Banking & Finance Sector

Case Study: Building Financial Resilience and Sustainable Livelihoods Across India

Earth5R in Partnership with regional ICICI Bank and State Bank of India Officials

In today’s India, sustainability and financial literacy must go hand-in-hand,especially for those left behind by rapid development. Informal workers in cities and smallholder farmers in rural belts continue to remain disconnected from formal banking systems and sustainable livelihood tools. Their income is irregular, savings negligible, and access to credit riddled with risks. In response to this crisis, Earth5R partnered with volunteers from ICICI Bank and State Bank of India to launch a nationwide initiative combining financial inclusion with climate-smart training. This model focused on enabling income, security, and dignity for some of the most vulnerable segments across urban and rural India.

Over four years, Earth5R mobilized teams to deliver high-impact programs across 6 major Indian cities and 430 villages spanning 10 states. While cities received targeted vocational training and financial literacy for informal workers, rural communities were empowered through sustainable agriculture, energy, and water management solutions integrated with financial access. Each effort was geo-tagged, tracked, and evaluated using Earth5R’s mobile platform,ensuring scale and accountability.

The Need for Financial Literacy in Marginalized Communities

While financial services have become digital, accessible, and fast in urban India, millions remain unbanked and financially unaware. Marginalised groups,especially daily wage earners, women, and small farmers,often lack even basic exposure to savings, credit, and secure financial habits. This knowledge gap has a direct impact on their resilience and quality of life.

In low-income urban pockets, most families operate in cash, lack formal accounts, and rely on informal loans that keep them trapped in debt cycles. Without knowledge of banking tools, government subsidies, or insurance, they remain financially excluded and vulnerable to emergencies.
Women, especially those in slums and rural areas,often manage home finances but have no independent accounts or credit history. This limits their economic agency and their ability to build livelihoods or access government schemes.
Farmers who face seasonal risks from droughts and floods often lack the financial training to diversify income, plan savings, or access crop insurance. Their lack of awareness results in poor planning, weak credit scores, and inability to adapt to shocks.
Earth5R recognized that financial education cannot be delivered in isolation,it must be interlinked with livelihood support, especially sustainability-based income avenues like organic farming, microenterprises, or energy conservation.
By pairing financial knowledge with green livelihood training, Earth5R created a model that builds income and stability,reducing climate vulnerability and economic risk simultaneously.

Urban Livelihood and Financial Literacy Training Across Indian Cities

Earth5R conducted large-scale training programs in six metro cities, Mumbai, Pune, Delhi, Bangalore, Chennai, and Hyderabad,focused on marginalized workers, slum residents, and women-led households. These cities were chosen due to their high density of informal economies, migrant labor, and underserved communities.

Over 34,500 individuals across the six cities participated in financial literacy and vocational skill training programs. Participants included street vendors, construction workers, domestic help, and unemployed youth from slum clusters.
62% of all trainees were women, many of whom were first-time earners or homemakers seeking economic independence. Earth5R created women-only batches in conservative localities to increase participation and comfort.
Financial education modules included digital payments (UPI, apps), safe savings habits, recognizing loan traps, understanding insurance, and how to open and manage bank accounts. Workshops used visual tools, local language kits, and real examples.
Vocational components were linked to sustainability,such as dry waste collection, composting, eco-cleaning product making, tailoring, herbal cosmetics, or recycled crafts. Each session was designed to offer immediate income potential post-training.
In Dharavi, Mumbai, Earth5R mobilized 12 women’s groups and helped 320 women start low-cost microenterprises. Many used just ₹1,000–₹2,000 to begin and opened their first savings account with SBI, which conducted local KYC drives.
Earth5R’s field mentors continued support for 3–6 months post-training, helping troubleshoot financial app issues, market access, and linking with SHG networks for credit.

Rural Training in Organic Farming, Energy, Water, and Financial Inclusion

Earth5R expanded its efforts to 430 villages across 10 states, where rural poverty, chemical farming dependence, and lack of banking access intersected to create chronic livelihood instability. The goal was to empower these villages with long-term skills,not short-term aid.

