From the Series
In India more than 200 million women are illiterate, caught in a cycle of poverty where they rely on micro financing to help them out of their dire conditions.
Micro financing has proved to be effective as a means to empower women at grassroots level, though the fact that many of the women are illiterate means they have to depend on accountants to help them maintain their financial records.
A new board game, laXmi, designed by Akshay Sharma is designed as a financial literacy system for illiterate and semi-literate women involved in micro financing in rural India.
laXmi comprises both an analogue and digital component to facilitate comprehensive learning through a language-independent system that teaches women about the intricacies of financial literacy and planning.
The form of the game follows local patterns and uses local materials for the making thereof as another way of making it easy for the targeted women to identify with the game and its aims. laXmi helps illiterate women visualise which loans they needs and how long it will take them to pay it back with interest. The processes governing micro financing is another element in the game, as is teaching women how to manage their finances in general.
laXmi is a finalist in the Play category of the INDEX: Award 2013.
