Effects Of Mobile-Based Financial Services On Migrant Households’ Savings Culture – A Case Study Of Migrant Workers In Dundahera

Abstract

This study examined the role of mobile-based financial services as a safe, convenient, fast, and cheaper channel of remittances; and as a platform for managing savings for migrant households. Unreliable, expensive, and insecure channels of remittances and traditional savings instruments had inhibited migrant households’ ability to utilise their remittances to save and create wealth. To evaluate the effect of mobile-based financial services on migrant workers’ lives, the author conducted a survey with seventy migrant workers employed in the apparel manufacturing units in Dundahera, Gurugram. The results showed that payment in bank accounts had a significant impact on whether migrant workers used mobile-based financial services to operate their bank accounts. In addition, the study found that household savings had increased among the migrant households which used mobile-based financial services to remit money and make payments.