The states included Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Maharashtra, Kerala, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, and Rajasthan, with villages such as Kaveripattinam (TN), Ongole (AP), Warangal (TS), Palghar (MH), Wayanad (KL), Bastar (CG), Dewas (MP), Rae Bareli (UP), Mansa (PB), and Barmer (RJ) being key clusters.
A total of 51,200 rural residents were trained, including smallholder farmers, women-led households, youth, and local workers. Earth5R used a cluster-based model with hubs every 10–15 villages and regional language trainers.
Organic farming training included preparation and use of natural fertilizers (Jeevamrut, Panchagavya), soil testing, crop rotation, and agroforestry. Demo plots in each block helped farmers learn through observation and repetition.
Water management modules introduced farm-level budgeting, construction of recharge pits, rainwater harvesting, and micro-irrigation practices. Villages in drought-prone areas reported stronger preparedness post-training.
Energy-focused sessions included adoption of solar drying, smokeless cookstoves, and bio-enzyme cleaners. Over 3,200 families received access to low-cost energy-saving tech, reducing both cost and indoor pollution.
Financial literacy was embedded in every batch. Earth5R partnered with local SBI and ICICI branches to organize passbook camps, digital banking demos, and doorstep account creation.
Over 38,700 new bank accounts were opened during the rural program rollout, giving participants access to subsidies, loans, and insurance for the first time. Women formed over 150 new SHGs supported through Earth5R follow-ups.

Results Delivered: High-Impact Metrics from the Ground

Tracking impact wasn’t left to guesswork. Every training batch was geo-tagged, photographed, and entered into Earth5R’s mobile dashboard. Trainers were required to record attendance, location, module completion, and beneficiary feedback on-site.

Across urban and rural programs, more than 85,700 individuals were directly trained in sustainability-linked livelihood and financial education between 2019–2023.
7,100 new micro-enterprises were launched post-training, including compost sales, recycled crafts, tailoring units, natural product startups, and food processing groups.
Soil fertility improved across 7,200 acres converted to low-input organic farming, with many farmers reporting input cost reductions of up to 30% within one crop cycle.
Water harvesting and reuse systems were implemented or repaired in 170 villages, increasing local water storage capacity by an estimated 28 million litres annually.
Earth5R’s post-program evaluations showed 72% of trainees adopted at least two new financial habits within 3 months,most commonly savings and digital payments.
Participants in climate-prone zones like Anantapur (AP) and Sehore (MP) reported better risk coping mechanisms, such as diversified crops, solar tech adoption, and access to loans during weather shocks.

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Stories That Define the Impact

Meena Kumari – Kaveripattinam Village, Krishnagiri District, Tamil Nadu

Meena Kumari, a 38-year-old homemaker from Kaveripattinam, had no independent income and relied entirely on her husband’s irregular farm wages. After attending Earth5R’s sustainability and financial literacy sessions, she joined a women’s self-help group and started making natural dishwashing liquid and compost using kitchen waste. With just ₹1,800, she began selling locally to neighbours and the village market. Within 6 months, she was earning over ₹4,000 a month and had saved enough to open a recurring deposit with ICICI Bank. She also trained 12 other women in the same techniques. Meena now manages her family’s budget, tracks her expenses, and sends her daughter to an English-medium school.

Rajendra Singh – Dewas Village, Dewas District, Madhya Pradesh

Rajendra Singh, a 49-year-old farmer from Dewas village, had been struggling with soil degradation and rising input costs. He used synthetic fertilizers for years and was heavily dependent on agri-loans. Earth5R’s field team guided him through organic farming methods, composting, and soil testing. He transitioned to Jeevamrut and natural pesticides on 3 acres, cutting down input expenses by nearly 35%. Earth5R connected him with a local SBI branch to open a savings account and apply for Kisan Credit Card benefits. He now mentors other farmers, and his monthly income has increased by ₹7,000 during peak crop seasons. Rajendra’s model plot is now used as a training site for new farmer batches.

