Published Paper Details:

The mode of payment shift from cash to click has led to remarkable success in the Indian economy. There are numerous factors that have been attributed to the success of adopting online payment transactions. In our nation, there are 48.4% females for every 51.6% males. The literacy rate of the country has reached 74.04 percent, where 82.14 percent of men and 65.46 percent of women can read and write. According to the internet usage statistics for January 2024, India recorded a total of 751.5 million users. The rural activities of the 700 million smart-phone users of India exceeded 425 million in January 2023. Statistically, in India, 48.4 percent of the population is female and 51.6 percent is male, although less than 32 percent of women own cell phones, whereas more than 60 percent of men own them. Unified Payment Interface (UPI) has played an important part in the tremendous growth seen in digital payments in India, with transaction numbers increasing from 2,071 crore during FY 2017-18 to over 22,831 crore during FY 2024-25. However, it is difficult to quantify women's participation in transactions through UPI because no data specific to women's usage of UPI services is available to the public. As reported by Aarti Deo, Engineering Director of Google Pay (GPay) in 2023, "Less than 30 percent of users of India's UPI were women." Recently, in 2024, "Only 25 percent of payment users in the country were women, and they comprised even fewer numbers in semi-urban and rural areas," according to Nalin Bansal, Chief of Corporate Business and Key Initiatives at NPCI. The number of UPI users in the country is less than 30 percent female. The present research analyzed the development of cashless transactions in India since their emergence, analyzing the knowledge and use of digital payment systems and the demographic analysis of people involved in the process of cashless acceptance among rural women.