Unnati | A Financial Literacy Board Game
Women were never considered a source of income and the concept of ‘women entrepreneurs’ was unheard of in the rural areas until very recently. Many NGOs have started working in this area nowadays and this has helped in ensuring that women stand on their own feet and achieve the financial independence that they had been denied for so long. Sadly enough, there is still a major gap when it comes to the number of entrepreneurs from each gender and some of the major factors at play are illiteracy, discrimination, social barriers, lack of entrepreneurial aptitude, tough competition and low risk bearing ability. Through this game, my aim was to solve one of these problems by empowering rural Indian women and making them financially literate.
Design Brief
Even before life as we knew it was knocked off its orbit; training & skill-building were navigating their way on the bumpy digital highway, catering to some and causing palpitations to many. The need of the hour then and even now is designing learning modules to engage, be relevant, sustain and strike the balance between remote, self-directed peer and facilitator-less sessions. But when one is not designing for the urban, corporate and educated, single-language demographic; and designing more for the rural, unschooled, culturally at a disadvantage and multilingual demographic, do the same formats, rules, conceptual frameworks work?
Ecosystem Map
Opportunity Mapping
An exhaustive map of the current pain points observed across the five key themes and the possible points of intervention for the same.
I decided to go forward with financial literacy because I felt it is of utmost importance when it comes to rural women in India. Even though, women are the ones who are responsible for the family expenditure and savings, many women still can’t voice their opinions regarding the major investments or other important financial decisions. This is because since their childhood, rural women are discouraged from taking these types of decisions on their own, which in turn makes them dependent on the men in their family.
Women require multifaceted financial skills that are knotted with their life, livelihood and business which include skills in budgeting, savings, primary understanding of the banking systems in place, debt management, passive income, insurance and so on. The first step is to make the women familiar with the basic terminology through financial awareness programs and courses. Organizations such as Industree Foundation have been trying to impart knowledge on these topics through workshops for the women artisans they work with. I wanted to look into these programs and after speaking to some trainers and going through their module, I realized that they go around with a presentation, gathering the women and lecturing them on the aforementioned issues. But what I saw lacking in this structure was involvement, since the women were not actively participating in the learning process.
To solve this problem, I started looking into how games and role playing activities can be integrated with the existing module which will not only lead to better engagement in the participants but also help the women implement their learnings in real life. I finally decided to create a board game that would cover very basic financial skills and can also be easily incorporated into any financial literacy workshop.
Desired Financial Capabilities
The Need for Savings
The participants should be aware of the difference between income, expenditure and savings. They should also learn to maintain a financial diary where they can plan their monthly expenses and keep a track of their spending. They should also understand what they need to spend on and what their priorities are, which will help them identify their non-essential expenses and slowly cut down on them. A habit of saving regularly should be inculcated by showing them how that might help in case of any surprise expenses or emergencies.
The Informal Sector
Participants should know the risks which are attached to any loans taken from money lenders or investments done in the informal sector or in chit funds. When one borrows from the money lender, there is no proper documentation, rate of interest is high and gets charged monthly which pushes people into debt traps, which in turn leads to them losing their assets in order to pay back. Chit funds are known for high returns but most of the time, no records are kept which leads to fraudulent activities.
The Bank
The participants should have a basic understanding of the banking systems, so that they can use them to their advantage. They should be made aware of how keeping their savings in the bank will reduce risks of theft, as well as help them earn regular interest on the money that is saved. The difference between a savings account and fixed deposits also need to be explained and one should know how to take loans from the bank if their expenditure becomes more than their income or in case of an emergency.
Game Rules
Player Income
Each player earns or loses some money in every turn by rolling a dice. The reason behind making the income per round unstable is to add an element of luck to the game. It would also create some challenge and players would have to plan their finances in advance, since they would not know what events they might face. The table below shows how the income per round works.
Central Bank
When a game begins, each player gets a certain sum of money and the rest of the money is kept in the bank at the centre of the board. Every transaction that happens during gameplay goes through this bank. In other words, when a player loses money, that amount gets transferred to the central bank and in case a player receives money, they take that amount directly from the bank.
Savings Account
A player can choose to open a savings account at any point in the game and then they would have to put a certain sum of money aside. Each player will have to keep track of the money in their account and they would get 10% interest on the money they invest. Interest will be calculated at the end of every 3 turns and the player will get a certain amount from the central bank.
Fixed Deposits
Players can also choose to invest in a fixed deposit, which means that they will have to keep putting a certain sum of money in their account regardless of their income or the gains and losses they encounter due to the events they face. The rate of interest for a fixed deposit is 20% and it is calculated when a player wants to withdraw their money. But one can only withdraw from their fixed deposit when they land on the assigned fixed deposit square on the board. The same rule applies in case a player wants to terminate their fixed deposit account.
Money Lenders
Players can go to the money lender if they are in need of some cash instantly. The minimum loan amount is ₹150 and one gets the money right away. The interest rate for a loan taken from the money lender is 33.33%. There is no time limit for paying back the loan amount with the interest, but if a player lands on an assigned money lender square on the board, while having a pending loan that one has failed to clear, that player gets disqualified. This shows that taking a loan from the money lender can become a very risky affair and players should think about their financial future before taking such a loan. The money for these transactions also comes from the central bank.
Bank Loans
If a player needs money, one can apply for a loan from the bank. The minimum loan amount is ₹250 and the player has to wait for a turn to receive the money. The loan can be paid back in installments over the next five turns from receiving the amount. The interest applied is 20%.
Branding
After much thought, I decided to name my game ‘Unnati’ which is a Hindi word meaning advancement or development.
I realized that this name would be quite fitting since the aim of the game is to make rural women financially literate, which will in turn make them more empowered and lead to social upliftment.
For the logo I needed to choose a font that the rural demographic could easily relate to and hence I went with Mahaputra which has an Indian feel and also resembles the fancy fonts which are often used for hand painted advertisements on walls.
Dice and Instruction Manual
Game Money and Scenario Cards
The currency notes for the game were designed according to the colours used in the latest Indian Rupee Notes which are issued by the Reserve Bank of India. To keep the mechanics simple, it comes in 3 denominations: ₹50, ₹100 and ₹200.
I divided the scenarios into 8 major events and 16 minor events. A gain or loss below ₹400 is categorised as minor, while the ones that lead to a gain or loss above ₹400 or events that affect all the players are considered major. The design for the back is inspired from standard playing cards, which generally uses patterns.
Financial Planners
The initial game board had to be split up into one main board and four individual financial planners for each player. This had to be done, since the board was becoming too big for players to handle. I also changed the layout design from a circular path to a square, to keep up with the overall design aesthetics of the cards and the currency notes.
Game Board
