Financial Planning And Decision-Making And Its Gender Role Among Ethnic Households In Kerala

Financial planning and decision-making at household level determines the better financial performance and it determines the household savings and investment. The proper planning and decision-making at household level is important to reduce various types of financial difficulties. Since independence, the government provided numerous types of financial assistance to the tribes and the important reason for their financial backwardness is also attached to the absence of proper financial planning and decision-making at their individual and household level.  This paper is an attempt to examine the prevalence of financial planning and decision-making among prominent tribal households in Wayanad district of Kerala. Besides overall evaluation, the concept was analyzed and compared across the five sample tribal groups, namely the Paniya, the Adiya, Kattunaika, Kurichiya and Kuruma households.    The study observed significant difference in the degree and dimension of practicing the financial planning and decision-making among the study groups and also a greater male dominance in the financial matters among the tribal households.