Women are earning, but who controls their money? India's financial literacy divide

“He died at 40. She couldn't even access his digital life.”A wealth adviser recounted the story of a client who did not know her husband's banking passwords and was “forced into an exhausting battle, navigating government offices, collecting countless documents, and fighting for basic entitlements.”In Kolhapur, a 27-year-old widow allegedly lost access to Rs 70 lakh in insurance proceeds and gratuity after her husband's death, as she "trusted" her family in financial decisions. Elsewhere, even an established author and retired professor, 75-year-old Alice Stone Nakhimovsky, struggled to understand her family's finances after her husband's sudden death, despite their having saved more than $1 million.These examples, different as they are, expose a common vulnerability; when women are excluded from financial decisions or lack access to information about their household's money, a crisis can leave them struggling to understand, access or protect their own financial future. They are not isolated cases.