Bridging the financial literacy gap: a solution to empower low strata women in urban gujarat through enhanced access to financial inclusion schemes

Abstract

Financial literacy essentially aims at the aspect of economic empowerment and social inclusion of low-income classes, mostly women, who are historically excluded from the purview of formal financial systems, in India. Although government schemes are primarily meant for financial inclusion purposes, there is the problem of gender gap in awareness and avail of the schemes. The main cause of the gender gap is various socio-economic and cultural barriers, like education, patriarchal customs, and most importantly, awareness. The project therefore focuses to address the following issues by looking at barriers for women effective use of the financial inclusion schemes. A full range of methodology is engaged in literature review survey, survey, interview, and data statistics to assess the current level of knowledge about finance, success in evaluating the existing programs, and understanding challenges embedded. Significant questions will include: Are these schemes known to women? What restrictions do they face when trying to use these schemes? In what way do they affect the extent of the independence they enjoy? This whole research project will focus on empowering the underprivileged women living in urban Ahmedabad with knowledge and tools to exercise greater control over their financial future. This will contribute to the development of certain sustainable and scalable strategies for financial literacy and inclusion so that it ultimately feeds into a larger goal of economic inequality reduction and women's empowerment in urban Gujarat.