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Keonjhar is one of the thirty districts that the state of Odisha consists of. This landlocked district is bounded by districts of Balasore, Bhadrak, Jajpur, Dhenkanal and Sundergarh and the state of Jharkhand . It is one of the backward and tribal dominated districts of Odisha. The principal tribes that inhabit this district are Santal, JuangaBhuyan,Bathudi, Bhumija, Gond, Ho, Kolha,Sabara, Saunti etc. The total tribal population of the district was 818878(as per 2011 census) which was nearly 46% of total population of the district.These tribes still adopt the slash and burn method of agriculture, which leads to very low level of productivity. Moreover, they are not trained with modern technology of agriculture. This has resulted in poor living standards & earning lower per capita income. The panacea for the up-liftment of their livelihood parameter is to supply adequate funding and train them in the methods of modern agricultural technology and promotion of MSMEs. In the above challenging situations, Keonjhar district is put under the scanner. The Santaltribe isone of the oldest tribes in the country and found in different parts of the states. In the Keonjhar district near about 28740 no of peoples, speak Santali mother tongue, which is more than 3% of their total population. Most of these tribals normally live in deep woods and high hills away from the glitter and glamour of modern society till yet. The forest supplies them with food, clothing, shelter, and medicines. Their economy is seems to be simple and characterized by food gathering, hunting, and shifting cultivation and blind beliefs. Their standards of living is very low and miserably poor in comparison to the non-tribal peoples. As Santaltribals constitute a sizeable portion of the total population and occupy a significant proportion of land area of the district, so the economic development of the districts is very much linked with their development. Therefore, the development of tribal communities and the entry of these tribals into the national mainstream has become the most challenging objectives of the State Government in recent times. Economic development of Santaltribals is concerned with the achievement of a better standard of living, better education, better health and expanded opportunities in their employment. In order to achieve this goal, the Central and State Governments& NGOs have implemented various tribal development programmes and projects from time to time. Most of the development programmes and projects are credit linked as the tribals have little owned funds to invest. This calls for initiative and energetic involvement on the part of the financial institutions particularly banks in providing opportunities for adequate investment through the mechanism of finance and credit in the district in general and in the tribal areas in particular. Traditionally, banks in India were both in theory and in practice, passive agents in the development process. Like all private economic institutions under capitalism, the banks were also motivated by profit. Consequently, credit policy of these banks followed maximum profit, minimum risk and security of advances without remote financing. In view of this lopsided, bankingsector (Commercial banks, RRBs, Co-operative banks) development, attempts have been made by the Government of India to regulate the activities and operations of banks by adopting various organizational, institutional and regulatory measures. The introduction of social control over banks, and the subsequent nationalization of major scheduled commercial banks and launching of Regional Rural Banks had the main objective of ensuring that banks do play a dynamic role in the development process of the backward areas.Banks are liberalized its access, so that it will uplift the poor tribals and underprivileged sections of the society by channelizing its flow of credit in accordance with the socio-economic objectives of the nation. Thus, the role- of banks has been changing in response to the socio-economic needs. They have been called upon to contribute to the development process by slowly switching over from traditional concept of commercial banking to development banking which is called banking for all. In the process of acceleration, financial institutions particularly commercial banks, co-operative banks& RRBs have been playing pivotal role in financing the tribal development programmes through the mechanism of credit with a view to providing expanded opportunities in employment and bringing about a rapid rise in the living standard of tribals. At present, the banks involve themselves in a co-operative manner with the District Rural Development Agencies (DRDAs) in identifying the tribal beneficiaries and their needs. Banks also formulate viable projects, which will contribute to their success and ensure profitable investment of funds. Despite all such developmental efforts and massive credit from banks, there is a general feeling that results have fallen far short of expectations as only a nominal benefit has reached the tribals. How far the banks have succeeded in their efforts in promoting tribal development has become a vital concern to the researchers in recent times and that is why it is put into the scanner. The outcomes of various studies and research work on tribal development reveal that the development programmes have done immense harm to the tribals instead of raising them above the poverty line. In the name of modernization and development, tribals have lost their right and liberty over land and forest, which they had been enjoying from time immemorial. The introduction of money economy has left them to the tender, mercies of moneylenders leading to their chronic indebtedness. However, these broad generalizations may not be applicable to all the tribes of a vast country like India. Therefore, a study relating to access of institutional finance on the economic development of tribals at a micro level, confined to a district, seem to be most appropriate. The micro study can point out areas of success as well as failure and point out the deficiencies in the formulation of policy and in the implementation of the programme. The present study attempts to find out whether the credit access from financial institutions under various tribal development programmes has contributed to the economic development of Santal tribals of the Keonjhar district in Odisha. During the course of the study, attempts have also been made to probe into the problems of theTribals and to make certain suggestions for further achievement of the contemplated requirements.

