Digital financial literacy and access

Internet users all over the globe has been increasing. While the increase is remarkable in urban areas, rural areas is lagging behind. Gender plays a major role in defining access to internet technology in India. 

While the cost of mobile phones can be a barrier, digital illiteracy and power patriarchal control over women has bereft a major chunk of the population to access this empowering technology of mobile and internet that can challenge social norms, bring economic empowerment and progress.

The proposed project will break gender stereotypes on use of digital technology so that 20,000 women from SHGs from rural areas have access to social security schemes through use of digital platform.

This project proposes will work on four fronts with SHG women from poor and marginalized families in 5 blocks of rural Assam in: Breaking Social and Cultural Perceptions, Building Confidence, Promoting Community Advocates and Designing Creative Women-Centric Technology.

Internet has the potential to change the lives hundred and millions of people. Unfortunately the picture is far from uniform, particularly in the North-eastern states of India with widespread rural and urban divide in the region. Assam has 100.97% internet subscribers in urban areas yet the rural space has a dismal 27.47% internet subscribers per 100 population. Gender also plays a major role in defining access to internet technology in India. Less than 25% of the mobile internet users are women. While it comes to accessing different financial products, services and social welfare schemes by women using digital means less than 5% of rural women are accessing. 

In areas of Baska and Chirang district of Assam, lack of access to mobile, digital illiteracy and power patriarchal control over women has bereft a major chunk of the population to use this empowering technology of communication and information. This lack of access is a hindrance to challenge existing entrenched social norms, bring economic empowerment and progress. Moreover, many first time users have low literacy rates. The proposed regions are also characterized by ethnic clashes. This project looks forward to bring about significant change in the way women use technology for productive activities. 

The proposed project will work with 10000 women from 5 blocks of Baksa and Chirang district. The project will be implemented with women institutions already SeSTA is working. SeSTA is working with over 1000 Self Help Groups (SHG) and Village Organizations (VO) in the area.

Firstly, a batch of 250 Community Cadres will be selected and groomed around use of digital technology. They will also be trained around different social security schemes and ways to access them. SeSTA in collaboration with Crisil Foundation has already developed an application through which contains 11 modules to train those cadres. These cadres after the completion of training will assist the SHG women in applying and accessing different financial products, services and schemes through a sustainable revenue-based model.

Second, women members of various institutions mentioned will be imparted knowledge on use of internet and gathering necessary information on schemes, financial products and services. Training modules have already been developed and tested.

Third, Awareness camps will be organized in Panchayati Raj Institution  inviting key stakeholders within a Panchayat and an awareness event will be conducted through a designed module. The gender digital divide will be emphasized in the event.

The proposed project will work with 10000 women from 5 blocks (Baska, Dhamdhama, Borobazar, Manikpur and Sidli) of Baksa and Chirang districts of Assam. The project will be implemented with women institutions already SeSTA is working. SeSTA is working with over 1000 Self Help Groups (SHG) and Village Organizations (VO) in the area. 

Assam's crime rate against women was nearly thrice the national average in 2019. The largest increase has been for cases categorized as cruelty by husband and/ or his relatives (NFHS data). In terms of literacy rate of the two districts Baksa stands at 458 and Chirang at 547 of 640 districts of India. Female literacy in rural areas of Baksa is 61% whereas male literacy is 77%. In Chirang female literacy rate is 55% and male literacy is 69%. A very clear distinction is present with respect to women access to education with respect to male counterpart. With respect to knowledge on different financial products, schemes and services a mere 35% have knowledge and less than 15% have accessed such benefits on their own (joint study UNICEF and SeSTA in 24 blocks of Assam). Very minimal women from these areas have accessed internet for knowledge (less than 5%).

SeSTA in the year 2020 conducted a joint survey with UNICEF and accessed the needs of the women population from these areas. With the Covid situation arising all over the globe, the economic status in the rural areas have further worsened, specially amongst the small and marginalized farming families. Whereas government has laid out various schemes to support the marginalized, penetration of information stands a major bottleneck. 

This project will focus on the following aspects:

a. Engaging with community leadership to breaking social and cultural perceptions:

As mobile technology penetrates at rapid pace across rural Northeast India, it is critical to change the behaviour of village elders, community leaders and women themselves to facilitate the access of technology. Engagement at the village and Panchayat leaders through designed modules on the positive impact of technology on the community due to productive usage by women will be the first step forward. Under this theme, leaders of Panchayats will be oriented on how rural women in other parts of India and the world have been actively using mobile technology to enhance productivity in agriculture, livestock and to access information.

Village Organizations or VOs are the representative leadership body of SHGs from one-two villages. This leadership group in 50 VOs will be trained on internet usage to map families to different social security schemes, online grievance redressal and use of technology for planning of interventions under Panchayat schemes.

b. Breaking Gender Stereotypes to Build Confidence:

Ingrained gender roles in rural areas of Assam is a major barrier for access of technology by women. Technological literacy programs in SHGs, livelihoods planning and extensive rural webinars for SHG women can help break these roles. Members of 1000 SHGs would be given basic training on the use of mobile technology, particularly using it for accessing information around schemes. 

