a rapidly growing activity. Cement companies get maximum advertising space and labour is cheap as people come from Nepal looking for work.

Evolve with time

Most people have converted their old houses into cow sheds and built new houses for themselves to live in.

Want practical solutions Want long term solutions Security: from external agents- natural and man Symbol of prosperity

Samira Jain | NID | SDM | Diploma Project | MicroSave | 2013

Analysis: Observations

170

People are very community oriented, common activities are performed together on a daily basis

Inference

In the villages, a lot of activities that are done on a daily basis become times of community interaction. Milking the cow, or cleaning it, sunbathing when the feeble sun rises higher in the sky at midday, bathing small children, washing clothes are activities that are performed once the children have been sent to school and the day meal has been prepared.

Dependent on community

A lot of men depending on various reasons were seen to be at home during the day. People out of work because of illness, or some other problem were also seen to convene at a single time to sit under the sun and chat on a daily basis.

Actively social Want transparency

Analysis: Observations

â&#x20AC;&#x153;Utna to lagega hiâ&#x20AC;?

Tradition is ingrained in culture; it cannot be avoided

Life events like weddings are very important. They are fondly talked of with pride and occasions to celebrate

Wedding jewellery is essential in every community but there are some traditions that have to be followed. However disadvantaged a family is, the people of Garhwal have to present the traditional nose ring to the daughters of the household at the time of their wedding.

lavishly.

Villagers showed albums of photographs of their wedding or of family members in which they were active participants

Depending on the capacity of the household, the jewellery could vary, but one artefact is essential. People associate wedding arrangements with buying this artefact and accumulating money for it. Inference

Bound by tradition Follow community norms Life cycle events are highlights of life

Samira Jain | NID | SDM | Diploma Project | MicroSave | 2013

Analysis: Observations

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Living spaces might be varied according to capacity and family background but certain aspects of lifestyle remain the same

Depending on peopleâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s sources and quantum of income, the houses varied in look, possessions and the arrangement of these possessions. But some things remained the same: they all had cattle to give them milk, had small pieces of land to grow vegetables on, had firewood â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;choolhasâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; to cook. All the women did the housework on their own, with some help from their daughters.

Inference

Communities share core issues Similarity in basic thinking Maximum utilization of resources

Analysis: Observations

Most people had ration cards to buy grains from the government shops on rebate: they are aware of their rights

Most households that were visited, had ration cards and they sourced their grains from the government “control” shops. The advantage of having the card was that the grains were available to the people on a high rebate. People could buy wheat, rice and some amount of sugar from these shops. Those who do not have ration card, they too know where to get the ration in “black”. Government schemes reach people in the most remote villages and people are aware of them.

Inference

Aware Resourceful

Samira Jain | NID | SDM | Diploma Project | MicroSave | 2013

Analysis: Observations

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â&#x20AC;&#x153;Bachat ka tareeka- sabzi uganaâ&#x20AC;?

People make the most of whatever little resources they have

Ancestral land that people have might be too much work for some people to cultivate. It requires too many resources like adequate supply of water, care and physical labour that most families do not have time to invest. Nevertheless, women utilize the land around their houses to grow whatever little they can for the subsistence of their families. They even sell some outside if there is enough. These little contributions help curb the cash outflow of the household.

Inference

Dependency on surroundings Maximum value extraction Hard to reach resources are not raided Effort should reap return

Analysis: Observations

The knowledge of potential threats discourages

There is a sense of foresight but it is deep rooted in

people from putting effort

prevalent trends

A lot of people are taking care of land owned by relatives living outside. They can cultivate this land but do not for various reasons but also the threat of monkeys. Often monkeys destroy the crops because of which the land is not cultivated in the first place.

Most people save the previous seasonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s produce as seeds for the next season. They know that they would have to incur this cost soon and therefore try to avoid it. Food for the cattle is also arranged for well before hand. The grass is dried and stored so as to be able to incur this regular cost at no real cost.

Inference Inference

Not high risk takers Not active solution- finders

Trend followers Selective conscious planning

If true for community: true for me

Samira Jain | NID | SDM | Diploma Project | MicroSave | 2013

Analysis: Observations

176

“Padhai--- sabse badhiya!”

Education is a life skill for the people. It is an investment but also a goal.

Inference

A lot of stress is given on education in Uttarakhand. Every child, boy and girl is encouraged to study. Even when youngsters decide to start working to help the household and to support themselves, they complete their education till class 10. The general outlook towards education is positive and gives people to move out of the tension filled lives they tend to lead because of inadequate income, or lack of resources, or even lack of work in the area.

Understand importance of skills

Spending on girl child’s education is an investment

People believe that an educated girl would have better marriage prospects and would find an educated husband. This means lesser dowry. The girl might not work after marriage but the ‘trophy wife’ concept is very much prevalent.

Education is associated with future security Understand cause and effect

Analysis: Observations

â&#x20AC;&#x153;Dukan zyada hain, log kamâ&#x20AC;?

The community is the producer, the market and the consumer

Villages in Uttarakhand are small and are isolated ecosystems that have to strive to survive as a community. There are houses, farms, shops, schools, places of worship all on one road. There are occasional cars that take the people to the nearest big town to connect them to facilities like banks, doctors, big stores etc. Inference

Community based Commonly shared resources Dependency on community

Samira Jain | NID | SDM | Diploma Project | MicroSave | 2013

Analysis: Observations

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â&#x20AC;&#x153;Len - den to chalta rehta haiâ&#x20AC;?

Exchange takes place within the community extensively

People are dependent on each other for resources. If one lacks a resource, the community helps him in exchange for a fair value. Chances are that the person being helped at this point will be able to help his community with the resources he has.

Inference

Dependency on the community Fair exchange of value Understand allocation of resources

Analysis: Observations

“Jab tak jeb khali- tab tak udhaar”

“Aadmi darta hai”

Buying things on credit is a popular and a common

There is fear when it comes to dealing with digital

Cash is the most preferred form of value exchange

phenomenon

People’s income might not be regular but certain expenditures like food are. Even at times of no income or less work, they ensure that their family is fed well.

interfaces for money like ATM and mobile banking

Even when credit and other forms of exchange such as animal produce are prevalent, cash is the most preferred form.

People are more comfortable when it comes to talking to humans about serious aspects like money management. They hear instances of fraud and are extremely demotivated by what people have heard. There is negative association with the digital interfaces.

Inference

Trust in the community Patient but prefer instant rewards Human centric-- not confident about technology; trend followers

Samira Jain | NID | SDM | Diploma Project | MicroSave | 2013

Analysis: Observations

180

â&#x20AC;&#x153;Humara ghar chala sakti hai. Aur phir isse bander bhi nahin uthayengeâ&#x20AC;?

Investment in cattle is essential; it is a natural choice of asset

All villagers have invested in cattle. The milk they get from it helps them run their household. Be it milk for the children or milk to sell, it helps in curbing the cash outflows. It is a utility asset and the first choice of investment.

Inference

High return value assets Visible advantages Low investment

Analysis: Observations

â&#x20AC;&#x153;Yahan swatantra vatavaran hai. Chori chakari ka dar nahi.â&#x20AC;?

There is trust in the community; there is transparency.

Inference

People within the community feel safe amongst each other. Valuables are kept at home and they do not fear theft. Curtains instead of doors and strewn resources are commonplace. Common areas are shared by neighbours to carry out activities such as washing clothes, cattle, utensils etc.

Trusting Relaxed in known atmosphere Open to sharing Transparency

Samira Jain | NID | SDM | Diploma Project | MicroSave | 2013

Analysis: Observations

182

All housework is done away from the living space Inference

People have designated space for every task they perform. The area where they cook is different from where they wash their utensils is different from where they wash their clothes.

Categorization Need to assign/ allocate/ separate

Analysis: Observations

Little temptations and spending are essential to life

Like the rest of us, people indulge in little temptations like buying packets of chips or toys for their children, alcohol once in a while or even cups of tea at the tea shop during the day.

Inference

Attracted to little rewards Simple pleasures are appreciated Everything to make children happy

Samira Jain | NID | SDM | Diploma Project | MicroSave | 2013

Analysis: Observations

Means of entertainment such as a TV are no longer

184

Even the poorest household displayed hospitality

symbols of luxury

Entertainment too has become a basic need. The common man looks forward to that little entertainment, when they can go home after a day of work and watch a little something on TV.

Every time we visited a household we were received with great warmth. Even if they were not open to talking about money issues, they were very hospitable.

Inference

Social followers

Inference

Standard of life is determined with possessions within community

Social obligation Eager to make good impression

Analysis: Observations

â&#x20AC;&#x153;Chal jaata hai sab bas.â&#x20AC;?

Women respondents are harder to extract information

Men help around the household very sparingly

from

Women respondents as opposed to their husbands were harder to talk to and were not open to sharing information.

Husbands almost never do the housework but help their wives sometimes with the cattle. The women usually take care of all the housework, the children as well as the fields.

