India, Sept. 2 -- India has made remarkable progress in getting women into the banking system. In 2014, the gender gap in bank account ownership was 20 percentage points. The Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana, launched in 2014, addressed this problem. As on August 12 2026, close to 590 million people were enrolled in the scheme, over 56% of them were women. According to a February 2025 article in Data for India, even among the poorest 20% of the population, 89% of women had a bank account by 2023, compared to 94% of men. This is definitely a success story. But a next-order challenge needs to be solved. India's challenge today is no longer access to banking, but whether women actually have agency over the money in their accounts.

Having an a...