Bridging the Digital Divide among Rural Women and Migrant Workers in India

Mission

To empower rural women and migrant workers with necessary knowledge and skills to adopt digital payments solutions.

Reduced Costs

Greater Inclusivity

Migrant workers, who often relocate to urban areas for employment, encounter significant obstacles in remitting money back home.

An RBIH survey revealed that although 90% of these workers own smartphones, less than 50% utilise these for remittances. Instead, they prefer traditional methods involving agents, despite incurring extra fees.

Similarly, multiple field visits to Chikballapur district, Karnataka, explored the challenges faced by rural women and micro-entrepreneurs in embracing digital payment platforms like UPI for daily financial transactions although they receive remittances via their household smartphones. The study also revealed that they did not trust these platforms, on account of various factors including limited knowledge. This resistance in adoption hampers their financial inclusion and restricts their economic opportunities and potential.

Solution

Understanding the underlying factors contributing to this hesitancy is vital to develop tailored solutions that address their specific needs. As part of our vision to empower women with access to finance, we are working on a pilot project focussing on enhancing uptake of digital financial services – namely UPI – among rural and migrant women. We are collaborating with behavioural science experts from the Centre for Social and Behaviour Change (CSBC) – a unit of Ashoka University – to gather data points on the digital divide.

As part of a pilot, we collaborated with Arvind Mills – where we acquainted female garment workers with making digital payments via UPI – based on our understanding of their needs and concerns.

Project Phases

Research and Needs Assessment

Identifying Areas for Intervention
Training and Capacity Building- A Pilot (Completed)

Large Scale Implementation and Evaluation (In progress)

Problem Statement / Problem identified:

In India, women often face barriers to saving money due to various reasons such as lack of financial literacy, limited access to banking services, and complex user interfaces of existing savings applications. These challenges make it difficult for women to save money effectively and efficiently.

Proposed Project Phase:

We propose the implementation of an improved UI/UX for the Frictionless Savings App. Our primary objective is to create a user-friendly and intuitive interface tailored to the specific savings needs and preferences of women. By simplifying the savings process and incorporating features that promote financial literacy and empowerment, we aim to encourage regular saving habits among women.

Conclusion:

The Frictionless Savings Product for Women project strives to impact and enhance women’s saving practices in India. By designing an intuitive and women-friendly user experience, we aim to provide women with a technological means to take more control over their financial futures and help them achieve their family’s long-term financial goals.
The pilot project conducted in Bengaluru with female migrant workers was successful in sensitising women migrant workers to the digital platforms available and the value it brings to their lives. Basis our learnings from this pilot, we will be collaborating with industry partners to scale the project to a rural customer base and document our learnings from the experience.

Partners

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