Information dissemination is the key on the path of financial inclusion

The outcome

The survey revealed that 91.6% of women have bank accounts while 8.3% still don’t have any bank accounts.  The government has given a major push to the schemes where women are encouraged to open and handle their bank accounts. But many women from the vulnerable social- economic group still remain away from the basic criteria like a bank account to be part of the financial inclusion drive.    

About 58 % of women who responded to the question of whether they operate their bank account said that they themselves operate their bank account and not jointly with their husband or allow their husband to operate. But 6 % said that their husband operates the account. Financial literacy plays a major role in women’s empowerment and handling their own money is the key to the process of empowerment.  

About 38% of women (the highest among the surveyed women) use bank accounts for savings. While 11% use it for banking services. “ When women earn, they save for the family, pay children’s school fees, and also save for medical emergencies. You can witness this in any city or village where women are earning” says Osmanabad-based activist Sunanda Kharate who works with abandoned and single women.

When Kondhabai Kamble from the locality told the VCCCD team, “I opened a  bank account. However, my purpose was not saving, but opting for a loan for my daughter’s marriage.”

Interestingly 41 % of the surveyed women said that they don’t have an ATM card while the same number of women said they have a card. According to the union government over the past few years digitization ushered in by the Jan Dan-Aadhar-Mobile (JAM) trinity and Aadhaar—financial inclusion has become a reality for Indians. “ This has only been furthered by the Unified Payments Interface (UPI), which has witnessed extraordinary adoption. UPI recorded over 4.2 billion transactions worth Rs 7.7 trillion in October 2021” according to the government. (3)   

 But interestingly, when asked if they are aware of PMJDY, over 81 % of women answered negatively.  This could be a cause for concern considering the government’s efforts to accelerate financial inclusion. PMJDY is National Mission for Financial Inclusion to ensure access to financial services, namely, basic savings and deposit accounts, remittance, credit, insurance, pension in an affordable manner. Under the scheme, a basic savings bank deposit (BSBD) account can be opened in any bank branch or Business Correspondent (Bank Mitra) outlet, by persons not having any other account. (4)

As many as 47.8 crore Jan Dhan accounts have been opened across the States so far after the scheme was launched in   2014 as a national mission for financial inclusion.(5)

When it comes to loans, 40 % of women said that they have opted for a loan from Self Help Group (SHG). This reflects the popularity and importance of small saving groups. Women find it easy to approach SHG which is accessible to them. SHG chief Chanda Dinkar said, “Bank Loans aren’t affordable for us as the interest rates are too high for common women like us.

When it comes to government schemes, 40 % said that they don’t know anything about the schemes while others had different sources of getting information. Many of them rely on their peer leader (23%) while others depend on various sources and mediums including social media and newspapers.    

Conclusions

Information dissemination remains a cause for concern when it comes to communicating government schemes to the neediest and most marginalized communities. The use of social media is proliferating and also the sources of information are multiplying. The user-generated content is on the rise. But amid the cacophony of content, the message is lost. Especially, when it comes to the financial inclusion of marginalized communities.

Marginalization is the deprivation of people, communities, and groups – it is the exercise of control over their resources and lives, preventing them from becoming part of the development story. Marginalization is a process of disempowerment and people experience marginalization in different ways. But even marginalization is understood from an androcentric perspective, which is a male-centered understanding and explanation of the concept. (6).

Our study reveals that special focus is required to design and disseminate media messages for the financial inclusion of marginalized women. These messages will not only facilitate the financial inclusion of women, but also strengthen their struggle for empowerment.   

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