Gender intentionality is the bridge to India’s next phase of financial inclusion

This article is authored by Kalpana Ajayan, regional head, South Asia, Women’s World Banking.

India’s financial inclusion landscape in 2025 reflects a shift from expanding access to strengthening the quality and depth of usage. This progress is captured in the Reserve Bank of India’s Financial Inclusion Index, which reached 67 in 2025, representing a 24.3% increase since 2021. Women’s participation in the formal financial system has expanded significantly. Women now account for 56% of Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana account holders, and ministry of finance data shows that women comprised 48% of Atal Pension Yojana subscribers as of October 2025. These trends show the scale and reach of policy-led efforts to broaden financial access and social security coverage.

Gender Equality.(Getty Images/iStockphoto)

However, the Financial Inclusion Index also points to persistent gender gaps in usage and quality. Access to formal credit is limited: 79% of women-owned businesses are self-financed, with only 7% of MSME credit directed to women. While an estimated 86–89% of women held bank accounts by 2024–25, active digital usage among women remains lower at around 28% compared to 35% for men (Global Findex 2025).

These patterns exist alongside a sustained push to expand access to formal accounts and resilience products, including the Pradhan Mantri Jeevan Bhima Yojana, Pradhan Mantri Suraksha Bhima Yojana, and the Atal Pension Yojana, supported by ongoing efforts to improve financial literacy and encourage active, multi-purpose use of financial services.

Earlier this month, RBI launched the National Strategy for Financial Inclusion (NSFI) as a roadmap to 2030, emphasising a synergistic ecosystem approach, improved quality and consistency of last-mile access, and the effective usage of financial services. Anchored in five pillars of equity in access, gender-sensitive banking, ecosystem synergy, financial education, and consumer protection and grievance redressal, the Panch Jyoti framework is expected to influence more inclusive outcomes for women customers, many of whom remain partially engaged from formal financial services.

This disengagement is shaped largely by long-standing design limitations. Many banking systems were not originally structured around women’s financial realities, and these challenges are reinforced by eligibility constraints, including limited access to collateral for credit and smaller digital financial footprints linked to lower smartphone usage, especially among rural women. As India enters the next phase of its financial inclusion journey, there is a growing need for policymakers and financial service providers to embed deeper gender intentionality across the ecosystem.

Gender-disaggregated data is the foundation of a gender-responsive financial system, as it reveals how women engage with financial services and where persistent gaps remain. Such data provides the evidence needed to design appropriate products, improve fairness in credit scoring, leverage women’s strong repayment behaviour and loyalty, set and monitor gender targets, design responsive regulations, and close gaps across credit, insurance, and digital finance.

Early progress is already visible. For instance, Credit Guarantee Fund Trust for Micro and Small Enterprises (CGTMSE) increased guarantee coverage for women-led businesses from 85% to 90% based on insights drawn from gender-disaggregated data.

The RBI’s FI-Index is a respected benchmark that tracks access, usage, and quality of financial services across India. It is among the few global indicators that measure quality as a distinct dimension, placing consumers at the centre of financial inclusion. Incorporating a Gender Intentionality into the FI-Index would address this gap by enabling measurement of gender-specific indicators such as account ownership, access to credit, social security enrolment, workforce diversity, and digital usage.

NABARD’s ongoing development of a Gender Intentionality Score for regional rural banks demonstrates that this approach is both feasible and impactful.

As digital financial services continue to expand, embedding gender-disaggregated data and a Gender Intentionality Index within the financial system would help reduce information asymmetry, improve product design, and strengthen consumer protection. It would also address the underlying causes of low female adoption of digital finance, including limited trust, lower digital confidence, and higher exposure to fraud and misinformation.

A gender-responsive FI-Index would ensure that India’s digital financial ecosystem grows with transparency, accountability, and women-centred design as national standards. Strengthening grievance redressal, financial education, responsible marketing, and digital safety is critical to building confidence among women users. Once trust is established, sustained usage follows.

Evidence consistently shows that women agents outperform men and build stronger trust within communities across product categories namely payments, savings, insurance, and credit. Women agents significantly enhance women’s uptake of financial products through savings-led engagement. Jan Dhan Plus demonstrated this across three public sector banks and regional rural banks. Women agents operating as BC Sakhis, Bima Vahaks, Vitta Sakhis, and UPI Didis are emerging as critical social infrastructure supporting India’s digital public infrastructure. Maharashtra’s State Rural Livelihood Mission found that simplified onboarding, targeted training, and strong supervisory support enabled a sixfold increase in the number of BC Sakhis across the state.

These findings confirm that a women-led distribution force – leveraging women from Self-Help Groups and Cluster-Level Federations – can transform the financial architecture for low-income women and rural households, ensuring that national financial inclusion goals translate into meaningful outcomes on the ground.

Gender intentionality is vital in India’s journey towards financial inclusion. When financial products are designed around women’s realities, when progress is tracked through gender-disaggregated data, and when women agents are positioned at the centre of delivery, access converts into consistent use and lasting economic security.

This article is authored by Kalpana Ajayan, regional head, South Asia, Women’s World Banking.