Discretion in cash saving

To answer the question of how this cash is kept secret;²⁰³ there is always a possibility of hiding it somewhere in the household. Some women, for example a mother or her eldest daughter, may do it very well, because they always have access to every corner of the house and do not let everyone check.

In case savings are hidden at home, they are usually put in small holes in brick walls, in the wooden ceiling, under the mattresses, in pots and vases covered with some other things under the bed, or buried in the compound. „Favorite places are in the hollow of bamboo, in a pot in the ground, under the roof, or in a bedding. Instances are told of saved money being eaten up by termites“ (MALONEY/AHMED 1988:36).

Sometimes the savings are given to some local shopkeeper or some related and trusted businessman, who invests them and pays interest. This is usually practiced with trustworthy biraderi fellows. Most of the time, the lenders do not accept installments and prefer the whole amount in case of emergency.

203 This secrecy creates serious problems as far as the measurement of saved amount is concerned. An alternative to using residuals as a measure of savings is to take the sum of reported purchases and sales of capital goods and financial assets. Such observed savings ( investment behaviour) have the potential of being divided into subcategories such as financial savings and physical capital. They may be either under-or overestimated, however, to the degree that cash flows are unrepunder-orted. Savings under the mattress under-or purchases of gold are rarely recorded in a survey. The direction of the bias is indeterminate. For example, if such unrecorded cash holdings (lagged savings) are used to finance investments - as is often the case when credit markets are rudimentary - positive savings may be recorded when the actual household asset position has not changed. Alternatively, savings will be underestimated when proceeds from a good harvest are set aside in liquid but not recorded cash resources (ALDERMAN/GARCIA 1993:34).

Cash is deposited in advance with some jeweler, carpenter, blacksmith, etc., for the daughter’s dowry. Money is never secure at home for such long-term planning. This reduces the burden of such expenditures when the occasion arises.

The most popular way, however, is to deposit cash with some trustworthy relative²⁰⁴, though this trust needs a specific nature of relation. These trustworthy people perform the function of an informal and highly trustworthy bank, where money can be deposited and withdrawn at any time.

Mostly female maternal relatives such as mother's brother, mother's sister, maternal grandmother, father's sister, younger sister and in-laws such as wife's mother, wife's mother's sister or wife's sister can also be trusted, but this is comparatively rare.

Women are generally considered to be very careful in financial matters and in keeping secrets.

The selection of a person depends upon the nature of relations entertained with him/her, for example:

– Argumentation is easier in the case of affectionate relations;

– old women usually have very limited needs which minimizes the risk of losing savings;

– the relation or the source of this relation should not be authoritative, even this source can be used to argue if any problem arises. For example, a mother's brother is preferred to a father's brother, because not only is a father's brother an authoritative relation himself, but the original relation 'father' is also authoritative in every respect and cannot be used if the saver has any problem with his father’s brother. On the other side, it is exactly the other way round, not only the mother herself but her siblings as well are loving, gentle and trustworthy in every respect;

– maternal relatives are generally preferred to paternal relatives in such affairs.²⁰⁵ Paternal relatives represent 'Sharika' ²⁰⁶ and therefore give rise to competition.

Especially paternal cousins can never be trusted because one tries to hide every secret.

The nature of relations is so uncertain that any conflict may break out at any time and these secrets and weak points can be disclosed to let others down;

the vertical line is always preferred to the horizontal line of relatives, i.e., paternal

grandparents, maternal grandparents are the most affectionate and trustworthy relations and are always preferred to uncle, aunts and cousins in financial affairs.

Diagram 8 shows first and second preference of a saver to deposit his cash saving with some trustworthy relative. Since women trust only their natal family in this regard, the diagram considers the case of saving by men.

204 See also SHIPTON (1992:29).

205 Although, this is not always the case. In contrast, preference is given to the patrilineal relatives in the case of marriage affairs. The son of the father’s sister or brother is very often selected as a suitor, which strengthens the relationship within the patrilineal family.

206 ‘Sharika’ includes paternal cousins and their families.

Diagram 8: Trustworthy relations for depositing cash savings

Ego

Ego

First Preference

The first preference is given usually to the mother’s siblings, maternal grandparents and father’s sister.

Second Preference

The second preference may be given usually to the wife’s siblings, parents-in-law and the wife’s mother’s sister.

Source: author’s own survey