In each Village Organization, SHG members would undergo a day long training on gender and the module will incorporate sessions on the importance of mobile technology to break gender barriers in their households, villages and beyond.

c. Technology promotion through Community Advocates:

SeSTA, in partnership with CRISIL Foundation, has initiated a pilot the Gram Sakhis program in selected villages of Assam where women leaders from the community are trained online on mobile technology usage, financial literacy and government schemes. These Sakhis act as the bridge between the community and available resources by sensitizing the community and facilitating the access of  Voter-card, Aadhar card, Job card and entitlements under MGNREGA, PDS, Ujjwala scheme, PMAY, different pension schemes etc and access to credit from mainstream institutions.

At the Sakhi level, new knowledge and technical tools helps them demystify mobile technology while at the community level, their engage with rural households for improved financial inclusion and knowledge about schemes on mobile based applications, facilitates large scale access of mobile technology. The increased confidence, new technical skills and soft skills learnt by Gram Saktis will help in evolving a robust village eco-system where mobile technology is integrated towards financial planning, inclusion and engagement on schemes. Overall 250 such Sakhis will be promoted under this project.

d. Gram Sakhis as Entreprenuers for Job Opportunities:

Gram Sakhis promoted under this project will be nested at the VO level and the SHG leadership will support and monitor their progress of engagement. This will be a revenue based model of engagement whereby Gram Sakhis will be paid a nominal fees by the community in lieu of the service on entitlement that they receive.

Impact: 

a. 80% Panchayat leaders and VO leaders display awareness on the importance of technology usage by women for empowerment of villages.

b. 100% women report increase in digital literacy of which 70% have applied for atleast one additional social security scheme, financial product and services.

c. 250 Gram Sakhis are able to independently support women to access entitlements through the use of mobile technology

The problem, solution and population are aligned from the fact that we are focusing towards bridging the gender digital divide by enabling women from five blocks towards using internet technology for enhancing knowledge and access to different government schemes, financial products and services. The project is also focused on sensitizing community leadership like Panchayats to break social and cultural perceptions.

SeSTA has already mobilized the women from villages to different institutions in the proposed five blocks. Also the model has been successfully demonstrated in another two blocks. The modules and application are tested and ready to be replicated. SeSTA also has functional relationship with Assam State Rural Livelihood Mission (ASRLM). The learning will be further replicated in ASRLM areas. 

One of the unique features of the project is that it will be a sustainable community owned and governed program. Some of the  interventions for the solutions of the project to be sustainable are:

• Building vibrant community institutions of women and promoting each and every intervention through those women collectives:
• Revenue Based Cadre Model

The project will build on mobilizing women institutions and design plan of interventions to establish those institutions as vibrant women institutions. Each of these institutions like Self Help Group (SHG), Village Organization (VO), Federations and FPCs will play an important role in facilitating the activities promoted under this project at a later stage even when the project has ended. The apex institutions like the VO, Federation, FPC will have role to play from the start of the project, like hosting and nesting of Community Cadres. The information to the farmers will also be passed on through those institutions.

Through the project a set of cadres will be groomed on supporting SHG members in  raising awareness and accessing entitlements. These cadres will be extension workers of the FPC/Federation in providing solutions through use of digital platform. From the initial days itself the entire community cadre model will be a revenue-based. The SHG members accessing services will have to pay a minimal charge to the Community Institutions. These cadres will be nested under the Federations/FPC. The Federation/FPC will regularly plan and monitor with those cadres. The Federation/ FPC will be responsible to provide adequate business to those cadres. 

Till last year: 2000 households

Next one year: 10000 households

Over a period of five years: 100000 households

Of the 50 Village organizations, 1000 SHGs and 10,000 women with which the project will be working some of the measurable indicators are:

a. 80% Panchayat leaders and VO leaders display awareness on the importance of technology usage by women for empowerment of villages.

b. 100% women report increase in digital literacy of which 70% have applied for atleast one additional social security scheme, financial product and services.

c. 250 Gram Sakhis are able to independently support women to access entitlements through the use of mobile technology

Full Time Staff: 92

Contractual Staff: 9 

SeSTA has dedicated field teams in 30 blocks of Assam, Meghalaya and Tripura comprising of three to four professionals. All the professionals of SeSTA are University graduates with good academic track records. 50% of the employees have over 2 years of experience working in similar projects and 30% employees have over 5 years of experience. These professionals work at the cutting edge through directly reaching out to a vulnerable women. SeSTA also has very good linkages with the PRI bodies along with being a partner of SRLM in each of the states. SeSTA also has a good rapport in all the village with its presence and has a strong community run cadre base. Hence, SeSTA has dedicated human resource, ground works done and favorable relationship with stakeholders to deliver the solution.

