New Delhi [India], January 13 (ANI): As India prepares for the upcoming Union Budget, Kalpana Ajayan, Regional Head - South Asia, Women's World Banking, has underscored the need for sharper, more gender-responsive policy interventions to deepen women's financial inclusion, particularly in rural India.

While speaking with ANI, Ajayan acknowledged the government's efforts to place women at the centre of policy design through initiatives such as Jan Dhan Yojana, Mudra loans, and DBT-linked welfare schemes. However, she stressed that the next big leap must come from gender-disaggregated data, especially in financial inclusion metrics.

'If you don't know the size of the problem, you really can't solve it,' Ajayan said, calling for male-female disaggregation of the RBI's Financial Inclusion Index across access, usage and quality parameters.

She noted that while India has made strong progress in access to and use of financial services, policymakers lack clarity on how these gains differ between men and women.

'Gender-disaggregated metrics would enable more focused and coordinated interventions with long-term impact,' she added.

On credit delivery for rural women, Ajayan highlighted the success of India's self-help group (SHG) movement over the past two decades. Group lending has helped women overcome barriers such as a lack of collateral, limited asset ownership, and limited financial history.

However, she emphasised that the time has come to graduate women from group loans to individual entrepreneurship loans.

'Not all 20 women in an SHG become entrepreneurs, but the 8-10 who do need larger ticket sizes. Rs 25,000 is not enough. They need Rs 1-1.5 lakh to grow,' she said.

'Women's World Banking, in partnership with SIDBI, designed a model leveraging SHG credit histories to provide affordable individual loans under SIDBI's PRAYAS programme, with interest rates between 12-14%. The innovation lies in routing loans through cluster-level federations, enabling women leaders to assess creditworthiness, build capacity and strengthen local institutions,' she told.

The programme has been launched in Bihar, Maharashtra and Assam, with Rajasthan set to go live soon. So far, nearly 2,500 women entrepreneurs have benefited, with minimal NPAs and a total disbursement of around Rs 3-3.5 crore.

Ajayan identified trust as the biggest barrier to onboarding women into the digital payments ecosystem, even as India aims to bring nearly 200 million women online.

'While an estimated 200 million women own smartphones, many are not active participants in the formal digital economy. Initial onboarding and hand-holding, often provided by male family members, remains critical,' she said.

To address this, Women's World Banking has piloted the concept of 'UPI Didis' - trusted SHG women who help peers learn digital transactions. Ajayan noted that after just four or five transactions, women gain confidence and no longer need assistance.

She also highlighted the untapped potential of women as digital merchants, particularly home-based business owners who remain invisible compared to brick-and-mortar vendors.

'These women are not on the main road, so how do we make them discoverable and visible as digital merchants?'

Through partnerships with NPCI, RBI, and government ministries, the organisation has worked to onboard women as both UPI users and merchants, with a focus on confidence-building and consumer protection.

Ajayan also spoke about Jan Dhan Plus, a programme launched with Bank of Baroda, Union Bank of India and Indian Bank, and now extended across all 32 Regional Rural Banks under NABARD.

Despite universal account ownership, she noted that many women use Jan Dhan accounts only to withdraw DBT funds, unaware of features such as overdrafts, micro-insurance and social security schemes.

Public sector banks, RRBs, banking correspondents and SHG-based BC Sakhis play a crucial role in last-mile delivery and awareness. Women's World Banking has been working closely with these institutions to unlock the full potential of Jan Dhan accounts. (ANI)