Gender inclusivity of India’s digital financial revolution for attainment of SDGs: Macro achievements and the micro experiences of targeted initiatives

Duvendack, Maren ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8125-9115, Sonne, Lina and Garikipati, Supriya (2023) Gender inclusivity of India’s digital financial revolution for attainment of SDGs: Macro achievements and the micro experiences of targeted initiatives. European Journal of Development Research, 35 (6). 1369–1391. ISSN 0957-8811

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Abstract

For decades, India has led the drive for financial inclusion of poor rural women to facilitate attainment of development objectives like poverty alleviation and women’s empowerment. More recently, it has promoted digital financial inclusion to further its fight against poverty and gender inequality and support the attainment of UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). In this paper we take stock of how India’s digital financial revolution has affected financial transactions and services with a focus on gender inclusivity for the attainment of the SDGs. We propose a framework to understand the gender inclusivity of digital financial inclusion initiatives that connects the macro developments in the sector with the micro-level experiences of improving women’s access and use of these services. We draw on India’s nationwide developments and present a case study of an initiative that specifically promotes gender inclusive finance. Our findings suggest that India has made great advances in promoting digital financial inclusion but at the same time, the country has struggled to achieve gender parity even within specific finance-focused programmes designed to improve gender inclusivity. We reflect on policy implications of these findings.

Item Type:	Article
Additional Information:	Data Availability: The data that support the findings of this study are openly available.
Uncontrolled Keywords:	digital financial inclusion,gender equality,india,sustainable development goals,geography, planning and development,development ,/dk/atira/pure/subjectarea/asjc/3300/3305
Faculty \ School:	Faculty of Social Sciences > School of Global Development (formerly School of International Development)
UEA Research Groups:	Faculty of Social Sciences > Research Groups > Impact Evaluation Faculty of Social Sciences > Research Groups > Gender and Development
Related URLs:	http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?...
Depositing User:	LivePure Connector
Date Deposited:	27 Apr 2023 15:30
Last Modified:	24 Apr 2024 01:38
URI:	https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/91894
DOI:	10.1057/s41287-023-00585-x

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