The politics of welfare in India has turn out to be more and more gendered, with money transfers rising as each a social coverage instrument and an electoral technique. Just weeks earlier than Assembly elections, the Bihar authorities has rolled out the Mukhyamantri Mahila Rojgar Yojana — a ₹10,000 switch to 75 lakh ladies as seed capital for self-employment. The objective is to assist them begin or develop small enterprises, with as much as ₹2 lakh in further assist for profitable ventures.

This joins a listing of women-focused money switch programmes, comparable to Karnataka’s Gruha Lakshmi, West Bengal’s Lakshmir Bhandar, Madhya Pradesh’s Ladli Behna Yojana, and Telangana’s Mahalakshmi. These are powered by India’s Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) structure, anchored on the ‘JAM trinity’ of Jan Dhan accounts, Aadhaar, and cellphones. This infrastructure allows focused supply and transparency.

As of August 2025, over 56 crore Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana accounts have been opened, with ladies proudly owning 55.7% of them. According to the World Bank’s Global Findex Database 2025, 54% of Indian ladies reported opening their first checking account primarily to obtain authorities advantages or wages. With 89% of Indian ladies now holding a checking account — on par with developed nations and much above the worldwide common of 77% — India has achieved a exceptional milestone in recognising ladies as financial actors with a proper monetary id. The chart under reveals the proportion of girls who personal financial institution accounts.

At the guts of this progress lies a essential query: can direct money empower ladies as financial brokers reasonably than simply welfare recipients? DBT schemes have been proven to boost ladies’s seen management over assets. Research reveals that earnings in a girl’s title will increase her say in family choices and improves outcomes for youngsters and the aged. Therefore, schemes comparable to Bihar’s can signify the primary formal recognition of girls’s financial id.

However, beneath the spectacular numbers, the story is extra complicated. Despite the JAM push resulting in near-universal account possession by ladies, round 20% stay dormant as a consequence of inadequate funds, low perceived want, or discomfort in participating with formal banking. In rural and semi-urban areas, distance from financial institution branches and the digital divide worsen this disengagement.

Moreover, numerous ladies use their accounts primarily to withdraw the money transfers — utilization for financial savings, borrowing, or funds stays low. The chart under reveals ladies’s engagement in monetary actions utilizing financial institution accounts (%)

Although 38 crore RuPay playing cards (which come free with Jan Dhan accounts) have been issued and UPI transactions have surged from ₹2 crore in FY17 to ₹18,600 crore in FY25, ladies’s utilization of debit playing cards in addition to digital funds continues to lag behind males’s.

Apart from patriarchal norms, a low stage of digital entry has prevented the proliferation of financial institution accounts from translating into sustained financial savings, credit score uptake, or energetic digital transactions for ladies. Women are 19% much less prone to personal cellphones (as per GSMA), that are wanted to entry details about accounts and funds. Data from the Findex survey reveals that the prices of telephones and knowledge, lack of privateness, worry of cyber fraud, and social norms stop ladies’s possession of cellphones.

Shared cellphone entry for numerous ladies additional limits unbiased digital banking. Financial and digital literacy stay important boundaries. In reality, greater than two-thirds of Indian ladies nonetheless depend on male kinfolk to make monetary transactions. The chart under reveals cell entry and its utilization for monetary transactions amongst ladies

Therefore, India’s leap from entry to company for ladies stays incomplete. So, for schemes comparable to Bihar’s Rojgar Yojana to turn out to be real devices of financial empowerment, they should transfer past merely inserting cash in ladies’s financial institution accounts. Beneficiaries require complementary long-term assist.

Most importantly, constructing real monetary company would require giving ladies management over property by offering them with safe property rights and joint land titles. Only when ladies have tangible management over land or enterprise property can they leverage credit score, take part in markets, and interact in new types of commerce.

Equally essential is strengthening the ‘cell’ pillar of the JAM trinity. Subsidised smartphones and reasonably priced knowledge plans would permit ladies to entry their accounts and digital fee instruments independently, avoiding reliance on shared units that erode privateness and autonomy. Banks, fintech, and cell operators should co-create monetary merchandise that replicate the realities of girls’s casual, seasonal, or sporadic incomes; caregiving obligations; and restricted monetary and digital literacy.

Community-based confidence networks can bridge the belief hole. Initiatives comparable to digital banking sakhis and safe WhatsApp or UPI teams can provide trusted areas for ladies to hunt recommendation, share experiences, and resolve doubts collectively. Another precedence must be to develop the variety of feminine banking brokers — lower than 10% of India’s 1.3 million enterprise correspondents are ladies.

The path to actual empowerment lies in coupling entry with agency-building — making certain ladies can’t solely obtain cash but additionally management, develop, and maintain it for their very own development.

Shravani Prakash, Jiya Bharti and Riya Khanna are with ICRIER’s Economic Policies for Women Led Development Program

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