Understanding the Adoption of Mobile Wallets Amongst Rural Indian Women

Acknowledging the great paucity of studies concerning the mobile wallet adoption by the rural women in Indian context; this study intended to explore the mobile wallet (M-Wallet) adoption among Indian rural women along with understanding the factors affecting adoption, challenges and possibility of mobile wallet as a tool of women empowerment. This study adopted the embedded mix method design in which both qualitative and quantitative information were obtained concurrently, however the qualitative information was incorporated throughout the quantitative information. Using Census (2011) as frame of reference, data was collected from rural women of Delhi. Purposive and snowball sampling techniques were used for data collection. Data for qualitative phase was collected from 10 females, whereas for quantitative phase data was collected from 208 females. Qualitative data was analysed using thematic analysis whereas quantitative data was analysed with the help of SPSS employing one independent sample t-test and factor analysis. The study concluded that Paytm Google Pay and PhonePe were the most used mobile wallets amongst Indian rural women. Most common usage of mobile wallet by the Indian rural women included recharges and bill payments. Three factors namely the “perceived ease of use” “perceived usefulness” and “social norms” were identified as the facilitators or drivers. “Self-efficacy” was found essential for effectively using the mobile wallets; however rural Indian women considered themselves less confident possessing limited knowledge about the mobile wallets. “Perceived risk” was identified as a restraining factor impeding usage of mobile wallets. Lack of confidence, socio[1]cultural barriers, lack of financial resources and lack of awareness were highlighted as the major challenges faced by rural Indian women while using mobile wallets. Mobile wallets have the possibility to act as a tool of women empowerment by facilitating banking needs of the unbanked, fostering cooperation, self-dependence and promoting self-employment and business amongst the rural Indian women.