Meaning of financial literacy in context of self-help groups

People at the bottom of the pyramid do not have access to financial resources, due to a lack of physical collateral and information about creditworthiness. These people are institutionalized through the community lending groups to ensure access to finance and financial inclusion. Despite institutionalization, poor members do not have the financial attitude to exhibit desired financial behaviour for the achievement of financial outcomes. This study aims to address the research gap that why financial knowledge does not lead to financial behaviour and how financial intermediation and conditioning enable members to get financially included through change management and capacity building. Risk in the context of self-help groups pertains to the wilful default by the members of the group. Besides, every organization or institution faces the risk of the unknown, the black swan events. COVID-19 was the black swan event, and this paper aims to look at the role of various risk management strategies adopted by the Government of India to mitigate the financial, operational, and market risk faced by the self-help groups in India. This chapter aims to analyse the impact of social intermediation through financial literacy and other interventions on the financial inclusion of the marginalized sections of society