Informal Women Workers’ Financial Needs

Women from low-income and marginalised communities suffer from a lack of equal access to financial services. They are also less familiar with how to use and manage financial assets. SEWA strengthens these women’s capacity to use financial services by leading frequent financial literacy training in communities. The Delhi Credit Cooperative [DCC] is one such initiative that supports healthy financial practices by organising financial literacy training workshops within communities to enhance their financial decision-making skills and by encouraging a habit of savings. These sessions emphasise how members can plan, save, and invest their assets. SEWA’s financial literacy training has been an essential component that has allowed women to invest and build a more secure financial future to protect against economic shocks and health emergencies.

The cooperatives of SEWA introduce them to a variety of financial products and services. Poor, but enterprising, these women always find a way of contributing to the development of their families and communities. The leadership, management, and direction are all managed by women shareholders and account owners of the cooperatives, allowing them to invest and grow their assets within the institution. It provides them with a platform to unlock large amounts of credit, necessary financial knowledge and guidance to spearhead their aim of attaining financial independence.

They also receive doorstep banking services from our Bank Sathis – intermediaries who go door-to-door to collect savings, conduct verification checks for loan applications, and collect dues on active loans. To enable them with working capital and prevent them from being exploited by private moneylenders, the interest charged on these loans is just 1.5% per month instead of the whopping 5-10% charges of private moneylenders.