New Delhi: Comics are an inevitable part of any childhood and superheroes have a great fan following amongst the little ones. But can they be used to teach banking? Don't be surprised. ICICI bank, the largest private sector bank is all set to embark on a journey of banking education through comic books. RBI has long been asking banks to educate people especially the young and kids about the basics of banking and with a good help from RBI, ICICI bank has pioneered the concept.

Disha, the NGO front of ICICI Bank launched the first series of such comic books teaching banking to children last week. RBI's general manager, Kamala Rajan, praising the effort said "This is one venture which has been done totally in-house starting from the animation done in the book to the text and ideas."

RBI has extended its support to this venture in a big way. It has showcased the comics on its website for everyone to access. This has attracted a number or school Principals. Although, the effort is presently confined to Delhi, but it will be very soon available to different schools all over the country in various formats. RBI has gone ahead and put the Disha comic book on its website, saying it is open for anyone to see. School principals formed the majority of people attracted to this and Disha says it will be confined to Delhi for now and it plans to have different formats for different schools.

Raju and the Money Tree' comic book was launched by RBI Regional Director, H R Khan as part of RBI's strategy to promote financial literacy in the country. The comic aims to educate the school children on the importance of saving for their future.

"Other banks will also be involved in the school programme in order to scale it up. The book is just one step in the agenda of Disha. We are also providing assistance to the lay man in debt management and counselling. It is already six months old and ordinary people are encouraged to walk into Disha offices where they are provided counsel on managing their debts. If someone has Rs 20 lakh loan and he is overwhelmed, we try to help him by talking to his bank and re-scheduling his instalments. Often people don't know how to manage their credit cards and are ignorant of interest rates and we provide them with advice,"said Nutan Lughani Disha's chief counsellor.

ICICI Bank setup the DISHA Trust in April 2007 as part of ICICI Bank’s Corporate Social Responsibility activity. Its main objectives are to provide free credit counseling, financial education and debt management services to consumers and to increase awareness about financial products and services, thus promoting better understanding and decision making.

With centres around the country, DISHA Financial Counseling provides its services FREE of cost to all customers, even to those of other banks.