For a country as vast as India, providing financial access to its poor, to meet their diverse financial needs, remains a formidable developmental challenge. More so because over half of its population is excluded from formal financial services. This implies that there is something in the design or the delivery of financial service that fails to match the needs of the currently excluded people of the country. Therefore, understanding the gap becomes imperative to build on the advances made towards achieving inclusive growth.

The aim of the study is to reflect the voices of the women leaders and understand their financial world and their perspectives on financial inclusion. Their role as leaders within this framework was also investigated. It further aimed to understand the ‘other side,’ that is, the views of bankers about the community-level women leaders in microfinance and their relation to the formal world of the banks. The study also sought to carry the issues and challenges through these voices to policymakers and bring to table possibilities of innovative methods of financially including the poor.