{"id":1449,"date":"2019-09-24T11:45:02","date_gmt":"2019-09-24T11:45:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/idronline.org\/2020\/12\/23\/a-bank-account-for-women-is-not-enough\/"},"modified":"2025-11-07T07:58:07","modified_gmt":"2025-11-07T02:28:07","slug":"a-bank-account-for-women-is-not-enough","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/idronline.org\/kn-in\/a-bank-account-for-women-is-not-enough\/","title":{"rendered":"A bank account for women is not enough"},"content":{"rendered":"

In recent times, financial inclusion has received tremendous attention from policymakers as a development objective. They see it as a prime facilitator for the efficient delivery of social programmes like the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA)<\/a> or other Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT)<\/a> enabled schemes. As a result, achieving greater financial inclusion now tops the policy priorities for inclusive growth in India. <\/span><\/p>

And this focus shows up in the numbers. The percentage of adults who have a bank account in India increased to 80 percent<\/a> of the population in 2017, up from 53 percent in 2014. The Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY)<\/a>, which was announced in 2014, helped open 36 crore bank accounts, with over 50 percent of these account holders being women. The gender gap in account ownership has also shrunk from 20 percent three years ago, to six percent today.<\/p>

Related article: The missing women in finance<\/strong><\/a><\/p>

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However, a closer look at these numbers reveals gaps, primarily around usage. While access may have improved with supply-side efforts, demand-side efforts for financial inclusion still attract little focus and investment in India. This is evident in half of the new accounts being inactive, especially for women account holders.1<\/a><\/p>

Women in rural areas are intimidated by the male dominated physical banking space and the English dominated online financial interfaces.<\/p><\/blockquote>

One of the primary barriers to active usage of formal financial services is the lack of financial literacy. Women in rural areas have limited or no access to information on how to engage with the continuously evolving formal financial space, especially when it is online and digital. They also have limited literacy levels, constrained mobility and access to public spaces, and are intimidated by the male dominated physical banking space and the English dominated online financial interfaces. <\/span><\/p>

In a country where 23.5 percent of rural households have no literate adult above the age of 25 (one of the categories of deprivation measured by the Socio-Economic Caste Census 2011<\/a>), and of the 64 percent literate rural Indians, more than a fifth have not even completed primary school, it is not only important—but essential—to have a systematic platform for financial education.<\/p>

The inability to understand and engage conveniently with the formal financial space has huge implications on the financial behaviour of these households. This is further exacerbated by language, connectivity, and socio-cultural barriers. <\/span><\/p>

National level efforts to enhance financial literacy have been focused on setting up of Financial Literacy and Counselling Centres (FLCCs)<\/a> by lead banks of a district. FLCCs are meant to be the district level structures for imparting financial education. However, they have not been very effective, especially given their camp-based approach to financial education and limited outreach.<\/p>

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A gendered approach to financial education has a positive ripple effect on other key socio-economic indicators | Picture courtesy: SIDBI PSIG<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p>

Financial exclusion for women is different from that for men<\/b><\/h3>

To make sure women benefit as much as possible from the programme, it is important to understand why financial exclusion for women is different from financial exclusion for men.<\/p>

It is important to understand why financial exclusion for women is different from financial exclusion for men<\/p><\/blockquote>

SIDBI’s PSIG programme<\/a>, supported by the Government of UK, offers key insights into how a gendered approach to financial education and capacity building has a positive ripple effect on household health, sanitation, education, and other key socio-economic indicators. <\/span><\/p>

The Financial Literacy & Women Empowerment (FLWE)<\/a> programme comprised pilot and scale-up programmes on gender and financial capability building, and was implemented in four states—Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, and Odisha.<\/p>

Related article: The problem with ‘women empowerment’ schemes<\/strong><\/a><\/p>

The programme focused on capacity building of rural women on gender issues, their rights and entitlements, basic health, sanitation, and a detailed module on financial well-being. It used a mix of classroom teaching, learning by doing, audio-visuals, and technology-based interactive platforms for delivering trainings. Each woman received an average of 30 hours of training over 15-18 months. The trainers were chosen from amongst the community and trainings were followed by financial linkages, mass awareness camps, exposure visits to ATMs and banks, which helped these women to link with financial products and services of their choice.<\/p>

The independent endline evaluation of the programme revealed a number of benefits for women. The trainings and exposure visits raised their confidence in dealing with formal financial institutions, enabled them to play greater role in household financial decision-making, and resulted in positive change in attitude of male members who attended the trainings. In terms of numbers:<\/p>