UN Praises India's Banking Scheme as Global Model for Women's Empowerment

Sandra Hendriks, the director of policy for UN Women, the world organisation's arm for women's empowerment, said on Wednesday (local time), "The Indian government's example of enabling digital identification for its entire population of women and girls, notably, which constitutes one-fifth of the entire population of women and girls in the world, is indeed a model".

"The lowering of requirements for women and girls across India to have a digital bank account also is a model", she said at a news conference here ahead of next week's 70th annual meeting of the Commission on the Status of Women.

"Digital financial inclusion is an absolutely imperative and transformative pathway for women and girls," she said.

The Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY), now in its 12th year, has brought banking services to women, who now hold 56 per cent of the accounts opened under the programme.

This was enabled by Aadhaar, the universal biometric-based digital identification system.

Hendriks said the PMJDY "is a model because it shows the transformative power and potential of legislative change for women and girls, and when laws support women and girls to thrive, that is, open a bank account, have their own business, this is when lives actually change".

A report from Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on the status of women released before the women's commission meeting focused on access to justice for all women and girls.

It said, "Globally, women have 64 per cent of the legal rights of men, as discriminatory legal frameworks continue to prevail" in many countries.

"Progress is possible", it said. But "achieving it requires a focus on access to substantive and participatory justice outcomes for women and girls, centred on the fundamental human rights to non-discrimination and equality, and an understanding of systemic exclusion and power asymmetries".

(Arul Louis can be contacted at arul.l@ians.in)

- IANS