Around 85% of an approximately estimated 3.23 crore registered stock market investors in India are men. While the burgeoning investor base has attracted the younger generation of investors, it hasn’t been able to narrow down the gender divide. In its first ever attempt to educate women about share market, and bridge the gender gap, Metropolitan Stock Exchange of India Ltd (MSE) in association with Engendered, a cause marketing ecosystem to support women, organized a conference for women investors in Bangalore on Friday.
The World Investor Week is observed by International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO) and coordinated by Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) in India. As part of this initiative, this year, MSE along with Engendered and Prose Integrated, a digital outreach agency, will be reaching out to 2 lakh women from Karnataka to educate them about financial markets.
Highlighting the need to educate and motivate women to engage in stock market, PK Ramesh, Head of Regulatory Affairs and Operations, said, “Women are leading in all walks of today. The New-age woman is ambitious, full of energy, looking for newer opportunities and avenues of learning. As a part of our ongoing investor education series, we have always seen a larger turnout of male dominated audience groups. In order to consciously spread awareness in the Women Population, we have taken this initiative ‘ SHARE-THE-MARKET’ to educate women population and induct them to the world of capital market investing. MSE with support of SEBI is looking forward to many similar programmes to empower women investors.”
“This year, as part of World Investor Week initiative, we are spreading the message that ‘an informed investor is a protected investor’. Through awareness programs, we are appealing to the investors to be more educated and take informed decisions,” said Rajani Agadi Kori, Assistant General Manager, SEBI.
Emphasizing how education on capital market can come handy for women looking for flexible work opportunity, Prajakta Kuwalekar, Founder and CEO, Engendered, said, “Women need to negotiate better salaries, save money money and invest it wisely. We partnered with MSE to address the gender gap in the BFSI sector and plan to continue inspiring more women to take up financial discipline across India.”
