Bengaluru, Dec 15 (IANS): Bengaluru South Member of Parliament Tejasvi Surya on Thursday urged the government to consider introducing financial literacy as a subject in schools and colleges to help the young generation plan their financial future better.

Speaking during Zero Hour, Surya said: "A large number of young Indians are entering the job market for the first time and are entering the middle class for the first time. However, we see that a large number of young Indians are not equipped with several important money management skills because we don't have financial literacy as part of our formal school education system."

There is a constant increase in the labour force in the country. As per the Ministry of Education, more than 10 crore people enrolled in Secondary, Higher Secondary, Higher or Technical education during 2019-20. The majority of these students pursuing higher education are in the working age population.

In the absence of a formal pension system for those working in new gen sectors, Surya said understanding subjects like SIP, mutual funds and investments is important for them to plan their finances and retirement.

"Basic things like investment, savings, retirement planning, mutual funds, cost of return, rate of return etc - these are important money management skills which need to be taught to youngsters right at the school or college level so that when they enter the job market, they are able to plan their financial life and retirement properly. Most importantly, it prevents a lot of people from falling prey to fraudulent 'get rich soon' schemes, dubious cooperative banks or debt traps," Surya said.

According to the Reserve Bank of India data, India lost at least Rs 100 crore every day to bank fraud or scams over the past seven years. In a report by the RBI the amount of money lost in frauds was Rs 60,414 crore in 2021-22 and Rs 1.38 lakh crore in 2020-21.