Motivation
Many women in rural India have bank accounts but still face barriers to accessing digital financial services and participating in the workforce. As government welfare programs like Mahatma Gandhi Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS), [1] increasingly rely on digital payment infrastructure, many women remain excluded due to low digital literacy, limited mobility, weak access to mobile phones and the internet, and difficulties navigating Aadhaar-bank-MGNREGS linkage processes. This is especially true for “inactive” women workers, who have not recently participated in MGNREGS and often struggle to access wages and employment opportunities despite a strong demand for work.
MGNREGS (now VBGRAMG), is one of India’s largest public employment programs and an important source of income for low-income rural women. However, the shift toward Aadhaar-Based Payment Systems (ABPS) risks deepening exclusion for women who are unable to complete required digital linkages. In partnership with the Ministry of Rural Development (MoRD), the Madhya Pradesh State Employment Guarantee Council (MPSEGC), and PRADAN, this RCT study examines whether improving women’s access to digital wage payments and providing group-based training can increase women’s economic participation, financial inclusion, and empowerment.
Objective
The RCT has two core treatment arms: Government-led efforts to “link” women workers to the MGNREGS digital payments system and a group-based training to equip women to access MGNREGS work, covering information on the payments progress and how to request work from local leaders, who serve as program gatekeepers. Our digitally-enabled training intervention also encourages collective action by women, building on earlier work by Field et al. (2016), which highlighted the potential value of group-based training and peer support when restrictive gender norms constrain women’s behaviours. Our research will enroll 6265 communities (Gram Panchayats) in 90 blocks in Madhya Pradesh, home to approximately 1.17 million women. We also randomly vary the intensity of community-wide training coverage and training delivery models (NGO vs. Government led), allowing us to assess effects on directly treated women, untreated women, and local markets and villages. Our study directly contributes to WEE-DiFine’s research priorities by testing scalable mechanisms that expand women’s access to and use of digital financial services (DFS) and evaluating the resulting effects on empowerment, safety, and gender norms within a large-scale government program.
Proposed Impact
The study will generate rigorous evidence on how digital public payment systems can improve women’s economic empowerment at scale. Findings will help policymakers identify effective and scalable strategies to expand women’s access to digital financial services, public employment, and income control through large government programs such as MGNREGS/VBGRAMG.
The research will also provide insights into how group-based support, peer networks, and collective action influence women’s agency, labor market participation, and gender norms. By examining both direct and spillover effects, the study contributes to a broader understanding of how digital financial inclusion shapes women’s economic opportunities and social outcomes. The findings are expected to directly inform policy discussions within the Ministry of Rural Development and the Madhya Pradesh government on strengthening women’s participation in digitally enabled welfare systems.
If successful, the interventions could be scaled across Madhya Pradesh and adapted for implementation in other Indian states, contributing to more inclusive and gender-responsive digital public infrastructure.
[1] This is currently transitioning to Viksit Bharat – Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (VBGRAMG)
Photo by Amol Sonar on Unsplash
