Abstract

Digital financial services present unprecedented opportunities for the financial inclusion of vulnerable sections of society by overcoming the barriers of cost, distance, transparency, and by providing financial services tailored to their needs. Despite rapid strides in the digital financial inclusion in India, women face barriers to access and usage of digital financial services. The study uses secondary data to examine the regional profile of the gender gap in digital financial inclusion in India. The analysis shows that the economic development of the state does not determine the gender disparity in digital financial inclusion. The study also identifies key barriers to women’s access to digital financial services. Based on a primary survey of women in rural and urban areas the study shows that digitalization can help enhance women’s social and financial autonomy. Hence, these findings suggest that a gender sensitive approach to financial inclusion is imperative for the success of policy initiatives.

摘要

数字金融服务克服了成本、距离、透明度等障碍，并通过提供适合他们需求的金融服务，为社会弱势群体的金融包容性提供了前所未有的机会。尽管印度在数字金融包容性方面取得了快速进展，但女性在获得和使用数字金融服务方面仍面临障碍。该研究使用二手数据来检查印度数字金融包容性性别差距的区域概况。分析表明，国家经济发展并不能决定数字普惠金融的性别差异。该研究还确定了女性获得数字金融服务的主要障碍。根据对农村和城市地区妇女的初步调查，该研究表明，数字化有助于增强妇女的社会和财务自主权。因此，这些调查结果表明，对金融包容性采取性别敏感的方法对于政策举措的成功至关重要。