Financial Literacy and Youth in India: Why What We Don't Know Is Costing Us

Author(s)	Mr Parth Sethi
Country	India
Abstract	This paper began with a straightforward observation: secondary school students in Indiaroutinely study Economics for years without gaining the practical financial knowledge neededfor everyday decisions. That gap raised a broader question: how many young people acrossIndia face the same disconnect, not just academically, but in the real financial choices theyencounter daily? This paper tries to answer that. It looks at what financial literacy actuallymeans, how bad the gap is among Indian youth, why the gap exists in the first place, and what has genuinely helped close it. The findings are striking. Only 27% of Indian adults arefinancially literate according to a 2019 SEBI survey, and among young people the numbersare not much better. The reasons go deeper than bad teaching. Families don't talk aboutmoney, schools don't teach it practically, and fintech apps are making it easier than ever toborrow without understanding what you're signing up for. This paper argues that fixing thisproblem requires changes in schools, in families, and in how financial products are designed.It also argues that some of those changes are already happening, just not at the scale they need to be
Keywords	Keywords: financial literacy, Indian youth, fintech, behavioural economics, financial education, NCFE, debt awareness, secondary education
Field	Business Administration
Published In	Volume 17, Issue 2, April-June 2026
Published On	2026-06-16

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