Inference

Security: wary of strangers

Inference

Gaps in understanding create rift in communication

Defined roles for the men and women

Women are more aggressive guards of the family information

Women run the households and know maximum details, they are better informed

Samira Jain | NID | SDM | Diploma Project | MicroSave | 2013

Analysis

How it Works This section talks about: Where money comes from? How it converts? What happens in the various situations people are faced with? I tried to identify patterns by looking at the information provided by the people and breaking it down. Every one had their stories to tell but when kept together, there were a lot of overlaps and similar behaviour patterns began to emerge. These patterns were identified and categorized in themes so that a general understanding begins to emerge.

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Analysis: How it Works

Income Patterns Respondent

Primary

Secondary

Rukmini Tea shop Remittance Bir Singh

Tea shop

Pension

Dinesh Negi

Truck business

Indirect pension beneficiary

Dhiraj Singh

Daily wage labourer

Sells milk

Deewan Singh

Currently unemployed

Farming of ginger etc.

Selling milk

MNREGA worker

Sells milk

Rents out bullocks

Narendra Negi Truck driver Remittance Sells milk MNREGA Dil Singh Bhandari

Contractor

Rent from property

Remittance

School employee

MNREGA

Kumar Cosmetics shop Remittance Sell grass Ishra Devi Remittence Selling milk Selling vegetables Udham Singh Govt, job: postman Shop Mahendra Singh

Control (ration) shop

Sells milk

Shiv Shakti

Garments shop

Rent from properties

Kunwar Singh

Goat breeding

Selling milk

Everyone has more than one source of income, even though the degree of dependency on each varies. This depends on the regularity and the certainty of the income coming in.

Jiten

Job as a caretaker

Agriculture money from village Sustaining livelihood is the prominent focus. Samira Jain | NID | SDM | Diploma Project | MicroSave | 2013

Analysis: How it Works

188

Source of income The following analysis chart depicts the cumulative data of how people generate income in their households

ll ma

sin

jo ent

ern

te j

a Priv

vt Go

loy

ess

ly u

ent

tan

it Rem

p nem

rr Cu

Primary source

itta

nce

Rem

Secondary source

ion

s Pen

m Far

ing

ling

Sel

k& mil cts

pro

mil

t Ren

sse

a ut

all

nes

si bu

e rnm

job

ork

w GA

Analysis: How it Works

How often do people get income? Respondent

Secondary

Primary

Rukmini Daily Monthly Bir Singh Daily Monthly Dinesh Negi Monthly/ Unexpected Sometimes daily Dhiraj Singh Daily/weekly Seasonal

Seasonal

Once in a year

Deewan Singh

Seasonal

Currently unemployed

Seasonal

Narendra Negi Monthly Monthly Seasonal Once a year Dil Singh Bhandari Currently unemployed Monthly Once in Once in Once a year 2-3 months 2-3 months Kumar Almost daily Once in 3-4 months Ishra Devi Monthly Seasonal Seasonal Udham Singh Monthly Daily Mahendra Singh Daily Seasonal Shiv Shakti

Almost daily

Monthly

Kunwar Singh Weekly Seasonal Jiten Monthly Seasonal

Based on the source of income, people have cash inflows at various times.

Samira Jain | NID | SDM | Diploma Project | MicroSave | 2013

Analysis: How it Works

190

Regularity of income The following analysis chart depicts the cumulative data of how often do people have cash inflows depending upon their source of income/ other sources

thly

ily Da

nc oi

Primary source

nth

thly

n Mo

Secondary source

aily

so Sea

ce On

o 3m

nce

nth

o 4m

nce

ekl We

n Mo

ect

p nex

Analysis: How it Works

Income was identified on the basis of

Income can be categorized into:

1. Regularity

1. Routine income

2. Certainty

2. Windfall income 3. Undefined-certain

It can be regular and certain like in the case of a salaried worker (woman working for the mid day meal scheme, man part of the truck union)

Regular

Occasional

Certain

Regular Certain

Shop keeping

It can be irregular and certain like the amount being generated by farming. It is certain that some income will be generated but the amount is uncertain.

Pension

Shop keeping Pension

Selling milk MNREGA work LIC maturity amount

It can also be irregular and uncertain like in a case of daily wage labourer, where the person is not sure whether they will get work or not on a given day and even if they do, till when can they depend on it. Uncertain

Occasional

Son sends money

Gift from motherâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s pension

Uncertain

Selling milk MNREGA work LIC maturity amount Gift from Son sends motherâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s money pension

Samira Jain | NID | SDM | Diploma Project | MicroSave | 2013

Analysis: How it Works

192

Routine

Windfall

Undefined-

income

Certain

This is the regular expected cash inflow. There is a certainty to it. It is mainly used to manage the routine goals. These transactions are generally of high frequency and happen almost on a daily or weekly basis. This is similar to the pattern of salaried employees, except that the amount might vary in case of the unorganized sector employees and the frequency might be monthly instead of daily or weekly. In fact, absence of much of regular income is the differentiating factor in case of the mass (informal) market. Managing the irregularity of regular income becomes the priority.

Almost every low income household have one or more income sources that yield lump-sum cash inflows on a known or expected/planned frequency. There are two main value of having such windfalls: They help to invest in assets or financial instruments that will give even higher lump-sum in future. They help to purchase assets that enhance regular income (e.g. Purchase of cow by Dinesh from money given by his mother). In a way, this turns a windfall income into regular income.

In between these income patterns, lie the intermediate â&#x20AC;&#x153;Undefined-Certainâ&#x20AC;? income category. People are aware that these incomes will come, but are not sure either of their magnitude or exact time frame. Incomes from agricultural produce mostly fall into this category. Price uncertainty and risk of loss makes agricultural income unpredictable.

Analysis: How it Works

Theme 1.1 Peopleâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s income varies depending on 1. SOURCE - FROM WHERE? 2. REGULARITY - HOW OFTEN? 3. CERTAINTY - WHEN?

Income can be simplified and put in this range:

Self employed Job: private or govt.

Regular income

Remittance Pension

Seasonal income

Dowry Gifts Lottery Windfall income

Samira Jain | NID | SDM | Diploma Project | MicroSave | 2013

Analysis: How it Works

194

How do people react to situations?

Knowledge of event

There are various situations in people’s lives. These situations can be categorized on the basis of

There are no planned life cycle events or

1. Anticipation and knowledge of event

Anticipated

2. Certainty (in terms of time)

Surprise

Certain

Food Education

Various situations occur in people’s lives but some are known which are anticipated and some which are unknown and surprising elements.

Buying a TV

Time of event

People react differently to different situations and their financial behaviour also changes with it.

Buying a cow

For low income families, all efforts go into satisfying the most urgent needs of the household. It is hard to think about long term goals such as weddings. “Jo sochte ho, woh nahin hota. Jab hoga, tab dekhenge.”

Accident

The focus becomes taking care of the most anticipated and certain activities and situations and all efforts go into fulfilling those. Situations that are most uncertain and are surprising to households require a different set of strategies.

long term goals, only imminent expenses

Child birth Uncertain

Wedding

Medical problem

Food

Household income

Savings Stock

Illness

No work. Feed family

Based on these situations, the phenomenon of goals and objectives is created in people’s lives

“Zyada lambi soch nahi hai”

Analysis: How it Works

What goals do people have? Respondent

Secondary

Primary

Rukmini Educate her child Bir Singh Go for a pilgrimage

Move to Dehradun

Dinesh Negi Start a new business Dhiraj Singh Buy goats Every household has regular goals Repair house to achieve like pay for food, medical Narendra Negi Get well from illness bills, education and education related Dil Singh Bhandari expenses, Marry off daughter travel costs, business costs Kumar Repair house Buy cattle etc. Rawat Singh

Ishra Devi Visit Mumbai Udham Singh Marry daughter Mahendra Singh

Buy land to build house

Shiv Shakti

Move to a bigger town

Get into mainstream politics

Kunwar Singh Expand business

Every household was seen to have a set of goals. But there was no planning associated

Jiten Educate children in convent

to any goals specially the ones that were aspirational and salient in nature. They were revealed by much probing and questioning. Samira Jain | NID | SDM | Diploma Project | MicroSave | 2013

Analysis: How it Works

196

Objectives/goals

Objectives are based on

Goals can be categorized into:

1. Certainty

1. Routine goals

2. Negotiability

2. Fuzzy goals 3. Aspirational goals

It can be regular and certain like in the case of a salaried worker (woman working for the mid day meal scheme, man part of the truck union) It can be irregular and certain like the amount being generated by farming. It is certain that some income will be generated but the amount is uncertain.

Nonnegotiable

Negotiable

amount

Food

line &

Education

amount

Medical emergency Uncertain

Food Education

Buying Buying a cow a TV

Buying a Buying a cow TV

Wedding

Negotiable

Fixed time

Fixed time line &

Nonnegotiable

Wedding Buying a house Move to Dehradun

Medical emergency Uncertain

Buying a house Move to Dehradun

Analysis: How it Works

Routine

Fuzzy

Aspirational

goals

Goals that are immediate in proximity, regular in frequency and recurring in nature are the routine goals that households cannot negotiate. These are immediate and recognised goals where people have a clear sense of when the need for money will arrive and what will be the expected financial outgo for it. These “goals” are commonly termed as “need”.

These goals are mostly in people’s sub-conscious minds. The mentality is never to work towards one goal at a time or a set of goals. They exist in a randomized order and do not follow any given time line.

