Barriers to Mobile Phone Usage amongst Rural Women

Under the Bharat Inclusion Research and Learning Grant at IIMA researchers surveyed individuals in rural areas of Gujarat, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh states of India. The objective of our study was to understand financial inclusion and information seeking behaviour of women in rural areas. The study followed a two stage sampling method for this study. The first stage consists of looking at districts where there is significant penetration of mobile phones in rural areas. The second stage would consist of selecting villages or blocks where there is significant community wise variation. The sample size was 200 individuals in each state including equal number of men and women .In this experiment researchers looked at households where both spouses are decision makers. And conducted a choice experiment about digital financial inclusion policies that can be availed by individuals.