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Banking is the lifeline of economy which is one of the important pillars of the financial inclusion. Importantly, digitalization has revolutionized the functioning of banking system and it has also influenced the financial literacy, friendliness and behaviour of the stakeholders of the banking system. But it is also a hard fact that in a country like India where the great majority of the population belongs to the rural and remote regions, the level of awareness and involvement of people in the digitalized mode is to be beyond expectations particularly as in this process except literacy and friendliness, there are a series of hurdles including server problems, security, facilitation of the mechanisms and systems etc. Gaddis and Gujjars of Himachal Pradesh who have tough conditions of living and have to face abundance of challenges of facilitation of the resources can-not be simply expected to access digital systems. In this context, the digital awareness and use of different digitalized gazettes and systems among these communities has been examined in this study.

Prasad (2008) in the study, “Government Policy for Promoting Financial Inclusion in Banking Services”, explains that financial inclusion is a key part of the government social inclusion policy and it has applied pressure on its departments to review, reform and regulate when and where necessary. It is admitted that financial inclusion on private sector involvement and extending reach to poor, yields better and sustainable results and in India, private sector with supportive government environment has played an instrumental role in promoting financial inclusion.

Sharma (2014) has discussed in his study titled “Education and Women Empowerment among Gujjars, Bakerwals and Gaddis in Jammu Regions of Jammu and Kashmir” that women education is equally important as to the men as the main emphasis of the education is to make change in cultural norms and pattern of the life of tribal women to make them economically independent, to analyze their situations and conditions of living and understand their powers and duties to make them enable to take part and contribute to the development of the women and the whole society. The study shows that maximum tribal women are deprived of the education or not able to take the primary education which also affects children deprived of worth education. He suggested that government should encourage and motivate the rural women to take education and awareness programs should be floated on posters and media houses and children must go to schools for which mothers must be motivated.

Azhar (2015) has stated in his study that Gujjars and Bakerwal of Jammu and Kashmir are nomads. The author finds that most of them are still untouched with the influence of the outside world. As nomadic tribes they are involved in pastoralism and transhumance with their livestock. They are a milk selling community. Economically gujjars and bakerwals are very poor. Livestock economy of the gujjars is managed by both men and women. They spend a pathetic life due to a number of problems and the Government and other development organisation are required to take instant and efficient move for encouraging them

Kumar and Devi (2019) in their paper seek to highlight the socio-cultural and religious practices among the Gaddi Scheduled Tribe of Jammu and Kashmir. The scholars find that the Gaddi Scheduled Tribes are still maintaining their culture. With the spread of education, they have made a little progress but with modernization, their culture is declining. The young generation migrating to abroad from their community hardly wears Gaddi dress or hardly speaks in mother tongue Gaddi dialect. According to them, Gaddis have been blessed with the rich culture which is not being substantially procured.

Bakar and Muhammed (2020) have explored in their study by stating that Financial Inclusion has been confirmed to eradicate poverty and for the promotion of faster economic growth. Therefore, they have recommended the push strategy in congruency with the pull strategy adopted in the National Inclusion Strategy. Financial inclusion being one of the enhancing and growth factor for developing nations, is stated by the authors as one of the variables which can accelerate Economic growth more quickly than population growth that will ultimately produce a better financial inclusion index.

Ajide (2020) discussed in his research paper that the goal of financial inclusion policy is to include underprivileged populations in the established financial system. The author has stated various benefits of financial inclusion for society. According to the scholar, it can lower inequality and poverty levels and promote new economic ventures. Further, the author finds that financial inclusion significantly and favorably impacts entrepreneurship in Africa. This result is resistant to both different financial inclusion measures and different estimators.

The research was pursued on the basis of the primary data collected from 480 respondents including 98 nomadic and 382 non-nomadic tribal communities (Gaddis and Gujjars) based on the multi stage purposive random sampling method. from six blocks of Kangra district in Himachal Pradesh.

The responses are analyzed and discussed as below:

1. Awareness and Usage of Internet Banking

Amongst different digital gazettes, Internet banking is becoming popular in the present times. The digital awareness about different digitalized gazettes and systems among Gaddis and Gujjar communities has been examined. The following table shows the level of awareness and usage of Internet banking of Gaddis and Gujjars in Himachal Pradesh.                      

