A Study of Socio-Economic and Financial Inclusion Status of Women Domestic Workers in Pune City

This paper aims at reviewing Socio-Economic and Financial Inclusion Status of Women Domestic Workers in Pune City. On one hand, the socio-economic status of women domestic workers is one of the hindrances in their financial inclusion; and on the other hand, absence of their financial inclusion is a cause of their inferior socio-economic status. The interdependence of these aspects has many dimensions. The objective of this study is to understand the dynamics among these two factors. The exact data about the number of domestic workers in India is not available. However, the NSDC has identified the unorganized sector in Pune, mainly comprising of the domestic help occupation, as a high growth sector. As per a database of the World Bank, in India, only 26.45% of women hold an account at any financial institution. This gap widens when it comes to women working in unorganized sector. This paper is based on quantitative and qualitative analysis of the primary data collected from the domestic workers in Pune; and the literature review of other similar surveys conducted in India. It aims at identifying the reasons behind the financial non-inclusion of women domestic workers with a view to assisting policy makers in chalking out more effective financial inclusion initiatives for them.