The Role of Financial Inclusion in Women’s Empowerment in North Karnataka: An Empirical Study of Belagavi and Hubli Dharwad District

DOI

10.2991/978-94-6239-772-9_8How to use a DOI?

Keywords

Financial inclusion; women’s empowerment; Self-Help Groups (SHGs); Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY); digital financial services; rural development; North Karnataka; microfinance

Abstract

Financial accessibility has been intensively investigated in recent years as a way for improving the economic and social well-being of women, notably in developing countries. The study was performed on the females of Belagavi and Hubli-Dharwad districts of North Karnataka. The aim is to explore the level of empowerment of women through financial inclusion. 150 women were interviewed from Self-Help Groups (SHGs), Microfinance Institutions (MFIs) and Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY). Their involvement in different financial inclusion programmes and experiences is the basis for the analysis. This study is descriptive and analytical with a statistical technique of percentage analysis, correlation and regression in data analysis. The findings reveal a positive relationship between financial inclusion and women’s empowerment, especially their access to formal financial services and credit, which is pronounced. All these positively contribute to women’s financial autonomy, ability to make decisions and self-confidence. Formal financial services is cited as the most significant factor. However, digital illiteracy, low awareness and socio-cultural challenges remain to limit ambitious financial inclusion. The findings show that financial inclusion is a crucial element in promoting women’s empowerment and underscore the importance of increasing financial literacy and policies related to digital financial inclusion for sustainable and inclusive development.

Copyright

© 2026 The Author(s)

Open Access

Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Mustaq Mulla
AU  - Rajeena Syed
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/09/07
TI  - The Role of Financial Inclusion in Women’s Empowerment in North Karnataka: An Empirical Study of Belagavi and Hubli Dharwad District
BT  - Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on Innovations and Challenges in Financial Technology (ICICFT 2025)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 78
EP  - 91
SN  - 2352-5428
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-94-6239-772-9_8
DO  - 10.2991/978-94-6239-772-9_8
ID  - Mulla2026
ER  -