Financial exclusion of internal migrant workers of India during COVID-19: can digital financial inclusion be facilitated by AI?

Abstract

ABSTRACT We examine ways to facilitate the digital financial inclusion of internal migrant workers in India, using technologies assisted by Artificial Intelligence. Internal migrant workers, whose vulnerabilities were cruelly exposed during COVID-19, constitute 37% of the population of India. We argue that an AI-enabled solution augmenting preexisting financial transaction processes in public sector banks and post offices could integrate vulnerable groups into the economy and empower them socio-politically. AI-assisted ATMs have the potential to improve digital financial inclusion, bring accountability, ensure security, build trust, and protect privacy in the process of empowering marginalized communities. The paper uses a case study method since it deals with a contemporary event, the deleterious impact of digital and financial exclusion of migrant workers during the COVID-19 pandemic. During the first wave of COVID-19, migrant laborers were stranded without access to basic needs. Facilitating digital financial inclusion could have provided access provisions in desperate situations.