Goals that exist as a portfolio and get fulfilled depending on various factors. These also include goals that neither have a clear immediacy nor a defined time line of occurrence.

Build own

Fridge

house New vehicle TV Land Move to Cow

Best education for

Dehradun

child Nose ring for daughter’s

Herd of goats

wedding

Samira Jain | NID | SDM | Diploma Project | MicroSave | 2013

Analysis: How it Works

198

Theme 2.1 Peopleâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s objectives vary depending on: HOW OFTEN THEY NEED TO BE ACHIEVED HOW NEGOTIABLE THEY ARE

Goals/objectives can be simplified and put in this range:

Food School fees

Routine goals

Life events Emergencies

Land Jewellery

Aspirational goals

Analysis: How it Works

How do they store liquid wealth? Respondent

Primary

Secondary

Rukmini

Cooperative

Bank

LIC

Bir Singh

RD in post office

Bank

Dinesh Negi

At home

Bank

Dhiraj Singh

RD in post office

At home

Rawat Singh

At home

RD in post office

Bank

Narendra Negi

At home

Bank

with SHG

Dil Singh Bhandari

At home

RD in post office

Bank account

Kumar

At home

RD in post office

At home

with SHG

Ishra Devi At home Bank LIC Udham Singh

RD in post office

FD in post office

Mahendra Singh

At home

FD in post office

Shiv Shakti

Post office

Bank

Kunwar Singh

At home

Bank

At home

with SHG

Jiten At home Bank

People employ a variety of instruments to save. It ranges from informal savings at home, semi formal savings with SHG and more formal ways of saving with a post office or a formal bank.

Samira Jain | NID | SDM | Diploma Project | MicroSave | 2013

Analysis: How it Works

200

How do people store wealth?

Liquid assets People have various ways of storing liquid wealth. This analysis chart shows the cumulative data of the various ways in which people store liquid wealth.

ffic

to Pos

o th

Primary

t Pos

Secondary

ice

off

LIC

tive

era

p oo

Analysis: How it Works

All stores of value are not financial or liquid

Not all instrument of storing value are financial in nature. A cow, the jewellery bought for the wedding or a house are all value storing mechanisms, that either enhance regular income or reduce cost of daily expenses. We call these value storing mechanismsâ&#x20AC;&#x153;Assetsâ&#x20AC;?. Assets generally, have high exit loads and are not easily convertible/raid-able. Apart from the basic difference of supplementing income versus creating windfalls, the assets/buffers are also characterised by

Convertibility Easily convertible

Non-convertible

Low return

Cash Bank savings Buffalo Productivity

Fixed deposit Goat

How easily the instrument can be raided for money or the cost attached to entry and exit,

and

Jewellery House High return

How productive the instrument is.

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Analysis: How it Works

202

What assets do people have?

Regularized liquid assets

Subsistence assets

Income supplementing assets

Fixed assets

Assets which are regularised through self-imposed discipline in order to ensure regular source of income.

Assets which are productive in nature and whose produce/ utility are core to the livelihood and subsistence of the family.

Assets which are productive in nature, but are not fundamental to the survival/livelihood or subsistence of the household or family.

E.g. : A Rickshaw or a land , which are seen as productive assets. A core household item, like a bicycle or utensils can also be seen as a subsistence asset, since the cost of replacing it will be high and will be essential to the survival of the family.

E.g.: A cow in a family is considered a productive asset, since it produces milk. However, the family is not essentially dependent on the milk for their subsistence. Hence, it will be categorised as an income supplementary asset. Their primary function is to store value.

Assets which primarily exist to store value or are seen as a fixed investment. They are least convertible. Their primary role is in storing the value or appreciation of value. E.g.: Jewellery, Land, House, brass utensils etc. These are and can be converted into Income Supplementing Assets by pawning.

E.g. :Annual produce of main agricultural crop is rationed into monthly “packets”, to ensure monthly regular income. In a sense this is an endeavour to convert a slightly uncertain (further towards “windfall” ) income into a regular one.

Analysis: How it Works

How do people build assets?

While building assets, people tend to follow the productivity function. People allocate income from windfalls or cash-inflows from lumping mechanisms (which ultimately is a form of creating a windfall) to create a surplus in the regularised liquid asset category. Since people in the low income category often struggle to satisfy their routine expenses from regular income, any additional/surplus income is kept aside (in liquid form) first to take care of crisis periods.

Fixed assets

The next level of allocation happens to create subsistence assets. For example, in case of a cashcrop income, which is higher than their regular agricultural income, people will first keep some cash in their regular expense kitty and then look towards replenishing some subsistence asset, like buying a rickshaw or cycle or some agriculture machinery. Next in order comes assets like buying a cow, and after that will come the option of buying jewellery. The motivation for such behaviour is a function of their intrinsic willingness to convert an aspirational goal into a salient one or a salient goal into a routinised one. By creating a productive asset, they can enhance their regular income, which then can take care of a larger portfolio of routine goals than they could achieve earlier. Hence an earlier salient goal now can become a routinised goal for them.

Income supplementing assets

Subsistence assets

Regularized liquid assets

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Theme 3.1 People accumulate and build various assets that help:

Assets can be classified in the range of:

ACT AS BUFFERS

In times of need these assets are sold/pawned in exchange for liquid wealth in order to achieve desired objectives. This depends on : How easily can it be converted? What is the value of return? ASSIST LIVELIHOOD

They make lives easier by providing necessary means to sustain livelihood CURB EXPENDITURE

Help reduce cash outflows

Cash Savings

Liquid assets

Subsistence assets

Income supplementing assets

Fixed assets

Buffers

Analysis: How it Works

In case of a large expense, what do people do? Respondent

Primary

Secondary

Rukmini Dig into own savings Dig into family savings Ask husband to take advance from work Bir Singh Savings from shop Savings from pension Break FD

Take loan from MFI Take loan from MFI

Dinesh Negi Savings Ask relatives Sell asset Take loan from semi-formal Loan from formal bank institution Dhiraj Singh Savings Ask relatives Sell asset Take loan from bank Rawat Singh

Savings

Ask relatives

Sell asset

Loan from formal bank

Narendra Negi Savings Ask sons Ask relatives Dil Singh Bhandari

Savings

Ask son/relatives

Break FD

Sell asset

Kumar Savings Ask relatives Loan from MFI Ishra Devi

Ask Husband

Husbandâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s employee

Ask relatives

Sell asset

Udham Singh

Savings

Ask friends/relatives

Loan from MFI

Mahendra Singh

Savings

Ask friends

Sell asset

Shiv Shakti

Savings

Loan from bank

Ask relatives

Sell asset

Kunwar Singh

Savings

Ask relatives

Sell asset

Loan from MFI

Jiten

Savings

Advance from work

Break FD

Loan from Bank

Sell/pawn asset

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Theme 3.2 The following hierarchy was observed in how people

People who do not want to/are not sure they can get

managed money when they needed a certain amount:

credit, have a more structured pattern of savings and some sense of long term planning

Savings (unstructured)

Debt/Curbing expenditure

There are people who do not like taking debt from the community and be dependent on their friends/ relatives. Those people (eg. Rukmini, Bir Singh) were seen to have a better savings plan.

Every household exists as part of a system

Every person and family lives in an autonomous system. They choose to reach out to other systems for support and the level of interaction with each varies. The household decides how dependent they want to be on each of the other elements in the system.

Income generation

If it still does not match the expenses, Structured savings liquidation

Asset liquidation (selling or in some cases pawning)

Loan from formal or semi formal service providers

Community

Friends & relatives

Informal banks

Formal banks

Analysis: How it Works

How do people tackle emergencies?

How do people make decisions?

In their lives, many immediate needs arise from a wide variety of sources including: medical exigency, crop failure, and natural calamity. In terms of the model, these emergencies can be seen as an unbalancing force that disrupts the entire system. In case of emergency, all the store of value assets, windfall income and regular expenses are immediately sacrificed to take care of the immediate exigency.

Not all aspects of financial decision making follow strict financial logic. There are aspects beyond the realm of finance that motivate people to take decisions.

Every household has a system of authority and

a. Who decides in a family

Depending on the importance of the decision, it goes through the hierarchy. The most routine decisions such as ration, school fees etc. are taken by the lower most level of decision maker. As the gravity of the decision increases, it moves up in the hierarchy.

We can compare these emergencies as a gravitational force that pulls all elements of the framework towards it. So, how do people take care of the emergencies? Invariably, assets are liquefied to re-create the balance. And people raid their assets following the same productivity function that they used while building them. Assets are liquefied based on their productivity and the dependency of the family on the asset for livelihood. Hence, generally, fixed assets will be raided first, followed by income supplementing and subsistence assets. However, there are three corollaries to this: Mostly, the first raid is often on the most liquid assets to absorb minor shocks. Fixed assets are raided only if the crisis cannot be managed by liquid instruments or by the regularised liquid asset. If a family is in crisis, they will first try to manage with the “rationed” regularised grains for the year so as to not deplete the minimum monthly ration. The next raid will be on a fixed asset, e.g. jewellery or a cow.

