Socioeconomic and Occupational Determinants of Digital Financial Literacy among Working Women in Hyderabad

Digital financial participation cannot rely solely on an account or a smart phone. It is necessary tohave the knowledge, risk sensitivity and redress and recovery procedures to make good decisions ina context of technology-mediated financial environments. This paper explored the socioeconomicand occupational variation in digital financial literacy of 384 working women spread over six GreaterHyderabad Municipal Corporation Zones and 7 occupational groups. A four dimension DigitalFinancial Literacy Index (0-100 scale), descriptive comparisons, internal-consistency assessment andmultiple regression were used in the analysis. A disclosed simulated data set was created based on aquestionnaire and coding scheme that was approved, sampling categories, and model specification,which together made up the analytical dataset. The aggregate literacy 61,00 (SD 26,26) indicatedmoderate level and the overall mean showed an inequality. Risk awareness had the largestdimension mean (66.25) while rights and redress had the smallest (52.99). The regression modelwas significant, F (16, 367) = 12.66, p < .001, and explained 35.6 percent of DFLI variance. Thepositive gradient was most pronounced for income. There was a positive relationship betweenprofessional or doctoral education and literacy and a negative relationship between age andunorganized/informal education and work with the index. After adjustment, work experience did nothave an effect. The findings were consistent with interpretations involving capability-gaps, whereexposure of the institutions, education and economic resources were more aligned with digitalfinancial literacy than location per se. Providing targeted workplace instruction, occupation-specificmaterials and redress through practical training proved to be the most defensible interventions.