Mapping Women Workers’ Financial Decision-making

The textile/clothing industry, one of the biggest contributors to the Indian economy, is also the second largest employer providing direct employment to 45 million workers, out of which more than 60 percent are women (27 million women workers).

Despite earning stable incomes, workers face liquidity constraints and often find themselves in vicious debt cycles. Traditional surveys are not enough to capture the complexities of these workers’ financial lives, especially of women workers’. Financial diaries presents a valuable alternative, providing high-frequency, granular data on women workers’ financial behaviors and the structural barriers that prevent them from improving their situation. These diaries serve as both a research tool and an intervention method.

What are the key patterns of financial transactions among garment workers? When, why, and how do they handle their income and expenses? In face of financial shocks, how do women, especially, manage stress  and cash flows? To what extent do women exercise agency in independent financial decision-making? What are their goals, aspirations, and limitations?

Designed in house, financial diaries application is a user-friendly digital platform that enables workers to log their daily cash flows. Accessible on factory-site tablets, it prompts workers to manually input transactions, which are automatically categorized to generate weekly and monthly financial reports. With a GBL team member assisting in interpretation, these reports help workers understand their financial management.

The year-long study will recruit 320 workers in total, split into four batches of 80. Each worker will record daily diary entries for three months, with new batches starting every quarter.

• Weekly financial volatility 
• Proportion of inflows that came from wages/salary or through borrowings, intra-household transfers, and other sources
• Cash outflows amounts and across different category of expenditures
• Mode of payments (cash, UPI, card transactions, others)