Financial Literacy among Women - Indian Scenario

Abstract

One of the biggest challenges of our country is women empowerment which can only be attained by making women educated, finance liberated and independent. Financial literacy can be understood as the ability to know how money works in a normal course of action. Specifically it refers to the set of skills and knowledge that allows an individual to make informed and effective decisions with all of their financial resources. In India, virtually women are the main spender of the family whereas the men are the principal earner of the family. Although women's access to financial services has increased substantially faster in the past 10 years, their ability to exploit this access is often still limited by the disadvantages they experience because of their gender. Women are good at budgeting and managing household expenses but many women take their steps back when it comes to take larger financial decisions and they generally leave it to their spouses, fathers, brothers, etc, believing them to be financial experts. A minimum basic level of financial literacy is very essential for every woman so that they can live their life according to their own choices hence contributing the healthy and prosperous life of their family as a whole. Women have enormous potential to contribute towards the growth of the economy hence a financially independent women can be a great source of economic development. The purpose of this study was to give an overview about the financial literacy among women in developing country like India.

The Impact of Financial Literacy on Women’s Economic Empowerment in Developing Countries: A Study Among the Rural Poor Women in Sri Lanka

“…It can be observed that, even though their involvement and contributions have uplifted the evolution and the nature of community development, they have not been given proper acknowledgement for those contributions. The results of previous studies provide deeper insights into women's thinking about leadership and community development (Arora, 2016;Maheswari, 2016;Haque et al, 2018;Bonga et al, 2016;Singh et al, 2017;Lusardi et al, 2017;Roy et al, 2018). Therefore, based on the previous researchers' definitions and explanations, leadership in the community for present study means the extent to which poor rural women can influence the common decisions of community and degree of other community people willing to accept their views.…”

“…A study conducted by Hoque and Itohara (2009) reported that the time allocation is contributing to an extent in planning family activities and participating in family leisure time based on the decision making power of the rural women. The authors also stated that the time spending programme among family members contributes to develop the leadership of the rural women (Singh & Kumar, 2017;Deka, 2015;Karunathilake, 2016). This study was conceptualized by considering five important dimensions of WEE that identifies the basic five principles in which empowerment is achieved, in which control over the time allocation was identified as an important dimension (Swamy, 2014;Deka, 2015;Lusardi et al, 2017;Roy et al, 2018).…”

“…Most of the previous researchers identified that measurement of Fin Lit should be differentiating to match with respective socio economics contexts (Saha, 2016;Singh et al, 2017;Roy & Jane, 2018;Lusardi et al, 2019). Moreover, previous researchers have measured the degree of Fin Lit in most of the developing countries such as India (e.g.…”

“…It would also help in wealth accumulation and financial wellbeing which will lead to their personal development as well as social development. Singh et al, (2017) found that the most popular investment method among the females in Pune, India is systematic investment plan. According to the above discussion, measuring Fin Lit among rural women and its impact on WEE become practically an important research area to be further investigated.…”

“…On the other hand, WEE is vital in defining women's rights (Singh & Kumar, 2017). Economy and organizations start to realize that women empowerment is a win-win situation not only for women but also for the economy as a whole (Kumari, 2017).…”