Insurance and Banking Habits Regulating Economic Stability of the People of Char Areas (Riverine) in Lower Assam

Abstract

Riverine (Char area) of the Brahmaputra flowing through Assam are most backward and neglected areas. There about 2251 Chars covering about 10% population of Assam. This chapter tries to examine the Insurance and Banking habits regulating economic stability of the people of char areas in Lower Assam. This study is based on the survey ‘Dynamics of socio-economic development of Char areas of Lower Assam’ was conducted during the year 2003–2005 under the financial support of University Grants Commission, New Delhi on randomly selected char areas. Insurance and banking habits have been considered in the survey to study the economic stability of the people. A log-linear model and contingency table have been considered in this study. It is observed that the proportion of insured households in the low income group is nil; it rises to a small in the lower middle group and then goes up in the upper middle group and after that steadily increases to the high income group. The economic status reveals that only the upper middle income and high income group households have been able to avail the facility of banking and insurance. The households in the low income group and lower middle income group went unrepresented.