SYNOPSIS

CLOSE THE GENDER GAP THROUGH BANKING

Description
Womens economic empowerment is a prerequisite for sustainable development and pro-poor
growth. Achieving womens economic empowerment requires sound public policies, a holistic
approach and long-term commitment and gender-specific perspectives must be integrated at the
design stage of policy and programming. Women must have more equitable access to assets and
services; infrastructure programs should be designed to benefit the poor, both men and women,
and employment opportunities must be improved while increasing recognition of womens vast
unpaid work. Innovative approaches and partnerships include increased dialogue among
development actors, improved co-ordination amongst donors and support for women organizing
at the national and global level.

Gender equality is central to economic and human development. Equal opportunity for women
and men supports economic growth and helps to reduce poverty. Yet there is no country in the
world where gender inequality does not exist. In most cases, gender inequalities result in
opportunities for women or girls lagging behind those of men and boys.
Significant progress in health and education has been made in the last two decades but there are
still some countries, and groups of women within countries especially those facing other forms
of exclusion such as poverty, ethnicity, or disability who have not shared in this progress.
Some dimensions of gender inequality continue to persist, regardless of progress in health and
education, and of the positive impacts of growth and development. These include inequalities in
economic opportunity, and participation in decision-making in the household, the community
and in politics. The overall situation for women and girls tends to be worst in fragile states and
conflict-affected countries. Since more than half of the aid program is delivered to these
countries, specific attention and responses to gender issues is needed in these situations.The most

destructive effect of unequal gender relations and power distribution is violence against women
which is pervasive and persistent throughout the world.

Objectives
> focus strategically within country programs to address specific barriers and constraints to
gender equality where we can make a meaningful contribution, and take pride in the
contributions we make to gender equality and womens empowerment as a goal in itself
> support programs to address specific priority issues where mainstream programs may not be
the most effective way of reaching women and girls
> help collect evidence to contribute to formulation of policies promoting gender equality and
empowering women, and to understand the different impacts of other policies on women and
men, girls and boys
> participate in the global debate on gender equality and support global efforts to meet
international commitments on gender equality and womens empowerment
> saving the lives of poor women and children through greater access to quality maternal and
child health services
> enabling more children, particularly girls, to attend school for a longer and better education so
they have the skills to build their own futures and, in time, escape poverty
> empowering women to participate in the economy, leadership and education because of the
critical untapped role of women in development

Savings Account
A digital account for low income rural women with no previous access to bank.
Possible to make small deposits & withdrawals through agents using mobile technology.

Credit (Loans)
Credit for micro-entrepreneurs. It can be a group loan i.e., small group of women take loans and
act as guarantors for each other and no physical collateral required.

The group has collective responsibility to repay.

The other segment in the portfolio includes delivering individual loans based on monthly cash
flow analysis of clients income.
These loans are tailored to fit in clients business needs and are with more flexible loan
conditions.
These loans can further be modified to ensure they were appropriate for financing womens rural
business.
Right amount is approved as loan with repayment dates that match income without any collateral
requirement and cosignatory requirements.

Insurance
Recent studies show that healthcare costs often exert the most financial pressure on poor
families.
Micro-finance can be helpful to give security & stability to a poor household.
The scheme offers cash benefit after hospitalization, transportation to hospital, replacement of
lost revenue while business have been closed etc.
It also covers all the hospital stays related to pregnancy.

Group2
ASWIN R KRISHNAN
ARNAB PATRA
ANSAL K GEORGE
ARAVIND JAYAN
AKHIL.S