Rural India - A major source of women deposits

'The Trinity Act' is a report, authored by Dr. Soumya Kanti Ghosh, Group Chief Economic Adviser at State Bank of India. It presents an interesting analysis on women deposits:

According to RBI's latest report 'Deposits with Scheduled Commercial A Banks-March 2023 Basic Statistical Return (BSR) 2' the overall deposits of SCB increased by 10.2%, incremental annual deposits of *17.6 trillion. Interestingly, though the share of individuals in total deposits declined during the year, the share of women customers in total deposits continued to increase to 20.5% in the year ending March'23.

Population-group wise data indicates that rural areas are the major source of women deposits. Overall, the per capita women deposits increased by 4618 in the last 5 years, with maximum increase registered in the urban areas. The share of women deposits in overall rural deposits has increased in post pandemic period to 30% in FY23 from 25% in FY19 (prepandemic year). The per capita increase in women deposits in the last 5 years has been driven by private banks.

Further, of the incremental deposits between FY19 and FY23, women deposits accounted for 26% at all India level. The share is again highest in case of rural areas, with women deposits accounting for 41% of the incremental rural de-posits during the same period.