The vision of SeSTA is that we envisages a vibrant, democratic and developed society with peace and harmony where every citizen is empowered and lives a dignified life. This is what we espouse in our organization as well. Presently we have male female employees ratio of 50-50%. In the Management Group also we have 35% representation of women, which in the next two years we plan to make it equal. The Management Group also has over 60% representation from Marginalized Sections.

SeSTA seeks to scale up the solution in entire North East India and also at a latter stage in entire India. This solution also can be an effective tool at community level for other developing countries. Through Solve platform we hope to get mentoring in how to successfully scale up a model from management and operations point of view. Apart for those being a non profit entity we would seek support in mobilizing funds for the scale up of the solution.

We seek to train quality Human Resource which will be very much essential for successful replication of the project. Partner's input in developing modules will be very helpful. Apart from that being a not for profit entity we are totally dependent on grants for providing salaries, so in this aspect we will be needing partner's support.

Since we will be reaching out in newer areas to replicate the model, we will require financial support to create awareness and also train Community Cadre and VO members.

At this stage we don't have any particular name partners. We will be willing to partner with any like minded partners who believes in the idea and ready to support the most vulnerable sections of society by enhancing their agency. 

The entire project is based on creating equitable knowledge and access to services to women of rural North East India. This will provide knowledge to a rural women on different financial products and schemes along with services so that an women had enhanced knowledge and can take conscious decision regarding accessing a particular product. Women who have lesser say in the decision making process within the family and also society will have greater participation in decision making through the project. The project is not only looking towards imparting knowledge but also engaging with these rural women for their agency enhancement. We look forward towards creating a bridge between these individual women and systems like the Panchayati Raj Institutions. 

The ASA prize will support us in developing quality Human Resource and sustaining them towards replicating the project and further scaling up with over 10 million rural women and their families in North East India. The ASA prize will be used in expanding the project horizons by capacitating the community level women institutions and community cadres.

The project looks forward in providing digital literacy to women of rural areas of North East India, so that these women knows how to utilize technology in accessing their rights and entitlements. The project apart from building knowledge and access to different developmental products will create a bridge between much rooted patriarchal institutions and women by creating a space in the decision making space. The deep rooted notions embedded in the rural areas that women has no role to play in the digital sphere is something which will be challenged and advocate on equal participation of women in use of digital platform. The entire project not only looks towards imparting knowledge and access to women in accessing technology but holistically looks towards enhancing her agency by creating a systemic change in her being, having and doing level and creating a conducive environment in the society she exist.

The prize will help us in capacitating women and their institutions through a designed intervention plan. The prize will also help us engage with the prevailing systems like the Panchayati Raj System in the rural level which at this time are very much male dominant. The gender digital divide in the rural areas will be addressed and through this project a conducive environment for women will be made to make her aware, knowledgeable and enhance her decision making when it comes to accessing digital technology for benefitting herself, the family and society. 

The project looks forward in providing digital literacy to women of rural areas of North East India, so that these women knows how to utilize technology in accessing their rights and entitlements. The project apart from building knowledge and access to different developmental products will create a bridge between much rooted patriarchal institutions and women by creating a space in the decision making space. The deep rooted notions embedded in the rural areas that women has no role to play in the digital sphere is something which will be challenged and advocate on equal participation of women in use of digital platform. The entire project not only looks towards imparting knowledge and access to women in accessing technology but holistically looks towards enhancing her agency by creating a systemic change in her being, having and doing level and creating a conducive environment in the society she exist.

The prize will help us in capacitating women and their institutions through a designed intervention plan. The prize will also help us engage with the prevailing systems like the Panchayati Raj System in the rural level which at this time are very much male dominant. The gender digital divide in the rural areas will be addressed and through this project a conducive environment for women will be made to make her aware, knowledgeable and enhance her decision making when it comes to accessing digital technology for benefitting herself, the family and society. 

The entire project is based on breaking gender stereotypes on use of digital

technology so that women from SHGs have access to social security
schemes through use of digital platform along with SHGs have planning, training and records of livelihood maintained through online platform. The repeated waves of the pandemic have led the rural economy to sever crisis. With presence of over 70% small and marginal farming families residing in rural North East India their economic status is in ever worst situation. The condition of women is the worst. Whereas the government system has various schemes in place to assist these vulnerable categories but they haven't been able to access these facilities. Major reason behind is the fact that no subsequent level of knowledge is available and access to information is also not readily available. This project addresses the issue by providing knowledge, information and access to different financial products, social security schemes and services through digital means which will be led by women and women institutions.

The GSR prize will be used to replicate the model in Assam and then scaling up to other areas of North East. The prize will help in two dimensions firstly building quality Human Resource and retaining them. Secondly, capacitating women and their institutions in knowledge, information and access to different financial products, social security schemes and services through digital means.