| dc.description.abstract | This study is an attempt to measure the numeracy and financial literacy of forest
dependent communities (FDCs) in India using data from the two economically different
forest communities in the state of Andhra Pradesh. In an attempt to rehabilitate degraded
forests, the Government of India launched the joint forest management (JFM) program in
1990 with the involvement of FDCs. This has not only helped increase their income levels,
but through interactions with and help of Government officials, have also given them a firsthand
exposure to financial management at JFM. While there is some evidence on numeracy
and financial literacy of urban and rural households and fishing communities in India, there is
no evidence on numeracy and financial literacy of Indian FDCs. This study attempts to fill
that gap by providing background on FDCs in two economically different regions of Andhra
Pradesh (Rayalaseema and Coastal Andhra) and provides evidence on their numeracy and
financial literacy. While the performance on both numeracy and financial literacy differs for
the two regions, it is found that the participants scored better on numeracy skills than on
financial literacy. It was found that while in general participants had difficulty in recognizing
mathematical symbols for addition and multiplication and performing the corresponding
operations, they were generally able to perform the same operations when orally instructed in
their local language without difficulty. While the empirical evidence on financial literacy is
less strong, roughly a third of the participants had some basic knowledge of economic
concepts like simple interest and time value of money | en_US |
