Financial Inclusion And Financial Empowerment of Women in Uttar Pradesh: Emerging Trends and Challenges

Abstract

Financial empowerment of women constitutes an important dimension of inclusive economic and social development. It extends beyond access to a bank account and includes women's ability to use financial services, exercise control over economic resources, participate in household decisions, own assets, earn income and utilise emerging digital financial facilities. India has witnessed considerable expansion of formal financial inclusion, making it important to examine whether greater financial access is accompanied by progress in other dimensions associated with women's financial empowerment. The present study examines selected dimensions of women's financial empowerment in Uttar Pradesh using published information from the National Family Health Survey-5 (NFHS-5), 2019–21. The analysis retains the principal indicators in their published form and also presents a focused table of selected state-level values relevant to financial empowerment. NFHS-5 reports that 87.6 per cent of currently married women in Uttar Pradesh usually participate in three household decisions, 15.5 per cent of women worked during the preceding twelve months and were paid in cash, 51.9 per cent own a house and/or land alone or jointly, 75.4 per cent have a bank or savings account that they themselves use, and 46.5 per cent have a mobile phone that they themselves use. The corresponding NFHS-4 value for personally used bank or savings accounts was 54.6 per cent, indicating substantial expansion of formal financial access. At the same time, differences across the selected dimensions indicate that financial inclusion should not be equated with comprehensive financial empowerment. Financial literacy, productive economic opportunities, asset ownership, digital access and effective financial decision-making remain important for translating formal financial access into substantive financial empowerment.