Financial inclusion features in half of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals. It’s more important to India with 25% of its rural women still without a bank account. ESAF Bank catering to marginalised households, decided to make banking more inclusive.

The Dabba Savings Account is a banking system tailored around the lives of rural women. It makes banking transactions part of their everyday life. Their savings can now enjoy safety and growth, being in a bank. It also empowers the women, reducing dependency on their men for finances. Thus moving a step closer to sustainably bridging gender gaps in rural societies.

India is largely still a patriarchal society. The education, financial growth, and decision-making power of men is many times prioritised over that of women. Indian women, especially in under-developed rural areas, are raised to be homemakers. Many lack formal education, lack empowerment, and take over a daily routine of chores at home.

Therefore, when it comes to their family’s finances, they have almost no say. Most of them don’t even have a bank account. But they do know the value of saving. In the hopes of saving whatever they can, they try to keep loose cash in a ‘Dabba’ (a steel rice canister) in their kitchens. They believe this act is auspicious. However, it remains vulnerable to other men in their family – who take it away.

ESAF Bank, catering to marginalised households, wanted to help change this situation. We aim to empower these women and bring them to the formal banking system.

Financial inclusion features in eight out of the UN’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals. It is particularly important to India, which currently has 25% of its rural women without a bank account.

ESAF Small Finance Bank caters to marginalised households. Our philosophy, ‘Empowering people, enriching planet, ensuring prosperity’ aligns with the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals. 80% of our customer base is women. Staying true to our values, we created the Dabba Savings Account, a product that’s financially inclusive to the marginalised women in rural India. It demonstrates our commitment to a sustainable society and environment.

ESAF Bank believes financial empowerment should be made attainable to everyone regardless of gender or background. We constantly strive to be financially inclusive to the marginalised, so they can experience the benefits of banking.

The Dabba Savings Account was created with this sole purpose, bringing the brand a step closer to bridging these societal gaps. We managed to get these women to join formal banking because the Dabba Savings Account is rooted in their culture. It was a banking system we placed in their remote villages and in their homes. Thus we gave the women financial growth and stability by making no change in their lifestyle.

ESAF Bank believes financial empowerment should be made attainable to everyone regardless of gender or background. Being a social bank that caters to marginalised households, ESAF Bank wanted to bring the benefits of formal banking to the women of rural India.

25% of Indian rural women still do not have a bank account. These women didn’t find traditional banking very feasible. Moreover, they believed it to be auspicious to save cash in a rice dabba in the kitchen. But men in their family took it away. It was a saving tradition that lacked security.

The brief from ESAF Bank, was to make these marginalised women a part of the formal banking system.

Our objective was to get these savings to the safety of a bank and give them an opportunity to grow their money. In turn empowering these women and making them part of the banking system.

Marginalised women in rural India lead a very different life. This is a culture where women are primarily homemakers, and their education or financial independence is not a priority. The lack of this puts them in an inferior position to their men, and they do not have much decision-making power.

But they do know the value of saving. They believe it is auspicious to save cash in a rice dabba in the kitchen. But men in their family take it away. These women have monthly meetings in the village that they attend without men, where they address issues and find solutions in the solace of fellow women.

ESAF Bank wanted to empower these women with financial inclusion. Our solution did not end at providing them with a safer dabba and opening bank accounts for them secretly, we made conscious efforts not to publicise it with no advertising or PR.

We re-created the steel rice dabba to have a partition hidden in plain sight. While the top section continues to store rice, the hidden bottom section could safely store the women’s cash. So that they can continue their tradition of saving, without other men in their family taking it away.

Further, we provided a Savings Bank Account for them. We also facilitated easy deposit and withdrawal systems that were a part of their daily rural lives. So they don’t have to forego their household chores, while spending a day traveling to the town, just to go to the bank.

While these women could definitely benefit from a bank account, it was clear that they needed to keep it a secret. How do we distribute these Dabbas to the women without attracting the attention of other men in their family? How do we integrate formal banking into their village lifestyle?

We figured there is a women-only village gathering they attend monthly. They also frequent their neighbourhood rice shops to restock rice. These places could be our touchpoints to integrate banking facilities for the women.

For the sake of their privacy, we also wanted to keep the whole project a secret amongst the women – with absolutely no publicity.

Our female bank employees began attending the women’s monthly gatherings. We demonstrated how the new Dabba works and where they could hide their cash. We distributed these Dabbas to them while opening ESAF Savings Accounts in their names.

The women continued their habit of saving, now with safety. They brought these savings to the subsequent meetings, which we collected and deposited in their accounts.

We also created an easy withdrawal system for the women - at the rice shops they frequent in the neighbourhood. We equipped the rice shopkeepers with micro-ATMs having India’s unique biometric technology - Aadhaar. The women could authenticate with a fingerprint, and the shopkeepers handed them the cash.

We launched this project in eight of the under-served districts in Southern India as the first phase. However, we did not to do any advertising or publicity – so the women could keep it a secret amongst themselves.

The Dabba Savings Account was created to overcome barriers that stand between the marginalised and financial growth. Within the first few months, we managed to get 121,670 women to open accounts, secretly.

They started doing bank transactions for the first time, no longer fearing banking formalities.

Thanks to their new Dabba, they felt their savings reached the bank safely. They felt content in knowing that the money they saved for their children is now growing. All without visiting a bank. They felt empowered, no longer depending too much on their husbands.

A traditional, intimidating bank is now a friendly woman representative who is a regular at their village meetings. ESAF Small Finance Bank is now enjoying an image of an understanding and trusted partner to these rural women.

The Dabba Savings Account is an introductory product for marginalised women in India to join banking. In doing so, it not only changed their intimidating idea of banking, but gave these women empowerment and financial independence in their own households.

With this, we proved banking is possible for those who lack education and live far away from banks, in the hopes that these won’t be barriers in the future for the marginalised to join banking.

The women no longer depended much on their men for finances. They felt they could now save for their children and watch it grow. All without complex paperwork or visiting a bank.

We began by launching this project in eight districts in Southern India. But looking at the positive impact, we decided to extend it to the whole country.

We believe that when a woman is empowered, her family prospers, and eventually the entire community.

N/A