While allocating resources for goals, the decision making in a family follows a pyramidal structure. The patriarch/matriarch generally decides about the allocation of resource for aspirational goals and salient goals in consultation with the brothers/young patriarchs. The women of the family generally decide mostly on the routine goals/regular expenses.

Theme 3.3 control within itself

The decision makers differ in each household.

b. Where to take credit from

Credit is an integral part of people’s lives. Credit is perceived as an alternative lumping mechanism, where the realisation is up front and commitment is deferred. Based on availability of credit, people fulfil some of their salient goals by taking credit and fulfilling the commitment by repaying the loan from regular income. In a sense they “routinise the debt.”

Level of importance of decision Authority for aspirational decisions Authority for salient decisions

It is seen that choice of credit is highly dependent on the source. People’s propensity to take credit is defined by the level of social pressure each of the systems impose along with the availability, flexibility and the amount that is needed.

Authority for routine decisions

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What is the flow of capital?

Financial

Close community: high dependency Remittance based economy Army jobs: pensions

Social

Free/cheap schooling for children Sending kids out for work Good health services: travelling ambulance Problem: Lack of job opportunities

Savings in Banks (formal and semi formal). schemes (LIC) Cash in hand

Physical

Human

Environmental

Cheap land Jewellery Cattle House Shops

High dependency Trees for cows to feed from Fields for goats to wander Natural source of water Fertile land Ample rainfall Clean air Threats: monkeys, wild boars to farming Extreme temperatures in winter

Analysis

Framework There are broadly three layers in money management, viz., income, goal and instruments or buffers. In the earlier sections, we have also discussed that: Income can be categorised into regular and windfall income, defined by regularity and certainty of their frequency and amount.

The following set of concepts help understand: How different goals are achieved How buffers are managed and How income moves

Financial goals are of mainly of three kinds: routine goals, salient goals and fuzzy goals, defined by their respective negotiability and certainty of time and amount. Income patterns and goal patterns have a general sense of destination, regular income for routine goals and windfall income for salient to fuzzy goals. However due to inadequacy of income, people require a third layer called buffers. Buffers can be of two broad types, lumping mechanisms that creates windfall and assets that primarily supplement the regular income of the household. These three functions can be seen as three coordinates of money management equation. The next dilemma then is how these three are related or simply put how people interact amongst these.

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Every household has some common elements that

There are some objectives that

they work with

need to be fulfilled

They all have certain objectives that they want fulfilled. They can be based on need, want and aspirations. To fulfil these objectives, they generate income. This income helps them exchange value for value. But since these objectives/goals occur over a period of time, people fulfil them through a variety of ways or instruments that they create through their income.

There is income that is generated to

This income is converted into these

fulfil these objectives

objectives through some means/ instruments/strategies

Instrument Income

Goal

Analysis: Framework

Creating balance

Routine

Salient

goals

Liquid

Buffers

assets

Regular

Windfall

income

The regular income of people typically comes in the form of cash, a highly convertible instrument. This is used to meet routine goals (managing the daily household expenses).Little planning is required here as this is a recurrent process. People usually have a rough mental model to account for these transactions and check for pilferage. Generally, they do not write them anywhere for the purpose of accounting. Credit might be taken on a regular basis to ensure regular expenses are being met. Similarly, there is a sense of balance between the windfall income and the salient goal. Irrespective of whether a windfall is from a lumping mechanism or sudden cash flow, more often than not, they tend to fulfil a salient goal. We can call this route as a strategy to â&#x20AC;&#x153;create balanceâ&#x20AC;?.

People are always trying to achieve a balance between their income and expenditure.

That is what people are struggling for and therefore there is a concentration on generating income and making most of the resources that they have.

Income

Expenditure

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Lumping mechanisms

People have a way of converting their regularized liquid assets into something bigger to achieve salient/ aspirational goals.

From the regular income, people try to lump-in a part to create a buffer lumping mechanism. The lumping mechanisms range from being completely informal clay pots to highly formal recurring deposits in banks. The primary purpose of a lump-in mechanism is to create windfall income. The lump-in can be achieved through a disciplined mechanism (such as a recurring savings scheme) or a loosely held one (like a clay pot). Choice of instrument depends on ease of accessibility, convenience, flexibility, transaction cost, delay in accessing and trust.

+ Liquid assets

+ Buffers

Depending on the expected frequency of the windfall, people also create different lump-in mechanisms with varying maturities - quarter and some in six month or a year. We can call this strategy â&#x20AC;&#x153;lumping-inâ&#x20AC;?.

Regular income

Windfall income

Analysis: Framework

Routinizing income

People aspire to have a stable (regular, certain) source

To regularize their income, people employ a set of strategies. Windfall incomes generally tend to be invested in buffers that augment the regular cashinflow of the household.

of income. Regularity and certainty of income are more important than the quantum of income.

This can happen in different ways: People invest in productive assets that produce products to be sold on regular basis, e.g. cow or a chicken;

/ Liquid assets

Regular income

Buffers

Windfall income

People ration their windfall in a manner that the buffer works as packets of income on regular basis, e.g. keeping grain produce of the year in store for yearlong consumption; People buy assets that reduces cost of managing the household, e.g. utensils etc. In their pursuit of productive assets, people follow the productivity function we have discussed. Since the ultimate aim of this strategy is to create more regular/ routine income, we can call this strategy as that of â&#x20AC;&#x153;routinising incomeâ&#x20AC;?.

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How do people resolve goals?: Individualizing goals

How do people decide that a goal needs to be fulfilled?

Fuzzy Goal

f (proximity, social pressure, availability)

Salient Goal

How do people decide that they are going to buy a fridge now when they don’t have a clear sense of planning towards a goal?

Proximity

Social pressure

Amount saved

When the event is unavoidable and non-negotiable, and when it is too close to dodge, people tend to act upon it.

Temptation results in the resolution of a goal but it is the social pressure which could be the trigger

Depending on the amount saved with the household, the decision-maker can decide to start the process of achieving the goal, the rest they have the confidence to arrange (through savings, debt or liquidation of assets)

Date of event

Example: daughter’s wedding date OR Bank loan repayment

Example: Medical emergency Accident

For example: buying a TV could be a temptation for a long time for a family but the neighbour’s buying it could trigger the actual buying of the TV

For example: To build their own house, if enough money has been collected to lay the foundation, they start the construction. Even if the finishing takes a few years, it is easier because some money can be put side for it, now it has started.

Event

“Fridge to sabke paas hi hai.”

“Usse confidence aa jata hai.”

Analysis: Framework

Creating buffers

Routine goals

Salient goals

People have certain goals which they achieve through the certain income they get. The salient goals that people have come into focus when a certain amount of money has been collected. They pick a goal from the pool of salient goals and which then depending on the nature, becomes part of the buffers pool.

People always try to reduce cash outflow

Liquid assets

Buffers

The cash outflow from routine household expenses such as grains, milk, rent etc. is reduced by stressing on cash inflow from activities like farming, buying a cow or building their own house. Cash outflow Cash inflow

Regular income

Windfall income

Household

â&#x20AC;&#x153;Usse bachat ho jati hai.â&#x20AC;?

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Routinizing goals

Routine goals

Salient goals

Credit

Social structure

Sometimes, the proximity of the event and social pressure to fulfil a goal is not matched with immediate availability of windfall. For example, an immediate marriage in family or celebrating festivals does not always coincide with the windfall income or rational However, these goals are too salient to be ignored. In such cases, people take loans to achieve such goals. The credit provides them with immediate windfall cash flow to achieve the goal. The credit is then serviced through regular instalments that are similar to a lumping Both the strategy of “individualising goals” and “routinising goals” talk about the same broad strategy, i.e. the strategy to prioritize, mechanism. In a sense servicing the debt become one of their routine expenses. Or the salient goal has been rationed into small packets of routine goals. We call this strategy “routinising goals”.

Analysis: Framework

Realizing value

Routine goals

Salient goals

People liquidate their assets to take care of the shocks they face in their lives. We have seen that there are two main strategies people adopt in deriving value out of their assets: 1. Selling assets: people try to materialise the stored value from fixed assets by selling them. The decision to sell the asset is situational and is determined by: ease of reconstituting them and their productivity.

Liquid assets

Buffers

2. Pawning: People pawn assets to extract value from them. Usually it was observed that the sample group did not tend to pawn their assets as it was almost certain that they would lose them due to high interest rates put by the local pawn shops. These strategies can be called the strategy for realising valueâ&#x20AC;?.

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Analysis: Framework

Separation

In the buffer people create, there is strict distinction between which particular instrument is meant for what purpose. People do not expect a lumping mechanism to create regular flow of income and do not want an asset to only appreciate in value sitting idle. Different lumping or asset categories are also earmarked for roughly defined purposes. For example, people are very clear about the difference between their subsistence asset and the income supplementing asset. We call this set of strategies as “that of strategy for instrument separation” There is another type of separation we witness, when people separate out windfall. People do not keep windfall income with them; rather “separate” them to either achieve a salient goal or creating a buffer. We can call this as a “strategy of windfall separation”. Together both these strategies can be referred to as “Strategy of separation”.

