Assessment of Financial Wellbeing of Slum Dwellers in Bangalore

Abstract

The COVID 19 epidemic has pushed the Indian economy in to recession. In order to control the spread of disease the country has resorted to lockdowns meant confining millions of citizens to their homes, shutting down businesses and ceasing almost all economic activity. This resulted in harmful impact on the physical and psychological health of the people in India. The uncertainty in their employment and income impacted the financial wellbeing of the Indian citizens. (Indian Express article).Slum dwellers are one of the worst affected strata of our society. They are either self-employed or employed in unorganized sector. Usually they require credit on a daily basis for their livelihood and depend on moneylenders for credit with very high interest rates. Their earnings are mostly insufficient for paying exorbitant interest payment and to manage their livelihood and lifestyle. So they are stuck in the vicious circle of poverty (Mahajan, S. S., & Kalel, N. (2013). Thus a study is undertaken in Slums of Bangalore to understand the financial wellbeing levels of slum dwellers. The study was conducted among 500 slum dwellers in Bangalore city. The Financial wellbeing of slum dwellers was measured with the help of three sub-constructs Meeting commitment, Feeling comfortable and Resilience for the future. The respondents were good at meeting their daily financial commitments but they were not very comfortable with their present financial condition and they were uncertain about their resilience for the future. All these resulted in the average financial well -being of the slum respondents in Bangalore city