Pallavi Madhok, VP, Advisory Providers – South Asia, Girls’s World Banking, and Gabriel Bizama, Researcher, College of Bern
India’s digital funds panorama has revolutionized how the nation transacts. Its Unified Funds Interface (UPI), launched in 2016 by the Nationwide Funds Company of India (NPCI), beneath the aegis of the Reserve Financial institution of India (RBI), has proven phenomenal progress: in August 2025, the variety of transactions through UPI surpassed 20 billion. As per analysis, UPI is probably the most most well-liked transaction mode for practically 38%1 of rural and semi-urban India.
There, nevertheless, are challenges within the UPI ecosystem that have to be addressed for it to serve folks to its full potential. Whereas our “UPI for Her” analysis offers particular insights into girls’s adoption, broader analysis based mostly on quantitative and qualitative information collected by way of a survey of 1,000 adults and retailers and focus teams in city, semi-urban, and rural areas, revealed that connectivity points and restricted digital and monetary literacy, significantly amongst girls, create boundaries to trusting digital funds and reinstates the established order of money funds. With rising Central Financial institution Digital Forex (CBDC) applied sciences, India’s eRupee infrastructure has the potential to boost India’s digital fee adoption by addressing a few of these boundaries.
Girls are essential UPI clients, however lag in digital confidence
Our “UPI for Her” initiative particularly highlights that girls from peri-urban and rural areas do see digital funds as the long run, however both lack smartphones, confidence, or a complete ecosystem view of its advantages. This mirrors broader findings: impartial information means that whereas 10% of the pattern has a digital pockets with out holding a checking account, this price declines amongst girls, with solely 3.9% of them reporting possession with out a checking account. Even the on a regular basis use of UPI is decrease for girls at 33%, in comparison with 41% for the general pattern.
Qualitative insights from focus teams performed beneath our “UPI for Her” undertaking mirror these findings: girls handle money that their husbands give them or earn small cash-based incomes, which makes them cautious about safety and prevents them from exposing their cash to the large digital monetary ecosystem. Managing funds through money provides them a way of management, and digital finance is overwhelming, significantly as a result of they lack the arrogance and know-how of digital instruments.
Why the ladies’s UPI adoption curve is steeper
Drawing from our “UPI for Her” analysis, three elements stand out: one, the shortage of digital and monetary literacy amongst girls, with many surveyed having acute issue with ideas corresponding to rates of interest and inflation; two, weak or unreliable web connectivity deters girls – 51% of the overall pattern reported connectivity challenges as a barrier; and three, safety and fraud points are essential considerations with 30% of girls in sure areas reporting this as a cause for not utilizing UPI.
Suggestions from the UPI for Her Report: Constructing for scale with gender-fair design for the eRupee
For girls to really undertake UPI and different digital fee programs, our “UPI for Her” report offers clear suggestions. These insights are essential not just for enhancing UPI adoption but additionally for informing the strategic design of latest digital fee infrastructures just like the eRupee, making certain they handle girls’s and different teams’ particular wants for scale. Policymakers and monetary establishments ought to deal with supporting digital funds adoption through community-based, phygital fashions, with these design ideas in thoughts:
- Constructing belief: Girls deeply worth belief and can resonate with merchandise that embed belief and safety at their centre. Addressing safety considerations and establishing sturdy guardrails for client safety in digital funds will give shoppers the arrogance they want in getting redressal. Making certain that such redressal is gender delicate and works alongside girls’s monetary trajectories is as essential. Constructing the eRupee infrastructure with this as a cornerstone, significantly its nature as a direct legal responsibility of the central financial institution, may inherently foster higher belief amongst customers, much like how money is perceived. The survey talked about earlier discovered that 61% of the pattern believed their private information could be safer with the eRupee in comparison with different digital strategies, which may assist alleviate safety considerations for girls.
- Tailoring monetary and digital literacy packages: Girls have steeper monetary studying curves. They want preliminary help in studying how one can execute digital transactions or perceive the digital monetary ecosystem. Nationwide monetary literacy schemes and academic packages particularly designed for teams like girls are essential. Moreover, leveraging grassroots girls’s networks corresponding to Enterprise Correspondent Sakhis or Neighborhood Useful resource Individuals in delivering this handholding is extremely efficient. These packages will likely be important for onboarding girls onto each current platforms like UPI and newer ones like eRupee.
- Enhancing connectivity and entry to digital infrastructure: Dependable cell and web connectivity is important for the widespread adoption of any quick fee system. As of 2024, practically 95% of India’s villages had entry to 3G/4G cell web connectivity, and the price of information has notably plummeted by 96%, authorities statistics present. Broadband schemes such BharatNet and the Common Service Obligation Fund intend to boost last-mile cell web connectivity. Crucially, a key function of the eRupee that may very well be transformative is its offline functionality: the truth that it may be used with out an web or cell community connection makes it a profitable possibility for teams which can be disproportionately impacted by connectivity challenges, particularly these dwelling in peri-urban and rural areas. This straight addresses one of many main boundaries recognized for girls’s digital fee adoption.
- Nudging UPI adoption through PPI (Pay as you go Cost Devices): For girls who might not instantly have a checking account or full digital confidence, selling the usage of Pay as you go Cost Devices (PPIs) linked to UPI can function an efficient ramp to wider digital monetary providers corresponding to credit score, insurance coverage, or investments. It permits them to expertise digital transactions in a extra managed setting, progressively constructing belief and familiarity earlier than transitioning to full UPI utilization.
Past UPI: How the eRupee can probably improve digital funds adoption in India
UPI has been transformative for India’s digital monetary panorama, and the subsequent objective submit is addressing the remaining boundaries to true monetary inclusion. The RBI is exploring CBDC’s advantages by way of a pilot undertaking, with six million Indian adults and retailers presently utilizing eRupee. Whereas the eRupee is strategically designed to not compete with UPI however to behave as a digital various to money, it is very important observe that eRupee is a CBDC and UPI is a bank-to-bank switch; they’re totally different platforms. Thus, eRupee can not improve UPI’s potential straight. As an alternative, a well-designed eRupee, incorporating the above design components and specializing in its distinctive offline capabilities and central financial institution backing, can improve India’s digital fee adoption by addressing a few of these boundaries additional.
Bringing girls on board digital monetary providers and nurturing them into competent customers has immense financial potential. Girls have historically been excluded from monetary providers, and being a part of the digital monetary ecosystem creates digital trails that may assist monetary providers suppliers to find them. It may convey them entry to inexpensive credit score extra simply and make the most of different related merchandise like insurance coverage. As monetary applied sciences quickly modernize, girls can’t be left behind. India’s digital funds infrastructure is already being noticed, and when complemented with rigorously designed future options just like the eRupee, it might provide priceless classes for monetary inclusion for populations worldwide.