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Analysis: Framework

Immediacy pull and Opportunity push

Many immediate needs arise from a wide variety of sources including in the lives of the people like: medical exigency, crop failure, and natural calamity. In terms of the model, these emergencies can be seen as an unbalancing force that disrupts the entire system. In case of emergency, all the store of value assets, windfall income and regular expenses are immediately sacrificed to take care of the immediate exigency. But at the same time, opportunities also arise in forms of job offers, good crops, good weather conditions etc. which need to be availed and taken advantage of. In times like these, the model gets a resource push and sometimes the movement of wealth within the system becomes smoother.

Immediacy pull Routine

Salient

goals

Liquid

Buffers

assets

Regular

Windfall

income

income Opportunity push Samira Jain | NID | SDM | Diploma Project | MicroSave | 2013

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Summary

Resolving goals

Routinizing goals

{

Individualizing goals

Routine goals

Salient goals 6

Separation

Routinizing income 3

Income shaping

{

Liquid assets

Lumping income

Buffers 2

Creating buffers

Balancing

Regular income

Windfall income

Realizing value

Analyses: Framework Summary

In the sections above, different facts and trends of money management have been deciphered for a set of people that can be extended to wider segment through validation of the concepts. Behavioural aspects of

3. Income Shaping Strategies

4. Strategy for Realising Value

To achieve the objectives of household money management people try to shape their income through mainly two strategies:

Situations when the household is out of balance or there is an emergency, they tend to materialise the stored value in their assets by:

i. Creating Lumps: Regular/regularised income is allocated to several instruments/assets that necessarily lumps the money and create a windfall income in future. For example, a common lumping instrument is RoSCA where money is regularly put aside, and eventually the lumped money comes as a windfall to meet a larger goal. Investing in all the asset types are exercises in this direction. Investing in a son’s education or money lumped to send a child away to work is also similar to this trend, since the money earned from the child will augment a future windfall income.

i. Value Extraction: People materialise the stored value from fixed assets by pawning them.

goal, income and asset categories in the life of people have been described along with the “governing rules” or motivations that provoke such financial behaviour and transactions. The complexity of the money management process is explained by the variety of those rules. The governing rules, as we saw, can be categorised into 6 broad segments that ties the three primary aspects, viz., goal, income and instruments or assets. 1. Strategy for creating balance

All the efforts of household money management are primarily directed to strike a balance between regular income and routine expenditure. 2. Creating Buffers

People create buffers or stores of value to meet longer term aspirational goals and manage contingencies.

ii. Routinising Income: People aspire and plan to augment their regular income by investing in productive assets that create regular income. An investment towards buying chicken is motivated not only by the fact that it will enhance its sales value, but also because eggs as by-product will enhance their regular income.

ii. Value Realisation: People sell off assets which are least harmful in terms of income supplementing or subsistence of the family. The decision to sell off the asset is situational and is determined by ease of reconstituting them and their productivity. 5. Strategies for Resolving Goals

Apart from using income shaping mechanism, people also simultaneously keep resolving their goals. The strategies they adopt while resolving goals are: i. Individualizing Goals: Apart from the routine expenses, most of the other goals in people’s lives are unclear and fuzzy, which are almost similar to aspirations. The proximity of the event and size of the buffer decides which of these goals will become focal, and fulfilled immediately. So, if a fuzzy goal starts banging the door, (i.e. time to achieve it is limited), all the efforts of household will be directed towards achieving that goal. Also, if the size of the buffer (e.g. Samira Jain | NID | SDM | Diploma Project | MicroSave | 2013

Analyses: Framework Summary

cash inflow from a RoSCA) often decides which of the fuzzy goals will come into focus, and be realised. So, if the buffer is sufficient to buy a T.V. and not a cow, people will often spend it on the T.V., rather than try strategies to save up further to buy a cow later.

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collector, where the each of these tools/instruments has different and specific purposes/goals. Any and every financial transaction and behaviour of the low income people are motivated by one or a combination of these governing rules.

ii. Routinising Goals: When peopleâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s regular income increases, they assess their ability to fulfil a debt commitment. This could allow them to meet some salient goal/s by borrowing. By doing this, they are able to break a bigger goal into smaller pieces, i.e. the repayment instalments. For example rather than buying a bicycle by paying the entire cost up-front, a household can take a loan and then the repayment becomes a goal for them.

GOAL

6. Separation

People treat different assets, financial instruments and incomes separately. The trends observed are: i. Windfall Separation: Any windfall income people have tends to be spent on creating a buffer or asset, which in turn will help them achieve some salient goal. ii. Instrument Separation: Different lumping instruments/financial instruments are also linked to specific goals in life. Hence, a person might maintain a RoSCA, a life insurance policy and a deposit

Strategy for creating balance

Strategy for resolving goals Separation

INCOME

Creating buffers Income Shaping Strategy for realising value

INSTRUMENT

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Chapter 10: Synthesis Redefined brief Components: physical space psychological space personas Summary of insights

Synthesis

226

Redefined Brief To develop an imagery that is vivid, accurate and compact in explaining the psychological personas in both monetary as well as non -monetary terms of a certain group of people, through their understanding of physical space.

The metaphor is an effective tool that can be used to explain unknown concepts through simplified, straight forward representations. From earlier research, while getting to know metaphors, it was derived that visuals can play an important role to communicate ideas even of great complexity. This idea was taken forward and the medium of expression of the metaphor was defined as visuals/ imagery. A metaphor has to encompass various aspects. It needs to accomplish a lot in as little words/images as possible. In the primary research and analyses phases of the project, I had to identify what are the aspects that the metaphor needs to talk about. After spending weeks in the field talking to people, getting to know them, their habits and preferences, I understood that all people exist in a certain space. That comprises of their (a) Physical space (b) Psychological space Their psychological space is where their thoughts are defined, information is processed and decisions are made. This space has direct impact on defining the

â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;characterâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; or the core of the conceptual metaphor. Who is the person we are talking about, what does he think and what is his behaviour. The characteristics and behaviour of a person can be monetary or nonmonetary in nature or it can be at a social or at an individual level. All these aspects need to be combined and refined to be able to accomplish an insightful metaphor. The physical space is the tangible space in which a person exists. It is what a person directly experiences and understands and therefore it is known to him. Also, since a large number of people experience the same space, they are bound by this common phenomenon. If the metaphor is explained through their understanding of the physical space, it will be understood and comprehended easily and effectively.

Physical space

Psychological space

Character

Synthesis

Physical Space All metaphors are manifestations of what humans understand the most. That is usually their physical space and the intrinsic human activities. Physical space

Eating (Observed) Sleeping Movement: (Observed) Excreting Fornicating

This further extends into the kind of physical spaces they inhabit and exist in and the surroundings they occupy.

Personal

External

All external elements: Natural surroundings (Observed) Protection from surroundings: Clothing, living spaces (Observed) Community spaces (Observed) Work spaces (Observed)

The elements that are observed, experienced and seen in these spaces and frame are what people relate with and understand.

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Personal space

Eating

Movement

Local produce

Labour intensive: Used to very high levels of physical labour

Grow on their own

Carry things on head

Ration from government shop Buy in black, when run out of designated amount

Lot of walking to reach resources

Cooking at home: on firewood or gas stove depending on ease

Cutting firewood

Routine based: twice a day only

Extensive use of hands: to cook, sit around the fire, wash buffalo

Temptation: Several cups of tea Food at the tea stall Produce own dairy products

Washing utensils and clothes outside

Bending, climbing trees, cutting grass to feed cow

Sun bathe, sit around fire: keep hands warm, wrap shawl around tightly to keep warm: need for warmth

Synthesis: Physical Space

External space

Money

The frame mentioned in the earlier section talks about the monetary behaviour of the target segment.

Natural

Surrounded with natural resources High dependency on natural resources Large open areas Mountains, greenery, streams Have to face natureâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s wrath with snow, hail, rains, and extreme cold weather Affected by re-allocation of resources like creation of dam Hard to reach resources are not raided

Protective

Community

Moving towards cement construction: need for security, symbol of prosperity

Outside houses: people come together for chores

Well equipped spaces

Many small shops facilitating temptation

Designated space for each task: separation Social signalling: Proud display of pictures, awards in the house along with decorative artefacts Protective footwear

Main market spaces very hard to reach (Effort to access man made resources)

Work

Usually small Multipurpose: combined with other tasks Places of social interaction Slow paced

Many places of worship

No concept of doors and security against neighbours Well equipped households

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Synthesis

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Psychological Space: Personas The use of ethnographic research helps the creation of a number of archetype users that can be used to develop products that deliver positive user experiences. By feeding in real data, ethnographic research allows design teams to avoid generating stereotypical users that may bear no relation to the actual userâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s reality. A user persona is a representation of the goals and behaviour of a hypothesized group of users. In most cases, personas are synthesized from data collected from interviews with users

Monetary Based on peopleâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s responses and interacting with them two clear personas came out. They were extremely contrasting. Their behaviour towards money management practices was different in the sense that for one group it was clear as to why they were doing what they were doing. The other group did follow their own rules of management but were more involved in the communityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s notions of money management than their own individual ideas.

Non -monetary Characters were outlined by understanding key drivers that motivate decision making as well as the ecosystems they exist in. The non monetary personas also changed with their complementary monetary behaviour traits. One group of people had a high set of goals and aspirations while the other was mostly in tandem with the general community trends and behaviours.