Table 1

Responses Regarding Awareness and Usage of Internet Banking amongst Gaddis and Gujjars            

		No. of Respondents	Percent
Heard about Internet Banking	Agree	93	19.4
	Do Not Agree	387	80.6
	Total	480	100
Use Internet Banking	Agree	17	3.5
	Do Not Agree	463	96.5
	Total	480	100

Internet banking is asserted to be the concept which is not known by the great majority of 80.6 percent of the respondents from the two tribal communities of Himachal Pradesh who admitted that they have not heard about it. It is also interesting to notice that amongst the rest of 19.4 percent of the respondents who know about internet banking are not completely internet friendly and all of them are not using it as out of 480 respondents meager 17 (3.5 %) stated that they are using internet banking. It implies that the move of digitalization is not applicable successfully amongst the Gaddis and Gujjars of Himachal Pradesh as just 3 to 4 percent of these communities are using it. 

2.  Awareness and Usage of Mobile Banking 

While knowing about the awareness and usage of mobile banking amongst the tribal communities of Gaddis and Gujjars, the responses reveal a negligible number of those who use mobile banking and even the number of those who are aware about it is very small. The following table 5.37.2 depicts the responses:

Table  2  Responses Regarding Awareness and Usage of Mobile Banking

Awareness of Mobile Banking		No. of Respondents	Percentage
Heard about Mobile Banking	Agree	68	14.2
	Do Not Agree	412	85.8
	Total	480	100
Use Mobile Banking	Agree	16	3.3
	Do Not Agree	464	96.7
	Total	480	100

The above data shows that only 14.2 percent of the respondents admitted that they have heard about the mobile banking against a very high percentage (85.8 %) who stated that they have never heard about it. Surprisingly, in the present regime of digitalization when special emphasis is being drawn by the Government to initiate all activities through digital modes by all citizens of India, the use of mobile banking as per the responses of the chosen tribal communities is admitted by just 3.3 percent. This implies that the selected tribal communities are not using mobile banking as per the empirical findings of the present research. 

3.  Awareness and Usage of ATM:

One of the technological modes of making transactions is the use of Automated Teller Machines which are considered as the most convenient modes featured with roung the clock facilitation of transactions. The tribal communities particularly those who are nomadic communities, can have the best use of this mode as they can open the account and with the help of ATM card, they can make transactions at any place of their conveniences. The investment behaviour in terms of awareness and use of ATM by the chosen tribal communities has been examined on the basis of the responses of the respondents and the results are shown as under:

Table:3   Responses Regarding Awareness and Usage of ATM       

Awareness about ATM		No. of Respondents	Percentage
Heard about Bank ATM Services	Agree	251	52.2
	Do Not Agree	229	47.7
	Total	480	100
Use ATM Services	Agree	121	25.2
	Do Not Agree	359	74.8
	Total	480	100

The above table shows that majority (52.2 %) of the respondents agree that they have heard about bank ATM. But most of them know that these are meant for withdrawal facility and other facilities like Mini statement, balance checking, money transfer and depositing money etc. are not known to them. Interestingly, a great majority (74.8 %) of the respondents from the selected communities have stated that they do not use the ATM Card services though they have bank accounts. On the contrary, amongst 25.2 percent of the respondents who use the ATM Cards, it has been revealed by them that they use such services either by own- selves or through others including relatives or family members.

1. Gandham, Sri Rama Krishna, Prasad N.G.S (2008) “Government Policy for Promoting Financial Inclusion in Banking Services”, Indian Economic Panorama, Vol.18, No.4A, pp.29-31. 2. Vivek Sharma(2014) “Education and women empowerment among Gujjars, Bakerwals and gaddis in Jammu region of Jammu and Kashmir” International journal of research(IJR) vol-1, issue-4, ISSN 2348-6848 May 2014 3. AzharUd Din [2015] Socio-Economic Conditions of Gujjar and Bakerwal Tribes of Kashmir International Journal of Recent Research in Social Sciences and Humanities (IJRRSSH) Vol. 2, Issue 2, pp: (115-120), Month: April 2015 - June 2015 4. Bantikumar,Pawankumar andAnoupa Devi “The Gaddi Scheduled Tribe of Jammu & Kashmir : A Socio-Cultural Overview”Journal of Acharaya Narendra Dev Research Institute ISSN :0976 3287 5. Abubakar, A. M., Daneji, B. A., Muhammed, A. I., &Chekene, I. A. B. (2020). Driving faster financial inclusion in developing nations. Technology Audit and Production Reserves. https://doi.org/10.15587/2706-5448.2020.201120 6. Ajide,F.M. (2020) "Financial inclusion in Africa: does it promote entrepreneurship?", Journal of Financial Economic Policy, Vol. 12 No. 4, pp. 687-706. https://doi.org/10.1108/JFEP-08-2019-0159