Fatima Shaikh – Dharavi, Mumbai, Maharashtra

Fatima Shaikh, a 31-year-old single mother from the slums of Dharavi, earned her living doing odd tailoring jobs but had no savings or financial identity. She enrolled in Earth5R’s urban program that combined digital banking education with skill training. With help from local SBI staff, she opened her first account and started using UPI to receive payments. She also learned to make eco-friendly cloth bags from scrap material. Fatima now supplies 150–200 cloth bags monthly to a local kirana chain and earns ₹5,500–₹7,000 regularly. She’s become a community trainer and has helped more than 40 women in her area become financially literate and self-employed

Ravi Kumar – Palwancha Village, Bhadradri Kothagudem District, Telangana

Ravi Kumar, a 24-year-old dropout from Palwancha village, was unemployed and frequently migrated for short-term labour work. Through Earth5R’s rural training camp, he learned about solar-powered irrigation pumps, sustainable crop planning, and small business finance. With his father’s 2-acre land, Ravi implemented organic farming techniques and took a ₹10,000 microloan through his village SHG to install a small solar dryer. He now grows and sun-dries chillies and okra for nearby mandis. His monthly family income has risen from ₹4,500 to over ₹10,000, and he has no migration plans. Ravi also facilitates mobile banking sessions for other youth in his block, ensuring they don’t fall into loan sharks’ traps.

Amrita Joshi – Darlaghat Village, Solan District, Himachal Pradesh

Amrita Joshi, 42, had never stepped into a bank or handled money independently. Living in Darlaghat village, she was part of a traditional farming family struggling with erratic rainfall and shrinking yields. Earth5R’s women-focused sustainability training introduced her to rainwater harvesting, compost pits, and bioenzymes. She took charge of managing household waste and turned it into usable inputs for her backyard vegetable patch. After financial training, she opened an account with ICICI Bank and started saving ₹500 a month. She now supplies chemical-free vegetables to a local school and earns up to ₹3,000 a month. Her newfound confidence has made her the lead facilitator for Earth5R in her cluster of 5 villages.

The Need for Financial Literacy in Marginalised Communities

India’s banking sector has seen a digital revolution, Aadhaar-linked accounts, UPI transactions, and mobile wallets are now common in urban markets. Yet, this visible progress masks a deep disconnect. A vast majority of low-income and marginalized communities continue to live outside the formal financial system. For daily wage earners, slum residents, women in informal economies, and smallholder farmers, banking is still either inaccessible or untrusted.

The lack of financial literacy is not a matter of inconvenience, it is a root cause of economic fragility, social exclusion, and lost opportunities. Without basic skills in managing money, credit, or savings, people fall into cycles of dependence, debt, and disempowerment.

Urban Poverty and Financial Vulnerability

In cities across India, millions of people work informally, without fixed wages, job security, or documentation. They operate in a cash economy and live from one day’s earnings to the next. For them, financial services feel out of reach, abstract, or unsafe.

Most slum households lack active bank accounts and instead rely on informal savings, cash at home, chit funds, or rotating community loans. These methods are risky and offer no protection during emergencies.
Informal loans are the norm, often taken from local moneylenders at rates as high as 5–10% per month. Repayment pressures are relentless, and default leads to social pressure, exploitation, or worse.
Digital banking is underused, not because it’s unavailable, but because people are unaware or afraid of fraud. They don’t know how to use apps, check balances, or recognize phishing attempts.
Most are unfamiliar with government schemes like Jan Dhan accounts, health insurance, or pension programs, simply because they haven’t been explained in their language, or their documents aren’t in order.

The Double Disadvantage Faced by Women

Among the financially excluded, women face the greatest hurdles. They are often responsible for budgeting household expenses, repaying debts, and managing small purchases, but lack legal or financial autonomy.