Synthesis: Psychological Space

Psychological space

Monetary

Peopleâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s character traits towards material and monetary aspects of their lives

Nonmonetary

Social

There is a certain psychological social space that people have

Individual

People have characteristic behaviours and thoughts at an individual level

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Personas: monetary

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“ Ye nahin ki kal jeb khali. Pata nahin kya nobat aa jaye”

Lack of social structure: do not like depending on anyone

Regular saving habits

Have picture of the ideal: work towards it Self-reliant Fair exchange of value

Little indulgence from time to time

Focus on savings Persona 1

Focus on a stable source of income

Aware of possible emergencies

Loans are taken from formal sources; discipline is important

Multiple saving mechanisms: combination of R.D, F.D, LIC etc.

Find it easier to save up Emergencies are countered with savings

Willing to take risks: higher returns

“Jitni zyada bachat, utna benefit” “(Jab paise aaye unhe) Kinare rakh do”

Personas: Monetary

“ Kisne socha hai aage ka aaj tak? Jab jeb mein hoga, tab sochega.” Strong social structure: credit dependency Savings is not a priority but know that it is important Take social events seriously: for example attending weddings

Focus on generating income from multiple sources

Self indulgent All energies are dedicated in balancing expenses and income

Emergencies are countered with credit from social structure

Small savings mechanism like R.D in post office Find it easier to save down

Build as you go, bit by bit construction

Flexibility has more priority than discipline

Not high risk takers “ Jaisa sochte hain vaisa nahin hota, ulta par jata hai” “Zyada lambi soch nahi hai”

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Personas: Non- monetary

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Social

Individual

Selective social dependance (resources)

Good adapters: intuitive interfaces

Trend setters

Understand cause and effect

Not very socially involved (for money or otherwise)

Quick learners

Visionionaries Understand importance of skills Rewards oriented

Credit givers among immediate social group

Maximum utilization of resources Cautious

Fair exchange of value

Do not like to divulge much to people in the community

Want long term solutions Aspirants Need for security Risk taking Basic needs are mostly taken care of: focus on more aspirational needs Aware Resourceful Look for convenience

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Personas: Non- monetary

Social

Individual

Commonly shared resources

Patriarchal

Social display of prosperity

Highly dependant on natural resources

Wary of strangers

Indulgent Essential entertainment

Trend followers Impatient

Bound by tradition

Spontaneous

Community based: perform tasks together

Feel the need for security when away from community

Advice takers Display of hospitality Strong family structure

Socially bound

Life cycle events are highlights of life

Indulgent

Effort should reap return

Strong community support Savvy

Trust and transparency amongst community Communities share core issues

Not active solution- finders Trend followers

Eager to make good impression

Synthesis

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Summary

For the universality of the concepts, all the common traits from the personas were identified and synthesised.

KEY INSIGHT

TRANSLATION

POTENTIAL IDEA

Aspect of money

It comes from various sources

One thing ‘A’ can be derived from many sources

Food, water

It has to be accumulated by effort and work

Effort to generate

Physical labour

It varies according to regularity and certainty

The nature of ‘A’s sources

Concept of seasonal and perennial (farming), big and small

There are some unexpected/large amounts of income coming in (refer windfall income in framework)

The nature of ‘A’ s sources

Rainfall, big fish, fruiting tree

Allocation/division should be possible

Breaking, separating, dividing

It can be stored in various forms; it appears in many avatars, to generate income and act as

Should be able to change form

Shaping, moulding, making pillows (size of the pillow), brakes

buffers (refer assets in framework) There are various objectives in people’s lives that need to fulfilled

Second element ‘B’

Empty sacks to be filled, hurdles, cutting out, Feeding expense ‘heads’

It can be allocated to achieve different goals based on need and priority

Synthesis: Summary

Primary use of money is to satisfy basic human needs

Feeding

There is a need to balance out income and goals Secondary use to achieve aspirational objectives

Should be able to cancel out/ satisfy some elements ‘B’ ‘A’ and ‘B’ can be equated There are various forms of element ‘B’

There is control over allocation/ spending/storing

Man’s control over what he does with ‘A’

Driving, objects that can be handled by hand

Dependency on ‘A’

Fuel in a vehicle, blood in the body, a depiction of the system itself

It is what makes the system function; essential for survival There are strategies to create assets/ buffers (refer creating buffers in framework)

‘A’ can be ‘made’ into various forms

Sea-saw, balance, buoyancy, bicycle Small- big, shapes (concrete vs blurry)

Moulding, modelling, exchange, baking bread, hardening clay, drying grass, saving seeds

There are various strategies that are used to translate income into objective (refer to income shaping in framework) These assets/buffers can be exchanged for value (refer realization of value in framework)

Depiction of strategies and multiple ways of doing things: accumulating, routinizing

Lumping, adding, breaking, dividing

The process of ‘forming’ ‘A’ is reversible

Softening hardened clay, clay-dough

There are certain factors upon which the realization of a goal is dependant. (refer individualizing goals in framework) One goal is individualized at one time

There is a method to ‘satisfying’ component ‘B’

Lassoing, focussing a lens, weighing down: ringing bells (trigger)

Moving forward

Road, path, hurdles

Support might be taken from external factors (social structure) There is a certain method in which allocation of resources is done (refer separation in framework)

To fall back on, others doing the same

Djinn, solar system

Separation of resources, There is mental separation of what part of ‘A’ has to be used for what part of ‘B’

Channels, pipes, wires, storing water, allocating water, different sacks/jars

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There are tensions and opportunities disrupting the system (refer immediacy pull and opportunity push)

External factors create imbalance’ between ‘A’ & ‘B’

Pushing and pulling, Monkeys, wild boars, Good year of rainfall, snow that is good for the fields

There is a hierarchy of decision makersn in the family

Levels of system, dependence

Steps, stacking

Labour intensive

Use of movement

Farming, walking, covering distance

Extensive use of hands

Use of limbs

Physical movement, Feel, touch, labour

High dependence on natural resources

Taking inspiration from surroundings

Nature

Special allocation of space

Separate places to perform different tasks

Division of space, steps, Blocks

Open spaces

No space restriction, thinking big

Nature, not restricted by space

Find own way around terrain

Finding own path, making way

Roads cutting mountains, road blocks,

Rocky, harsh terrain, harsh weather

Security and safety

Hurdles, based on terrain

Hard to reach resources are not raided

Effort involved determines outcome

Distances, steps

Aspect of physical space

Synthesis: Summary

Aspect of psychological space

Community oriented

Social elements: dependency

Fulcrum, solar system, pond, symbiosis

Adapters

Aware, smart

Competition, race

Patriarchal: decisions are taken by the men of the family Aspirants

Man in the forefront

Male character

Growth, vision

Steps, Ladder, pleasures

Cautious

Careful

Cactus, alarm mechanism, sharks

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Chapter 11: Ideation Approach Clustering Concept representation

Ideation

Approach Identify the object of the metaphor Use imagery to construct a comparison that explains, exemplifies or contrasts with purpose, the nature of the metaphor. Build on the metaphor by adding specific elements that help establish more insight. Add other elements of story or other characters to the metaphor, while keeping to the theme of the story and the meaning of the metaphor.

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Ideation

Clustering The various potential ideas generated from the translation of key insights were clustered together based on similar ideas and keywords. When put together, a pattern seemed to emerge through which all the aspects of psychological and physical space of the studied group could be portrayed and explained.

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“Baki bacha, kinare rakh do”

Grains, food, water

Big fish

Physical labour

Buoyancy, boats

Concept of seasonal and perennial (farming), big and small

Concrete vs blurry Feeding expense ‘heads’

Rainfall, fruiting tree Empty sacks to be filled,

}

Farming, grains, crops

Lassoing, focussing a lens, weighing down: ringing bells (trigger)

Drying grass, saving seeds

Nature

Channels, pipes, wires, storing water, allocating water

Sharks

Pushing and pulling, monkeys, wild boars, good year of rainfall, snow that is good for the fields Farming Blocks, division of space, steps

}

Water, pond, fish

Ideation: Clustering

â&#x20AC;&#x153;Raasta saaph karna hogaâ&#x20AC;?

Breaking, separating, dividing

Breaks

Shaping, moulding,

Hurdles, Sea-saw, balance, bicycle

Cutting out Small- big, shapes Objects that can be handled by hand Moulding, modelling, exchange, baking bread, hardening clay

}

Clay, moulding

Driving, fuel in a vehicle, blood in the body, a depiction of the system itself Road, path, hurdles,

}

Road, hurdles, bicycle

Softening hardened clay, clay-dough Covering distance Feel, touch, labour Roads cutting mountains, road blocks Hurdles, based on terrain

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Ideation

Concept Representation The various clusters of ideas were taken and translated in a set of imagery that could explain the concepts better and as simply as possible. The aim was to use different styles with the resources available for each idea. This could also give a potential idea as to how the metaphor can be represented in a manner that it resonates with the client groups.

