The World Thrift Day is being celebrated on 31st October of every year through out the globe. In India it is observed on the 30th of October in each District of the states with the involvement of the District Collectors, local MPs, MLAs etc.
The first International Thrift Congress was held in Milan, Italy in 1924. The Congress passed a vow declaring October 31 as the World Thrift day. It was a day "devoted to the promotion of savings all over the world". It is a worldwide celebration well sustained by savings and accountable retail banks, schools, women's associations, sports bodies, cultural organizations and skilled agencies etc. The day reminds us of the significance of constantly saving in order to have a protection net. With such constant savings, it guards in opposition to unexpected menace events. Savings can also aid us in achieving our goals such as starting a business, getting good education, healthcare treatments or owning a home,etc.
World Thrift Day is commemorated in diverse forms. Brochures, leaflets and posters are dispersed to masses accentuating the significance of thrift/saving. Press articles and educational films are also made to highlight and promote savings in many parts of the world. Saving campaigns are controlled in the schools because it is very imperative to indoctrinate this habit in kids ever since the beginning. Children are well-versed and skilled about merits of thrift and how it can help them in outlook. Kids are optimistic to use savings bank passbooks and money boxes, etc.
Credit must be given to retail banks that have undertaken sober efforts to egg on savings by employing numerous methods. For example, they have made it easier for each person to open a bank account and deposit the funds. Consumers are informed about significance of a formal savings account. In information, most of the bank accounts in the world are saving accounts. Saving is one of the most imperative skills to possess.
In India, World Thrift Day was also celebrated on October 31 but after the death of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi on the same day in 1984, it is ever since celebrated on October 30. Unique interest is also paid to the promotion of savings in schools, several savings campaigns are organized in the schools. In the week of thrift, special courses are conducted to educate children with the virtues of "Thrift". Money boxes and Savings Bank Passbooks are distributed in schools. Also the International Stamp for the World Thrift Day is used in all correspondence. In 1928, a first Hymn of Thrift has been self-possessed by Gino Valori and Giuseppe Peitri.
The savings movement not only promotes the custom of thrift amid the people and provides a good return to the little investors but also mobilizes funds for supplementing the needs for planned social and economic expansion of the country. The resources mobilized have served as an input in the economic development of the Nation.
Thrift is an ancient Indian virtue and India has one of the highest savings rates in the developing world. The Small Savings movement has played a chief role in harnessing the savings of the small savers for planned profitable development of our country.
The World Savings Day is typically held on October 31st with the exception of some countries where this day is a public holiday, in view of the fact that the idea is for the banks to be open, so that the people are able to transfer their savings into their account.
The idea of World Thrift Day was not born out of nothing. There had been some models of days that were committed to the initiative of saving money in order to expand a superior standard of life and to secure the country, for instance in Spain where the first national thrift day was renowned in 1921, or in the United States. In other countries, such as Germany, the peoples' confidence in savings had to be restored since many of them had lost their savings in the German monetary reform of 1923.
After the Second World War, World Thrift Day continued and accomplished the crest of its popularity in the years stuck between 1955 and 1970. It basically became a genuine tradition in definite countries. In Austria, for case, the official mascot of saving, the so-called 'Sparefroh' (factually: 'Happy Saver', or rather "save happily!") reached a higher level of brand awareness than the republic's President and even a street was named after him.
These days the focal point of the banks that organize the World Savings Day is on budding countries, where numerous inhabitants are unbanked. Savings banks play a vital role in enhancing savings in these countries with firm campaigns and initiatives such as working with non governmental organisations in order to double the number of savings.