Financial Literacy among the Tea Garden Labourers in Darjeeling District: An Exploratory Factor Analysis
Keywords:
Financial Literacy, exploratory factor analysis, Darjeeling Tea Industry, Darjeeling DistrictAbstract
‘Financial Literacy’ (FL) is the major challenge faced by majority of countries in the world. According to CRISIL(Credit Rating Information Services of India Limited), the Inclusix Index Scores of Darjeeling district was 42.7% in 2014 measured in terms of basic banking services[1].Thestudy focuses on financial literacy amongst the tea garden labourers of Darjeeling district and endeavors to examine their capacity to make financial decisions.This study aims to develop the constructs in order to test the validity and reliability of Darjeeling tea garden labourers financial literacy (FL) and its determinants such as Knowledge, Attitude, Behaviour, Skill and Awareness. The data for the study was collected via structured questionnaires distributed to 200 tea garden labourers of Darjeeling District. An exploratory factor analysis using SPSS(SPSS 20.0)programme was used to analyze the data. The results show that only seven items load reliably in FL construct. Specifically, skill in dealing with finance was found to exhibit the highest variance followed by investment behaviour, financial level of awareness, knowledge in dealing with financial situations, financial planning and saving behavior, knowledge of finance and financial attitude.The Cronbach Alpha method of reliability tested has been adapted to measure financial literacy. This paper enables future researchers to expand the knowledge in the area of FL by providing validated constructs to assess FL among tea garden workers in Darjeeling district.
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