The recent problems of tribal development have compelled increased attention of many research scholars and interested in engaged in the field of research. Among the rapidly expanding corpus of literature, a few important works are being reviewed in the context of the present study. Sanjeeta Kumari Devi & Nibedita Dhal(2020) in their study “Socio-economic Initiative of the Government and its efficacy on Tribal Women” try to explore that due to non-awareness, procedural delays, legal obligations etc. the tribal are still dependent on private sources to borrow money, which often leads to their exploitation to the extreme of getting deprived from their land assets. Violation of all major acts is observed to different extent with respect to mortgaging of immovable properties to private moneylenders, bonded labour related acts, acts related to prevention of moneylenders' exploitations, forest related acts and policies among others. Debasish S.S & Mallick N.(2018) in their study “A case study of financial and non-financial decision making role of Paudi Bhuyan and Juanga janajati Women in Keonjhar district of Odisha ”try to explore due to low literacy and unemployment their community participation and autonomy in decision making is very less. Mohapatra (2011) “The author discussed the issue of tribes from the point of view of both social inclusion and exclusion in Odisha. The author mentioned that culture and the society are dynamic in nature and it keeps on changing over a period. However, there must be some determinant factors, which play a pivotal role for these kinds of changes. Tribals being the most affected lots because of these cultural and societal changes have shown drastic movement from one place another. Most of the time, this has led to more acute social exclusions. There is lot of argument over the present day development paradigm of tribal development. Sahoo Laxman (2010)in his study on “Socio-Economic Profile of Tribal Populations in Mayurbhanj and Keonjhar Districts” it has been found out that though both districts are rich in mineral resources but it goes to the pocket of a few people.

A field study is conducted in the five blocks of Keonjhar districts of Odisha namely Ghatagaon, Telkoi, Harichandanpur, Banspal, and Saharpada to get first-hand information on various aspects of the objectives of the study. Since the purpose of the study is to make a micro analysis which is only for Santal tribe, primary data is collected from the sample respondents belonging to various groups through a structured questionnaire especially designed for the evaluation of the impact of bank access & credit on their economic life. The sample size of 500 peoplescovering 100 respondents from each five blocks of theKeonjhar districts arecollected mainly fromMarginal farmers, Small farmers, Smallbusinesspersons and retail traders, rural artisans &Household belonging from Santsl tribes. The questionnaires were canvass through interview of selected beneficiaries individually. Data available from published research thesis, journals and standard literature is extensively usedto enlighten the more information.

The sample survey of 500 respondents from the five different blocks of Keonjhar district reveals that 35% of tribal peoples access the Commercial banks facilities. Their first preferences are RRBs, that is 45% and last preferences are Co-operative banks, which is only 20%.Regarding easy access of financial services, they prefer RRBs due to convenience and reach. The subsidy and other Govt. & Non-govt.facilities, Santal people prefer RRBs because of localness. In the loan   facilities point of view RRBs and Co-operative banks playing more proactive rolls than that of the Commercial banks.The studies says that Santal peoples participations in taking their financial decisions is very negligible .Due to illiterate and poorness they couldn’t take proper financial decisions  at right time and only 12% people come across with it. The people’s participation regarding sharing Govt. and Non-govt. benefits issome extent satisfactory, which is 52% .It, suggested that around 260 peoples are aware andgetting different types of benefits available to them. The Santal peoples participations towards attaining different types of training programmes and their invelopments in implementing the Govt. policies is very less 17% and 19% respectively. There are lower degree of correlations between the different training programmes available for their economic growth and their financial decision in regards with that. As per the data compiled from the feedbacks of the respondents; lack of awareness programmes, their ignorance and poor standard of living are the major causes of their lower level of participations. : The principal obstacle for implementing the various developmental activities in Santal communities is lack of literacy. Out of 500 sample respondent 175 peoples are illiterate or very little educated. Their slow acceptance to the process of development and prudence behaviors is second largest issue of financial exclusions, which is around 105 respondents. Other obstacles on the way of implementing the development programmes are difficulties in proper communications, less no. of peoples participations, their blind beliefs and lack of public awareness programs stands barriers of their economic growth.

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