Citizens’ Voices

The study sought to determine whether the UK's investments in India have adequately addressed the needs and priorities of rural and urban marginalised people.

Our Focus

What are their needs and aspirations?

How their needs are being met (or not met)?

Does UK Aid-funded public and private sector programs/investments deliver the broad results or changes expected?

The Independent Commission for Aid Impact (ICAI), UK has commissioned a review through Ecorys (an international provider of research, consulting, programme management and communications services based in Birmingham, UK) to explore the relevance of the UK’s investments in India to the needs and priorities of Indian citizens. In this review, citizens have been defined broadly as individuals who are, as well as are intended to be or potentially could be beneficiaries of the UK Aid programmes and investments. However, this definition specifically includes citizens from the Bottom of the Pyramid (BOP) which in the Indian context means – the scheduled castes, scheduled tribes, women, and persons with disability among other vulnerable groups. However, it also considers households and communities that have come out of poverty in recent years and have shown some upward economic mobility.

As part of this review, PRIA was engaged by the Ecorys for the component “Listening to Citizens’ Voices through Participatory Research”. PRIA undertook this research in the states of Delhi, Odisha, Madhya Pradesh, and Maharashtra. The data was collected using various participatory research methods from 8th July to 4th August 2022. The field data collected from various research locations were collated and analysed. This report presents the emerging findings on five broad areas of participatory inquiries:

• Access to financial services including financial inclusion (access to banking focusing on savings and credit; ease of payments, especially digital payments; and access to insurances especially life insurance, health insurance and social security such as pension schemes)
• Access to agribusiness financing and lending to micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) and microfinance
• Access to jobs, employment, and livelihood including social security for informal and migrant workers
• Access to clean energy including electricity 
• Access to affordable housing

A review of the UK Aid’s project portfolio guided the identification of these broad areas and associated programmes of the Government of India and various states government for inclusion in the research study. For example: The financial inclusion policies and programmes of the Indian government are closely aligned with the “Harnessing Innovation for Financial Inclusion (HiFi)” – a technical cooperation project implemented by the FCDO. This programme aims to provide access to poor people to a broad range of financial services such as payments, savings, loans and insurance by continuing to support piloting new ideas and approaches, and to support technical assistance to the regulators and commercial players for enhancing industry knowledge and practice about business models, pricing and design of financial products.

The Poorest States Inclusive Growth Programme, implemented by FCDO, aims to ensure poor and vulnerable people, particularly women, in low-income states benefit from economic growth through better access to financial services. The programme includes microfinance and women’s empowerment.