“From Borrowers To Builders: Women’s Role In India’s Financial Growth Story” Report released | Current Affairs | Vision IAS
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“From Borrowers To Builders: Women’s Role In India’s Financial Growth Story” Report released

Posted 04 Mar 2025

2 min read

The report has been  jointly published by TransUnion CIBIL,  Women Entrepreneurship Platform (WEP) of NITI Aayog, and MicroSave Consulting (MSC).

Key Highlights

  • Steady Rise in Women Borrowers: Women seeking credit grew ~3X between 2019 and 2024, reflecting increased demand.
  • Demographics of Women Borrower: 60% of women borrowers are from semi-urban or rural areas. 
    • Women under 30 only account for 27% of retail credit uptake by women, compared to 40% for men.
  • Regional Status: Southern states have higher shares of women borrowers as compared to Northern and Central States
  • Rise in Awareness: 27 million women borrowers had checked their credit information and score with CIBIL.

Challenges faced by Women Borrowers

  • Credit Aversion: Women avoid formal loans due to social norms, fear of default repercussions, and complex application processes.
  • Poor Banking Experience: Many banks are unwelcoming and fail to offer advisory services tailored to women’s needs.
  • Limited Institutional Support: Women are perceived as higher-risk borrowers due to limited credit history and business experience.
    • E.g. 79% of women-owned businesses are self-financed, with only 7% of MSME credit directed to women. 
  • Barriers to Credit readiness: Due to lack of necessary documentation, guarantors, and collateral.
    • E.g. ~22.2% of women-led collective enterprises are not credit-ready.

Recommendations

  • Expand Women’s Access to Business Loans: Adopt policies for affordable credit, collect sex-disaggregated data and expand guarantee covers
  • Develop Gender-Intelligent Financial Products by designing tailored products addressing women’s lifecycle needs, social norms  and structural barriers. 
  • Reimagine Credit Risk Assessment: By using AI, big data to prevent gender bias. 
  • Boost Credit Readiness: By promoting digital transactions, bookkeeping, and business formalization.
  • Tags :
  • Women and Finance
  • Women Borrowers
  • Women Credit
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