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Ideation: Concept Representation

Concept 01 |

Step farming: feeding the family

A personâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s priorities are placed in order of importance along a step farm on a hillside. The lower most step is closest home and the family is dependant on it. Maximum effort is invested in cultivating that step. Crops like rice and wheat, essential to the familyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s survival are grown here.

monkeys etc, the saved grain is consumed soon enough, making it hard for the family to see beyond the first step of immediate needs.

This can be matched directly to goals/wants, which will be tended to only after the more immediate needs are met effectively. Based on the financial condition of the household, (where size of income may be equated to the amount of grain produced and the number of earning members to the number of people who are involved in cultivating the land), the next step farm can be considered. The next step is usually to create additional income for the family. Therefore, that step maybe dedicated to growing vegetables that can also be sold. The steps that are farthest away, need a lot of effort to get to. They require extra care but also face greater risk. Cash crops, fruiting trees might be grown to fulfil the familyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s salient needs. The metaphor explains how people see their wants v/s needs, and their ideas of saving v/s spending. So much focus is on the achievement of the immediate needs that if any amount of grain is not consumed it has to be saved for the future. But because of unprecedented events like droughts, pest infestation, Samira Jain | NID | SDM | Diploma Project | MicroSave | 2013

Ideation: Concept Representation

WINDFALL

The farthest step is mostly dependant on rainfall. Most energy is spent in the first step for any to be left for this step.

INCOME SUPPLEMENTING

Vegetables are grown here that can be sold so that extra income can be generated for the familyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s needs. REGULAR INCOME AND REGULAR NEEDS

Maximum efforts are put into the closest step. Essential crops like rice, wheat and some vegetables are grown to meet the regular needs of the family.

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Ideation: Concept Representation

LUMPING

Grains are stored in sacks for later use. SEPARATION

Different sacks are made for different purposes CREATING BUFFERS

Little sacks of grains are kept aside to be used as seeds for later CREDIT

Sometimes when the crop is not so good, seeds have to be borrowed from others in order to go into the next season without hassle VALUE REALIZATION

In bad times, land can be sold in exchange for food THREATS

Monkeys and wild boars can create havoc and destroy the crops. All resources have to be employed to recover the losses CASH CROPS

People who are able to take care of their familyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s needs can then think about taking risk by planting cash crops and getting a high return for it. (Insurance policies)

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Water is drawn from any source available for the closest step. Otherwise, rainfall is the source of water for the upper levels.

Planting a tree is like a fixed deposit. After a certain number of years, it will give fruit that, by selling, can produce a lump sum amount (creating windfall)

SUBSISTENCE ASSETS

Certain assets are procured in order to be able to perform the required tasks for income generation

Ideation: Concept Representation

Concept 02 |

Jeevan ki Naiyya: life on water

Every person’s life is a boat, coexisting with hundreds of others in an endless expanse of water. Every boat has a number of members/mouths that need to be fed periodically (expenses need to be met), in order for the boat to move along without any trouble (for the household to function smoothly). The person, whom the boat belongs to, has to catch fish (work for income) to feed these mouths. The catch (income) varies, possibly from day to day, but the number of mouths on the boat remains the same. Thus, the person is forced to ration out the fish so as ensure each mouth gets its share. Some days there is enough, some days there is more than enough and some days there isn’t enough fish. There are also other boats that the person must interact with, just as one has to interact with others in real life. The person may keep his surplus fish on a neighbouring boat (bank/post office) in order to prevent frivolous use of it. The person may also have to trade in the fish for items of need/want on his boat (akin to buying a television in real life). Good planning on the person’s part will ensure the boat can withstand the occasional calamity such as lack of fish, or thunderstorms. A person who manages to get his boat to the shore without causing the occupants too much trouble, is considered to have lived a decent life. Samira Jain | NID | SDM | Diploma Project | MicroSave | 2013

Ideation: Concept Representation

Life is like a boat in the river

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You have to catch fish and feed the expense “heads”

Ideation: Concept Representation

Approaching boats signify approaching expenses

You keep your catch safe on another boat

This metaphor talks about life on water. It is the way people visualise themselves: trying to reach the other end. Their main aim is survival. Every person has their own boat that they have to manage. Thya have to stay afloat, move forward and work to catch fish and satisfy the various expense heads that are part of his boat.

Exchange of value can take place

You dry your catch for later use

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Ideation: Concept Representation

Concept 03 |

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Money is clay

The Analogy: Income (money) is like clay. Effort needs to be made to procure the clay. When it is first obtained, it doesn’t have a definite form. That is to say, what it will be spent on is not decided. Based on the needs at the moment, the clay may be shaped into the desired object, thus giving it a definite purpose. This puts into perspective the life of the target group against the lives of salaried/non-poor people. While the salaried have the luxury of being able to think about shaping their future, our target group has to worry everyday about shaping the present. Varying amounts of clay may be used for various needs, which are prioritized based on the immediacy of the need as well as the amount of clay procured. This can give a more real and literal meaning to the phrase “being stretched thin”. Therefore, the clay will be shaped as food first, and if any remains, the left over may be added to a bigger under construction shape, such as cattle, or a television. This also explains the idea of credit. Borrowing and lending of clay work analogous to debt and investment, the former bringing about a certain discipline with regard to spending(shaping) in the future, while the latter bringing in returns at a later time.

Ideation: Concept Representation

You have to work hard to get it

You work with it to make you what you want out of it and allocate some part to each expense

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Ideation: Concept Representation

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Ideation: Concept Representation

Concept 04 |

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A bicycle helps man travel the road of life

This metaphor is based on the concept of BALANCE. The bicycle is a system with the help of which man travels the road of life. The two wheels, front and back are the support systems that he has created for himself. The front wheel is his immediate support- his family. It is he who decides what path to take and guides his family. The back wheel is the social group which consists of the community, friends, relatives, banking services etc. In order for him to move forward smoothly, he has to pump air in the wheels. The air pumped in, represents the money he pumps in the system. While moving forward, he encounters a variety of problems that he has to cross. The wheels, with his guidance help him cross them with as little problems (or he helps his family get through these problems). For bigger hurdles, he also needs to equip his system with buffers, like brakes and shock absorbers that can help him cross the hurdles more smoothly. The salient goals of life appear like mountains in the distance that need to be conquered when the time comes. Events like weddings, tend to look close suddenly and all the power has to be mustered to climb them.

Ideation: Concept Representation

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Chapter 12: Conclusion Way forward Implementation Strategy Challenges ahead Learnings Experience

Conclusion

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Way Forward Validation

Representation

Validation is an integral step in the product development stage. This would help identify as to which metaphor is best suited and resonates with the customers. Without elaborate discussions or explanations, the message should reach the customers, validating the concepts derived from the field research. This would help take forward the relevant ideas to the service providers.

The representations developed thus far are a rough idea as to how the images could look but they are by no means to be taken as the final set of imagery.

Validation would have to be done in various domains (i) Of the concept itself The concept would have to undergo user tests to identify the right one. (ii) The universality of the concept To see whether the metaphor is contextual or if resonates with other groups as well (iii) The application of the concept Once the metaphor has been identified, it would then be translated into a product logic. A potential interface could be designed and tested on the users to see, if they relate to it OR (iv) The sub metaphors derived to represent the solutions The metaphor may not be used directly bit used to define the various problem areas.

The imagery used for the customers might not be the same that is used to show the service providers. The understood language might be different, making it important to understand what visual language both the groups understand and will be comfortable with. Different sets of visuals would need to be created. One set would be used to interact with the customers to see if they are understood. A different form of representation might also be adopted to convey the idea. For example: origami or paper mock-ups could be used to relate the story in a puppetry format. The other set would be of visuals that the service providers can understand. The last set of visuals would be the translation of the idea in a project logic and validating with the customers. This would involve understanding the interfaces that the people are familiar with, and what would be the best representation of a metaphor in that context.

Conclusion: Way Forward

Product development

Metaphors might be developed around new product ideas, which can help guide product development decisions (feature set, user interface), the market positioning (target segment, needs addressed), and product marketing communications. In other words, these would be metaphors around proposed solutions rather than metaphors representing the problem. The metaphor can be taken forward in a variety of ways. It could be translated in a simple mobile application or a game or even a networking app.

The step farming metaphor can be taken forward to understand how it can be translated into a product logic. Certain aspects of the metaphor can be picked up for customers to relate to it. This metaphor can work because: Farming is a familiar concept in all communities. The idea of steps is related to moving forward, climbing up. Food is the most basic necessity and equated to feeding the family. It is the basis of managing the household. The metaphor has been derived directly from the respondentsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; surroundings and behaviour, making it easy for them to relate to it. It accounts for all the major strategies of financial management:

They also grow vegetables on the second step to create additional income for the household Creating buffers: Growing fruiting trees, cultivating cash crops, buying more land, are buffers that people create for times of need. Fulfilling goals: The top most step represents the fuzzy goals of the household. To achieve those, one has to make the effort to climb that step and put in the effort to reap results. This can happen only if the first step does not need attention. Realizing value: Land can be pawned or sold to create value. Separation: Different grains are stored in different sacks for different needs. This metaphor works in a community scenario, where everyone has their own piece of land. Credit is therefore a common phenomenon. Grain might be asked from others when in need.

