Leveraging E-governance to Promote Women’s Digital Financial Inclusion: Insights from Assam’s Orunodoi Scheme

Abstract

 E-governance has emerged as a transformative tool in social welfare delivery for enhancing efficiency, transparency, inclusivity, and better service delivery. The integration of digital mechanisms into welfare programmes has created a new atmosphere for women’s financial inclusion and empowerment. The present study primarily investigates the impacts of Assam’s ‘Orunodoi scheme’, the largest social welfare scheme in the socio-political history of Assam, launched in 2020,aimed at ensuring the financial empowerment of women and poverty reduction among marginalized women-headed households. The study was conducted in two blocks of Nalbari district, with qualitative interviews through an open-ended questionnaire for an in-depth understanding of the beneficiaries lived experience with the scheme’s impact. The research findings revealed a high level of satisfaction among beneficiaries, which promotes financial inclusion, household savings, pride and dignity, and increases decision-making power within the households. However, some shortcomings are also identified such as digital illiteracy, an infrastructural gap, and technological errors with the scheme. The paper concludes by recommending strengthening the e-governance mechanism, expanding financial inclusion, and ensuring a responsive grievance redress mechanism for the efficient and transparent welfare delivery to people.