shift to a cashless economy <\/a>has only made this gap more visible. In cities like Delhi and Mumbai, cash is steadily disappearing from everyday life. Whether it is paying an auto-rickshaw driver, splitting restaurant bills, or buying vegetables from a street vendor, \u201cOnline kardo\u201d (make the payment online) has increasingly become the default response.<\/p>\nMany mothers are also hesitant to switch to UPI, often because of unfamiliarity with technology, fears around online scams, and a long-standing comfort with cash transactions. (Photo: Getty)\n<\/p>\n
\u201cWe live in an age of convenience. I order everything online – from groceries to clothes and home essentials. But when delivery workers started refusing cash payments, I realised I needed to go digital too. They never have change, and with my knee problem, searching the entire house for the exact amount every time someone arrived at the doorstep became exhausting,\u201d says 59-year-old Delhi homemaker Poonam Chawla, who started using UPI only last year – the last person in her family to do so.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt may sound like a small issue, but with knee pain, even these things feel big. In that sense, digital payments have been a blessing.\u201d<\/p>\n
For many homemakers, the switch to UPI comes late but feels like a blessing.\n<\/p>\n
Sociologically, the divide is also tied to the way financial roles have traditionally been organised inside Indian households. Men have historically handled banking, bill payments, paperwork, and formal financial decisions, while women often managed household savings, rationing, and day-to-day budgeting within the home. As financial systems moved from cash to smartphones, many mothers found themselves entering a transition they were never fully introduced to.<\/p>\n
But there is another side to the story too: many mothers are themselves reluctant to adopt UPI.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy mother is a Hindi teacher at a school, and we practically had to force her to keep a UPI app on her phone. Even after teaching her several times, she still calls us whenever she has to make an online payment or even book an Uber. She is also constantly worried about losing money to scams,\u201d says a Delhi-based professional.<\/p>\n
Rita Dasgupta, too, was in a way forced to adopt UPI after her husband\u2019s sudden demise earlier this year.<\/p>\n
\u201cEverything was taken care of by my father-in-law – finances, grocery shopping, everything. But when he passed away, my mother-in-law, who is a teacher and lives alone in Kolkata, had to learn it out of necessity,\u201d says Tiasa, her daughter-in-law. She, otherwise, sees UPI as a burden only \u2013 like many other moms we spoke to, to understand their reluctance on UPI.<\/p>\n
In many cases, the hesitation stems from a generational discomfort with rapidly changing technology and a lack of familiarity with digital systems. Another reason is that women are often the primary savers and budget managers within households, making them extra cautious about anything that could lead to financial loss. As a result, digital payments feel intimidating rather than convenient to them.<\/p>\n
At the same time, not every household follows the same pattern. In Delhi-based Kanupriya Srivastava\u2019s home, her working mother comfortably uses UPI while her working father still avoids digital payments. Her in-laws, too, do not use UPI. The divide, she says, is often less about gender alone and more about familiarity, confidence, and willingness to adapt to technology.<\/p>\n
Still, for many women, learning digital payments is quietly reshaping their relationship with money and independence.<\/p>\n
Pulkit Khandelwal, an advertising professional and storyteller, recently shared how his mother once asked him to help her set up and learn UPI. Since he was in a different city, what began as a simple phone call eventually turned into a three-hour video session.<\/p>\n
She was overjoyed when she finally managed to order something from Myntra on her own and pay for it herself.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy mother now feels liberated and financially independent. Even though she is a homemaker, she no longer has to call us saying, \u2018Beta, ye payment kar de\u2019 or \u2018Usko paise bhej de.\u2019 She is genuinely happy being able to manage the money in her account on her own, and it has brought a significant change to her life.\u201d<\/p>\n
In some households, teaching mothers how to use UPI has quietly become an act of inclusion. Children are increasingly helping their mothers set up payment apps, teaching them how to scan QR codes, transfer money, or book cabs independently.<\/p>\n
The shift may appear small, but for many women, it changes their relationship with money, mobility, and dependence inside the home.<\/p>\n
Today, Sharma no longer waits for her husband or children whenever a delivery arrives at the doorstep. She simply scans the QR code and pays herself. It is a small act, almost invisible in a country where millions of UPI transactions happen every day. But for many Indian mothers, getting there involves overcoming not just technological barriers, but years of habit, hesitation, and dependence on others for digital finances.<\/p>\n
– Ends<\/p>\n
Published By: <\/p>\n
Medha Chawla<\/p>\n
Published On: <\/p>\n
May 17, 2026 11:15 IST<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When 58-year-old Delhi homemaker Renu Sharma asked her husband to install UPI on her phone, her request was…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":489001,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[257],"tags":[96273,8490,18,5441,213353,19,213352,17,279,99366,96280,82,116266,213354],"class_list":{"0":"post-489000","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mobile","8":"tag-cashless-economy","9":"tag-digital-payments","10":"tag-eire","11":"tag-financial-independence","12":"tag-homemakers","13":"tag-ie","14":"tag-indian-mothers","15":"tag-ireland","16":"tag-mobile","17":"tag-online-scams","18":"tag-qr-code-payments","19":"tag-technology","20":"tag-upi-adoption","21":"tag-urban-households"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116589271720236191","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/489000","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=489000"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/489000\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/489001"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=489000"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=489000"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=489000"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}