According to a research by the State Bank of India (SBI), women should make up 30 per cent of the business correspondent (BC) workforce. According to the survey, while women own the majority of Jan Dhan Yojana accounts (55 per cent), their use lags behind men's and they are frequently inactive.
“Participation of women as BC agents needs a strong push as the BC network is disproportionately dominated by men owing to a host of issues, attributed to socio-economic factors, limited mobility, lopsided selection process and educational background realities in select pockets of our country,” said the report, authored by SBI Group chief economist Soumya Kanti Ghosh.
BCs, or Bank Mitras, are bank agents that perform basic banking services such as deposits, withdrawals, and fund transfers in exchange for a commission from the bank. According to the report, female BCs are less susceptible to malpractices and less likely to do fraudulent acts. "Because socioeconomic restrictions prevent them from finding other paid work, they are more devoted," the research stated. Their involvement would increase financial inclusion and encourage additional women to join in financial transactions.
Women agents make up less than 10 per cent of the BC workforce at the moment. In the northern, eastern, and central states, the problem is particularly severe. The southern states score higher on this metric, indicating that digital literacy is spreading to the bottom of the pyramid and is now being used at the grassroots level.