NerdyBird Financial Wellness was born out of my vision to see women around the world feeling confident with money. Until now, NerdyBird’s focus has been to help working women from Indian cities with a college education, predominantly from higher income groups.
Recently I had the good fortune of designing a pilot workshop on financial wellbeing for working women in rural India. A workshop for women in rural India meant a focus on women from low to very low income groups, minimal levels of literacy, and with less or almost negligible support from the “patriarch” of the family.
The workshop was hosted by SAGARA Vikasa, a mutually-aided cooperative thrift society (MACTS) in the town of Bheemunipatnam (Bheemili), for their women cooperative members. Under the leadership of Mr. Srinivasa Rao, the cooperative has built a member base of more than 5000 members with a total savings of around Rs.5 crore. Thirty enterprising women members from the cooperative, in the age group of 30 to 50 years, participated in the workshop.
The town of Bheemili on the coast of Andhra Pradesh was once a thriving fishing hub. With rampant urbanization and industrial development, most inhabitants of Bheemili and nearby villages have shifted to secondary and tertiary sectors, while many have migrated to cities nearby in search of work. Sources of income of the workshop participants varied from tailoring, chicken shops and grocery shops to clothing shops and cosmetic stores. There were also a couple of participants who were looking to start earning.
The objective of the workshop was to nudge the participants to think about their financial wellbeing and brainstorm ways to improve it.
The workshop was facilitated in Telugu by Sudha Raju. Sudha, an assistant manager with a corporate in Bangalore, recently completed her certification as a Wellness Coach.
Sudha took the participants through an intuitive step-by-step process to develop a more meaningful relationship with money. She nudged the women to think more deeply about their dreams, aspirations and goals. With many participants having a low level of literacy, Sudha encouraged them to draw pictures or write keywords to articulate their goals. She also helped them work out the money side to their goals - how much they needed and by when.
The women brainstormed about smart money habits, empowering money beliefs, support systems and accountability they needed in place to accomplish their goals. In the video below, Revalla Varalu describes how her money beliefs shaped her relationship with money 👇🏾
The group also discussed some of the roadblocks they expected to face in their journeys towards their financial goals.
Speaking about needs and wants when it comes to spending, one of the participants explained, “It is generally believed that wives spend a lot when couples go out shopping. But in my case, If I go out shopping with my husband, I sometimes pull him to the side and ask him if the purchase is really necessary.”
Kambaala Ravanamma shared her thoughts about children and money. Some excerpts from what she said, are in the video below 👇🏾
Towards the end of the workshop, each participant shared a key takeaway that she hoped to put into action immediately.
MY biggest takeaway from the workshop was this 👉🏾 When it comes to their financial wellbeing, women in rural and semi-urban India are at a bigger disadvantage vis-à-vis women in urban India . The low levels of literacy makes it harder for them to navigate the world of financial products and services. More often than not, they get conned into believing what’s ‘suitable’ for them. Moreover, while they are teeming with new business ideas, buyer markets feel inaccessible to them.
As a follow-up, we hope to to empower the participants to choose suitable financial products smartly and independently. We also hope to coach them to unlock their full potential, and to ramp up some of their business ideas.
Leaving you with this collage of a fun game Sudha organized as an ice-breaker at the beginning of the workshop 👇🏾 The idea behind the game was to nudge the women to think about all of what goes into accomplishing a goal - the vision, taking stock of where you are, the action plan and the action!
I was inspired by the grit and determination of the women of Bheemili to secure their financial future. With this pilot workshop, I hope NerdyBird Financial Wellness finds a viable and impactful way to scale the Financial Wellbeing movement to women in rural India. After all, rural India is nearly 70% of India.