Balancing: People put in a certain amount of effort and cultivate land to produce enough to feed the family. Income shaping: People create little windfalls by keeping some grain aside in sacks so as to sell it later for a certain amount. Samira Jain | NID | SDM | Diploma Project | MicroSave | 2013

Conclusion: Way Forward

When being translated into a product logic, behaviours and strategies can be incorporated into service ideas. The following are examples of how separate strategies can be converted into service ideas. Services: Separation/ labelling:

Income can be separated on the basis of expenses or instrument. Different accounts can be created to segregate money. In case of windfall:

When there is a surge in income, prompt service options to help customers invest/ make choices. Individualizing goals:

Set a target for an amount. When the target is achieved, ask the customer what tangible goal would they like to assign to it. Routinizing goals:

If credit is taken, money can be put in othersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; accounts by automatically transferring a certain amount. Me - to - Me:

Save for later, lock in amount for short periods of time. If a monthly instalment has to be paid, that amount

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can be locked at the beginning of the month so that it is not spent. It can be later re-credited in the account on the set date. My network:

Create a social circle of people that one can depend in times of need. This way, the social structure can be banked on, credit can be extended within the group. The metaphor has helped define the problem area. Based on the findings, products can be developed for the consumers that can be expressed in interface format with the help of solution oriented metaphors.

Conclusion

Strategy of Implementation “We would be in some form of denial if we didn’t see that execution is the true measure of success.” C. Michael Armstrong

For the execution of this idea, the interest of all the stake holders will have to be taken into consideration. Implementation involves people and a strategy will have to be drafted to carry it out.

A strategy is sometimes called a road map - which is the path chosen to plow towards the end vision.

A strategy is a combination of the ends (goals) for which the firm is striving and the means (policies) by which it is seeking to get there. The biggest objective that this project wants to eventually achieve is a single, mobile enables experience for the masses. To reach this goal, the metaphor is a great milestone. But from here, the idea has to be refined and taken to the end consumers.

Mobile network operator

Customers

Metaphor

Single, mobile-enabled, mass-customizable experience that puts customers’ goals and needs as the basis for the interactions between the bank and its customers

Banks

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Step 1: The metaphor needs to be simplified and made relevant to specific products.

Translate into products

This will be done by looking at specific strategies employed by the household and understanding them through sub metaphors

to ate in Integr logy o techn

Step 2: The technology behind the products would need to be developed keeping in mind the functionality and the security.

Sustain the idea

Spread the idea

Develop the interface

Step 3: A relevant user friendly interface would need to be developed based on the customer needs, their interaction with interfaces and technology and their understanding of devices. The interface should undergo rigorous user testing before being launched in the market.

Step 5: To sustain the idea, the product would need to be evolved and customized according to customersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; changing needs and habits. The customers much be given choices as to how they can better manage their money based on their current strategies.

Step 4: Firstly, the consumers should be made aware of the idea and then introduced to it in such a manner that they are able to trust it and do not approach it with fear. They have to be made comfortable with the interface, the products and made excited about the experience. This would need to be marketed at a mass market level which can happen by creating marketing campaigns with the consumers in mind, and the metaphor as a tool.

Conclusion

Challenges Ahead Building acceptability and belief in the minds of the common man has been the biggest challenge while introducing mobile banking. During the initial days of mobile commerce, people used to look for money inside the mobile phone. They had to be educated that the money is now digital, similar to airtime â&#x20AC;&#x201C; something that you canâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t see or feel but can use in your daily life. The regulatory and market scenario around mobile commerce is constantly evolving. The challenge was to architect the system in such a manner that can be easily replicated across countries with minimal change. The system was designed keeping in mind the stringent requirements of banking systems with real time transactions, reconciliations, fraud detection etc. This would allow deployment across markets without making significant changes. The security aspect of the solution was given the highest importance with encryption at various levels. Now that, the security aspects have been taken care of, the focus moves to the actual use and functionality of the product. The challenges would arise when the metaphorical ideas would have to be made simpler and less abstract to suit the product logic of mobile banking.

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Learnings It is very useful to vividly capture what people think,

There is a lot of value in approaching field research

It is feasible and useful to generalize on a reduced

not just what they do.

without appearing to ask intrusive questions of

set of financial management strategies that people

interviewees.

frequently employ, understanding that each person

Product marketing, in the end, needs to appeal to the mind. New products need to have a clear role within peopleâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s mental models. We question how much you can infer about how people think about money simply by observing the financial choices they make. There needs to be a deliberate effort at capturing those thoughts, and expressing them in cogent terms. Conversations about money often turn philosophical, as they revolve around deep-seated desires: for your children to lead a better life than you had, to minimize lifeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s daily hassles and humiliations, to feel like you are keeping up and fulfilling your obligations to kin and kith, to reduce the feeling of present or future dependency. Financial lives are shaped by the conflicting demands of these desires, and people will employ a variety of tricks and stratagems to balance between them. Only in the context of this broader outlook can we begin to make sense of microfinancial decisions they make to set money aside this way or that.

Money is a sensitive subject, and asking people questions on their actual money management practices immediately puts them on the defensive. Their answers are likely to be ambiguous, evasive and incomplete, if not downright misleading. Moreover, they are likely to tailor their answers to whatever the interviewer seems to be interested in. It is possible to get at how people think about money management by transporting them in evocative ways to a variety of situations and having them react to them. Creative research tools (a story, a video clip, a game) can achieve this quickly and effectively. This allows for deeper probing of their reactions without appearing intrusive. Intelligently designed research can explore nuance and test consistency of answers by framing the same issue in different ways, through different situations. It also allows for a broader range of questioning, since one can explore different hypothetical situations rather than being bound by what actually has happened in their life in order to make sense of what they actually do.

will use different combinations of those strategies.

Having a model doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t imply being restricted to a single view of the world. The household financial management model is best understood as a collection of possible strategies. It can be a useful lens with which to interpret the different attitudes and choices that people reveal when they are interviewed (which strategies they tend to focus on, and why), and to formulate hypotheses about how new products and features might be interpreted by target clients.

Conclusion: Learnings

A core challenge with the metaphor development

Building simple, multiple metaphors could be an

work has been that it was not hypothesis driven.

alternative.

We searched for a metaphor to illuminate a very fuzzy concept â&#x20AC;&#x201C; financial management. Fuzzy because it has no clear boundaries and no clear outcomes. We could not start with a hypothesis for a metaphor, because that itself would have to be a metaphor which someone would need to have dreamed up. Most research work is done on the basis of some hypotheses.

We constantly had to grapple on the one hand with the instinct to focus on a few strategies to make the metaphor come to life vividly, and on the other hand with the desire to keep the full richness of our model (How is credit represented here? Are we neglecting the social side?) There is a lot of value in expressing research findings creatively and artistically.

People tend to interpret ideas literally presented to them.

Time and again we were struck with how literally people interpreted concepts which were meant to be metaphorical. This made it hard to develop metaphors with customers under any kind of co-creation process. It also meant that metaphors, to be useful, need to be very concrete. They are too broad and abstract, and that in trying to be complete, they are seeking to explain too many things through a single metaphor.

Inserting a creative expression element in research projects from the start helps in many ways. During the life of the project, it forces a diversity of skills (and hence perspectives) to be introduced within the team. It increases the sense of excitement, uniqueness and fun for team members. It reinforces the need to think about how to communicate ideas, and how to simplify them, every step of the way and not just at the end. And at the output level, it helps engage with a broader range of audiences.

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Experience Project Metamon was a very exciting, intensive and emotional project for me. The long duration of the project helped me understand the power of detailing. The extensive literature available in the form of othersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; research, expertsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; findings, was very interesting and illuminating. It was informative but the project helped me understand how information is filtered and relevant aspects of secondary information are picked out for study and project purposes. It was also important to collect information advocating different points of view. The contrasting views helped me define the constraints that the project could have. Also, this information helped break the inherent biases that one can have while doing a project like this. It familiarised me with a lot of research tools that I had not used before and had to device so that the data collected was useful and could be used further to generate insights. It helped me understand that there cannot be a defined set of rules and methodologies that need to be adhered to. One needs to evolve and innovate depending on the project, the stakeholders and the nature of the desired results. It helped me work in a non-design team and understand the differences in thought that need to be negotiated and worked around. The brief for

this project was very unique for the financial experts working alongside me in the team and they did not have a clear plan of action. They did not want to collect data the way it has always been done till now since in their experience, the data collected could never be translated directly into a product logic. At this point they cared more about the insights than the transcriptions. My job became more difficult and vital as I knew, that real insights could not be generated without collecting appropriate data, transcribing and analysing it. I had to convince my team to follow certain steps that they were extremely reluctant to do. This also made me realise the importance of leadership and the finer details of being a design manager. The project made me understand how the design process is applied in a non-design environment, industry and function. The importance of creativity and how it is required to break out of the mould and think cohesively, as part of the system but also by looking at it from a macro level. The project was an opportunity for me to travel to places and villages that I had never been to and interacting with people living in environments so different from ours. It helped me appreciate the differences of a rural and urban lifestyle, the advantages and disadvantages of each. It also helped me acknowledge how communities exist

with such little man made resources but abundance of natural resources resulting in increased physical movement and the varied levels of dependency on oneâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s surroundings. It was a great experience working with people from such different backgrounds, knowledge banks and world views.

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