Enabling small savings for women through Whatsapp
Creating a Whatsapp chatbot to help women from lower income groups leverage the power of collective savings
My teammate and I designed this project, winning first prize at a sustainability-focused design challenge organized by GRID Design Studio in Gurgaon, India.
The Problem We Tried to Solve
Women in India, especially in lower-income households, have an intrinsic ability to save money. Often, men in these households spend money frivolously, while women save small amounts to ensure they can provide their children with small joys. However, their savings are informal, usually in the form of cash hidden away from others. How do we create a system that leverages the habit of small savings to add value to the women in urban lower-income groups, helping them in accessing a range of financial services and livelihoods ?
Savings Groups: Adopting an established methodology
In rural India, the concept of Self Help Groups (SHGs) is prevalent. SHGs are groups of women in a village who save money over a fixed period and deposit it together in an account. These women are often brought together by local NGOs, who help organise these women and monitor their progress. Every member contributes, and all deposits are recorded in a ledger. Collectively, these small amounts add up, becoming substantial enough to grow with bank-provided interest. An SHG member can withdraw funds with the approval of other members and repay the amount in instalments over time.
Whatsapp is the gamechanger
WhatsApp is widely used across India, and is free to use. Many women are already familiar with the app, making it an easy transition for managing savings. Whatsapp is also accesible in multiple languages and can be used across different regions.
With the integration of banking services into WhatsApp (as seen with some banks in India), members can potentially manage their SHG account directly through the app. This makes transactions more seamless and accessible.
Conversations and decisions made within the group chat can serve as a digital ledger. This ensures transparency and accountability, as all transactions and agreements are recorded and can be referred back to.
Nivesh (Hindi: investments)is a whatsapp bot that connect women saving groups to banks
Through Nivesh, women can create, join and manage savings groups. It also maintains a dashboard that shows balances and amounts contributed. In a conversational manner, Nivesh makes banking for these groups accessible at their fingertips.
Invite members to savings groups in 3 simple steps
Deposit money like you are texting, pay via UPI links
View savings dashboard to keep track of deposits and loans
Withdraw money with members approval
Applications of this can extended and are scalable
With AI taking centre stage in recent times, the bot can be made very personal and reflective, providing necessary analytics when required
Group-based rules can be introduced to add layers of personalisation for groups
The lending model can extend outwards from the groups in a group-to-person manner where groups can lend money and earn from the interest generated
The saved amount can act as collateral to boost the credit ability of members