Article - Women's participation in Financial institutions.

A group of students in my department, undertook a project to study Financial Literary Awareness among Rural Women. A brief Review of literature revealed that the number of women in workforce had come down in the past decade. This result was surprising as I was under the impression that as more women get access to education, more women may want to take part in income generating activities. But the National Sample Survey results disproved my assumption. Further, the review had revealed that more number of women in rural areas were involved in income generating activities. 

SELF HELP GROUP

When I looked into the current study, it was noted that nearly 75% of women were housewives, who were not involved in income generating activities. Nearly 65% of these women were involved in Self Help groups(SHGs). Majority of them had taken loans from SHGs and were saving money through SHGs. 

Majority of these rural women had bank account, they knew about saving money in the bank, the provision to take loans from the banks. They were also aware of few insurance schemes too. The awareness about Banking, savings, loans, calculation of rate of interest for loan taken, insurance schemes were some of the parameters considered to measure the financial literary of women.

When the women were asked about why and how they save money, their response was that saving is for children's education, celebration of some functions/ festivals at home and for needy period when there may not be much money provided by the spouse.

The reasons for taking loans were children's school/ college admission, ill health of family member, told by husband to take loans.

Most of the women told that they didn't share with their spouses, the extent of their savings as the money they saved was what they had spared by intelligent management of the house hold expenses. Some women used to buy small gold jewelry by their savings. In case of emergency, they would pledge the gold jewelry, to get the money. Few women had taken loans to buy cows so that they may sell the milk to get regular income. They reported that most of the time, the money that comes to their account through milk cooperative societies is taken by their spouses. They do not have much access to that money. Hence some of them invested in secrecy in chit funds run by local people or gave money for petty lending through third party. Many such women reported that they were at risk of loosing their money due to such transactions. But they had no other options.

These findings have left me with few more questions. Why has the ratio of women in work force reduced? Why education and income generating activities not having a proportional growth rate? Most of the rural women were into saving money as they understood the need for extra income. Yet they are not much into income generating activities. Even those women who are into income generating activities, are still letting the menfolk manage their finances most of the time. In spite of these limitations, savings through micro finance access through SHGs has shown tremendous opportunities for financial transactions. How to involve the women into income generating activities as well as make them financially independent so that they may enjoy the fruits of their efforts? 

I cannot simply propose or blame patriarchal society and its structure as an answer for all the questions churning in my mind. There is a need to seriously look into the way women themselves look at their roles. Not only nurturers but also providers as well as managers of their income. That day will be the beginning of financial empowerment among women. 

- Dr.Suman K Murthy