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Bridging the gender divide in UPI adoption is essential if India’s digital payment revolution is to be truly inclusive
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This article is part of the essay series - Nations, Networks, Narratives: World Telecommunication and Information Society Day 2025.
Over the years, India has cemented its place as the world’s largest digital payment ecosystem. Digital payments are increasingly displacing cash as the primary method of payment, and are utilised at all levels, from street vendors to large shopping malls. In 2023, India alone accounted for 48.5 per cent of global real-time payments volume. This growth in digital payments can be attributed to the growth of Unified Payments Interface (UPI), with its share in the digital market growing to 83 percent in 2024 in India. UPI is India’s indigenous payment system that allows users to operate multiple bank accounts from a single mobile application and facilitates immediate money transfer through mobile devices around the clock. Today, UPI’s transactional values have soared to INR260.56 lakh crore as of March 2025, up from INR21.3 lakh crore in FY 2019-20.
With its tremendous growth, UPI can serve as a crucial tool to enhance digital financial inclusion and improve women’s access to digital financial services. However, there exists a disparity in the usage of the service between men and women. In light of the theme of World Telecommunication and Information Society Day 2025—“Gender equality in digital transformation”—this piece examines the usage patterns of UPI among women and suggests how the gender divide in the adoption of this technology can be bridged.
Gender-specific data regarding UPI usage is not available publicly, making it difficult to accurately evaluate women's participation in UPI transactions.
While the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) has a dedicated tab on its website listing UPI statistics, gender-specific data regarding UPI usage is not available publicly, making it difficult to accurately evaluate women's participation in UPI transactions. In 2023, Aarti Deo, Engineering Director, Google Pay (GPay), noted that “less than 30% of users of India's UPI were women”. More recently, in 2024, Nalin Bansal, Chief of Corporate Business and Key Initiatives at NPCI, noted that “only 25% of payment users” were women, and that female users were “even fewer in semi-urban and rural areas”. On aggregate, it is estimated that less than 30 percent of UPI users in the country are women.
A plethora of surveys and studies mapping UPI usage amongst women have been conducted, some of which are summarised under:
Table 1: Studies mapping UPI usage amongst women in India
| Study | Summary of Findings |
| Financial inclusion through technology and literacy in India: Strategies for sustainable growth by FICCI and CII | The survey covered a sample of 1,033 respondents across key demographic segments. The findings noted that while 69 percent of women use digital banking, only 44 percent transact regularly. UPI was the most preferred transaction mode. |
| Women and Finance by DBS and CRISIL | The survey covered 800 female respondents across 10 cities. The study found that 29 percent of the surveyed women preferred UPI as a payment method. The study also noted that 33 percent of those in the age group of 25-35 years show a strong inclination for using UPI for online shopping. |
| Survey | How do Indians Use UPI? By Artha Global | The rapid survey covered 2,098 respondents. The survey noted that a slightly higher proportion of men (70 percent) reported using UPI compared to women. However, the survey noted that the gender disparity in the sample limited the ability to draw detailed gender-based comparisons. |
| PayNearby Women Financial Index (PWFI) by PayNearby | The study is based on a Pan-India survey conducted by the company at 3,000+ retail locations to record financial transactions of women consumers as observed in those stores. The study noted that cash remained the favoured mode of payment, with 48 percent of women favouring it and that Aadhaar-led transactions and UPI QR codes were gaining momentum in double digits. |
| Understanding UPI Payment Adoption Among Rural Women: Insights from the Technology Acceptance Model | A face-to-face survey was conducted in Mangalore, Karnataka, with a sample size of 300 respondents. 72 of the 300 (24 percent of the respondents) reported that they did not use UPI. |
| A Comparative Study on the Usage Pattern of UPI Payments among Rural and Urban at Kannur District of Kerala | The study is based on a sample of 200 respondents, conducted via convenience sampling in rural and urban areas of Kerala’s Kannur district. The findings indicated that only 12.5 percent of rural and 25 percent of urban female respondents preferred using UPI. |
| Adoption of digital payment avenues among women of selected cities of Saurashtra Region | The study is based on a sample size of 500 women in selected cities of the Saurashtra region. The study noted that 40 percent of urban women and 51 percent of rural women were using UPI. |
| Adoption of UPI as a mode of payment in India: Challenges and way ahead | The study is based on a survey with a sample size of 405 respondents, followed by in-depth interviews. The study noted that while 72 percent of urban men used UPI, only 55percent of urban women did so. Similarly, while 68 percent and 51 percent of men from semi-urban and rural areas used UPI, only 48 percent and 30 percent of women from semi-urban and rural areas used UPI, respectively. |
Source: Compiled by the author
An assessment of the aforementioned surveys and studies demonstrates that there exists a gap in UPI adoption between men and women. The gap can be exacerbated by the geography of the user, with rural women less likely to use UPI. The report “How Urban India Pays” notes that while there is a minimal gender gap in the adoption of digital payments in larger cities, some differences in use persist in smaller cities and towns. Although most of the studies referenced utilise limited sample sizes, making it difficult to generalise the findings, they serve as a preliminary indicator of this gender gap. Several factors contribute to this digital divide, including lack of connectivity, absence of smartphones, lack of digital skills and financial literacy, and absence of financial freedom, resulting in the lower adoption of UPI amongst women.
To enhance the adoption of UPI among women, the NPCI and Women’s World Banking (WWB) have collaborated on the“UPI for Her” initiative, aimed at increasing participation of women in the digital payments system. In its first report, launched in August 2024, the initiative noted that the “addressable market for UPI among women in India is 200 million strong.” The report highlights that UPI has the potential to bridge the gender gap in financial inclusion and recommends several measures to enhance UPI usage among women. These include onboarding women through “phygital” (a blend of "physical" and "digital”) channels, targeted marketing to build confidence in women, gender-intentional inclusive design, gender-based acquisition strategies, and investing in training women to enhance usage.
Several factors contribute to this digital divide, including lack of connectivity, absence of smartphones, lack of digital skills and financial literacy, and absence of financial freedom, resulting in the lower adoption of UPI amongst women.
The first step towards bridging the gender divide in the adoption of UPI is to collect gender disaggregated data mapping UPI usage in the country. Without the relevant data, it is difficult to ascertain the challenges faced by women and women entrepreneurs in UPI adoption, making it difficult to frame appropriate policies. Such datasets that adequately represent the nuances in UPI adoption among women are essential for implementing effective policy measures towards digital financial inclusion. to take appropriate policy measures to enhance the adoption of UPI by women.
In parallel, it is important to bridge the digital divide by ensuring gender-equal access to digital devices. The GSMA Mobile Gender Gap Report 2024 notes that while 85 percent of men own mobiles, only 75 percent of women do so. Of these, only 57 percent of women are aware of mobile internet, and only 37 percent have adopted it. Enabling access to mobile phones and the internet among women, particularly in rural areas, is essential as these are fundamental prerequisites for utilising UPI services. Lastly, enhancing financial literacy and empowering women with greater financial independence are crucial. Equipping them with the knowledge and skills to effectively use fintech services should be a key policy priority.
Bridging the gender gap in UPI usage is essential to enabling women’s meaningful participation in the digital economy. After all, what’s the point of building the world’s largest digital payment system if two-thirds of women are left behind? Implementing policies that enable digital financial inclusion is a prerequisite to achieving greater gender equality.
Basu Chandola is an Associate Fellow at the Observer Research Foundation
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Basu Chandola is an Associate Fellow. His areas of research include competition law, interface of intellectual property rights and competition law, and tech policy. Basu has ...
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