Most rural and urban poor women don’t have bank accounts in their own name, or if they do, they rarely operate them. Family members manage finances, cutting them off from savings or credit access.
No credit history means no loans, women are often rejected by banks when they want to start a small enterprise or join an SHG, even if they are already informally earning.
They are invisible in the formal economy, unable to receive digital payments, participate in online marketplaces, or benefit from subsidy transfers like PM Ujjwala or Janani Suraksha.
Financial illiteracy reinforces dependency, eroding confidence and blocking their entry into more empowered, income-generating roles.

Farmers: High Risk, Low Resilience

In rural areas, smallholder farmers are one of the most financially vulnerable segments in India. Their incomes are seasonal, uncertain, and highly exposed to climate risk. Yet, most lack basic knowledge of financial tools that could buffer shocks.

Farmers often don’t know how to assess the cost of cultivation vs. sale price, leading to thin or negative margins and no ability to plan long-term.
They rely heavily on informal credit for seeds, fertilizer, and equipment, locking them into high-interest loans that cannot be repaid during bad crop cycles.
Access to formal tools like Kisan Credit Cards or crop insurance is limited, not due to their absence, but because farmers lack guidance on how to apply or claim.
As climate change worsens, erratic rainfall and heatwaves have made traditional farming less reliable. Without diversified income planning or savings strategies, families are forced into migration or distress sale of land.

Why Financial Literacy Alone is Not Enough

Financial literacy cannot be taught in isolation. Handing out brochures or running one-off workshops doesn’t work. People need context, application, and real economic alternatives to apply what they learn. Earth5R recognized that financial education must be embedded within broader livelihood strategies.

We asked a simple question:

What’s the use of knowing how to save money if you don’t earn enough to save?

That’s why we developed an integrated model that connects financial literacy to green income opportunities, particularly in sustainability sectors like organic farming, composting, waste recycling, and energy-saving microenterprises.

Earth5R’s Integrated Model: Finance Meets Livelihood

Earth5R field programs are designed to create not just knowledge, but behavioral change. We combine practical income-generating skills with easy-to-understand financial tools, delivered in local languages and formats that people can relate to.

Here’s how the model works:

Earning first, managing next: Participants are trained in organic compost making, herbal cleaners, tailoring from recycled fabric, or growing vegetables sustainably. Once income starts coming in, we introduce the idea of tracking expenses, saving, and investing back into the business.
Hands-on, visual learning: We use pictorial guides, role play, and simulations to teach concepts like interest rates, EMI, loan terms, insurance claims, and digital payments.
Bank linkage with handholding: Earth5R teams work with SBI and ICICI Bank branches to open accounts, complete KYC, explain debit card use, and help participants get enrolled in government schemes.
Savings as protection: We teach participants to plan for crop failure, family illness, or lean seasons by building buffers, even if it’s ₹100 a week. People begin to think differently once they see savings as security, not sacrifice.
Ongoing follow-up: Financial behavior takes time to build. Our teams revisit communities over 3–6 months, supporting participants with refresher sessions, resolving app issues, and helping with new income ideas.

A Shift in Mindset, Not Just Knowledge

One of the most powerful changes Earth5R observed was a shift in how people saw themselves. Before training, many participants thought money was something they didn’t deserve to control. Banking was for others. Planning was for the rich. After training, they began to see themselves as economic agents, with the power to earn, manage, grow, and protect what they had.

What changed?

Women stopped hiding money under mattresses and began saving in bank accounts they controlled.
Farmers started comparing fertilizer prices, negotiating rates, and tracking expenses.
Street vendors adopted QR code payments and built creditworthiness.
Rural youth began thinking of themselves as entrepreneurs, not just labourers.

Why This Approach Matters for India’s Future

India cannot meet its goals of inclusive growth or climate resilience without empowering the most vulnerable to participate financially. Green livelihoods are not enough unless they are backed by sound financial understanding. Government schemes will not work unless people know how to use them.

Earth5R’s work has proven that when financial literacy is paired with sustainability-focused income, it becomes real, valuable, and transformative