Hyderabad: Women's Savings Day is celebrated on April 14 every year throughout India. The Women's Savings Day is celebrated with the participation of the Director of Small Savings and the Regional Director of the Nation Savings Institute and other important officials of the state and Centre.
The day focuses on inculcating the habit of small savings among women by creating awareness about the Mahila Pradhan Kshetriya Bachat Yojana (MPKBY) and other women-centric schemes. The day aims for women to become financially stable and take the first step into their financial independence.
Savings play an important role in everything from owning a home to enjoying a comfortable retirement. Empowering women financially not only ensures their independence but also contributes to overall social progress. However, many women in our country are far behind in the path of financial independence. A big reason women save less than men is that they earn less money to save, but the truth is that women have more reasons than men to start saving.
Why Women Should Start Saving?
Women need to save twice as much as a man because being a woman puts you at a disadvantage when it comes to building retirement resources. Women have to overcome various adversities to survive. Most women quit their jobs after marriage and become dependent on their husbands, but financial independence becomes more important in certain situations, such as when they are divorced or single mothers with children. However, women can also contribute to the family, children's education or any emergency if they are financially independent.
Career aspects are uncertain in a woman's life. From leaving a job to get married somewhere far away to taking time off to have a baby. The finances of a woman suffer in the whole process. Making oneself financially empowered and independent is also an important step in the path to success for women.
Gender pay gap:
- According to The Global Gender Gap Index 2023, India has closed 64.3 per cent of the overall gender gap, ranking 127th on the global index
- The shares of women in senior positions and technical roles have dropped slightly since the last edition
- India holds 28.26 per cent female and 76.14 per cent male in Labour-force participation rate (%)
- Inheritance rights for widows and daughters are uneven in India
- The huge Gender Gap is noticeable in estimated earned income (int'l $ 1,000) are 2.40 for a female and 10.52 for men
- The gender pay gap is huge in India. According to the Monster Salary Index (MSI), women in India earn 20 per cent less than men. While men earn an average hourly wage of Rs 231, women earn only Rs 184.8.
- The pay gap also widens with experience: while men with two years of experience earn 7.8 per cent more in median wages, those with 11 or more years of experience earn 25 per cent more
- Women tend to live longer, with a life expectancy at birth of 69.9 years, compared to 66.9 years for men. This means that women need to have bigger savings than men after retirement to make it last them longer, but if a man earns Rs 40,000 a month and puts away 10 per cent of that amount for retirement, he will save Rs 48,000 a year. On the other hand, a 20 per cent lower salary means the woman would earn Rs 32,000 a month and save only Rs 38,400 a year, thereby reducing the corpus substantially
- Not only do women earn less, but they also work for fewer years because they usually take time off for child care. On average, they spend about seven years away from work, which means they are not saving during this period. And if they rejoin the workforce, they will start at much lower salaries than their male peers
The Centre has launched various financial and welfare schemes to empower women's financial independence like Sukanya Samriddhi Yojana, Post Office Mahila Samman Savings Scheme, SBI Life Smart Women Advantage Plan, Mukhyamantri Mahila Samman Yojana, and Lakhpati Didi.
The Centre has also launched Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana – National Rural Livelihoods Mission (DAY–NRLM) across the country in a mission mode with the objective of organising the rural poor women into Self Help Groups (SHGs) and nurturing and supporting them till they attain an appreciable increase in incomes over a period of time and improve their quality of life and come out of abject poverty. DAY-NRLM is being implemented across the country in a mission mode since 2011 with the aim to bring at least one woman member from each rural poor household, as per the Socio-Economic Caste Census (SECC) 2011 data and process of Participatory Identification of Poor (PIP), into the fold of Self Help Groups (SHGs) and to support them to take economic activities.
As of January 31, 2024, about 9.98 crore women households have been mobilised into 90.39 lakh Self Help Groups (SHGs). The Ministry of Rural Development (MoRD), inter-alia, is implementing Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana –National Rural Livelihoods Mission (DAY-NRLM) and Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) in which Self Help Groups (SHGs) are involved.
Women, being more disciplined than men, find it easier to follow rules and save more money. Women tend to take less risk than men. They are more inclined to opt for safer investment options, such as savings accounts and certificates of deposit in riskier subjects like stocks.
