Women gaining ground in banks’ financial inclusion

Women’s access to financial services seems to be progressively improving under the financial inclusion drive undertaken by banks, show Reserve Bank of India data.

Their share in the total individual deposits and loans has improved over the last couple of years.

The share of female depositors has increased to 28 per cent of the total number of individual deposit accounts in 2012 against 24 per cent in the previous year.

The total number of individual deposit accounts in the country stood at 77.32 crore in 2012 against 72.50 crore in the previous year.

In terms of amount, women’s share in the total individual deposits has improved to 26 per cent in 2012 from 22 per cent in 2011.

In 2012, individual deposits aggregated Rs 30.78 lakh crore against Rs 28.05 lakh crore in the previous year, the data showed.

There was a marginal improvement in women’s share in the total number of loan accounts. However, their share in the total loan outstanding showed marked improvement.

The share of female loan accounts in the total number of loan accounts has nudged up a tad to 15.82 per cent (15.77 per cent in 2011).

The total number of individual loan accounts increased to 1.88 crore in 2012 against 1.62 crore in 2011. Women’s share in the total outstanding loans (individuals) has risen to 18 per cent in the reporting period against 15 per cent in the previous period.

The total outstanding loans in the case of individuals aggregated Rs 11.69 lakh crore in 2012 against Rs 9.63 lakh crore in 2011.

Vijayalakshmi R. Iyer, Chairperson and Managing Director, Bank of India, observed that banks normally offer interest rate concession of 0.25 per cent in respect of loans/ advances to woman beneficiaries. She felt this aspect needs to be widely publicised by banks to attract more women customers.

Currently, loans to individual women beneficiaries up to Rs 50,000 per borrower are recognised by the banking regulator as priority sector lending under the ‘weaker sections’ category. The objective of financial inclusion as envisaged by the Government and the Reserve Bank of India is to extend financial services to the large hitherto under-served population of the country to unlock its growth potential.

The RBI defines financial inclusion as the process of ensuring access to appropriate financial products and services needed by all sections of society in general and vulnerable groups, such as weaker sections and low-income groups in particular. This should be at an affordable cost in a fair and transparent manner by regulated, mainstream institutional players.

Banks are reaching out to the under-served population in rural areas by opening branches and engaging the services of agents, such as business correspondents and business facilitators.

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