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.
