The Impact of Financial Inclusion on the Association between Government Cash Transfers and Violence Against Women

This study employs a comprehensive and evidence-oriented analysis of public initiatives of financial benefits and economic empowerment of women with reference to their impact on violence against women (VAW) in the context of Pakistan. Microdata of survey on Economic and Social Wellbeing of Women in Punjab has been analyzed to underscore the aforementioned impact on women aged 15 to 64 years, both married and unmarried. Logit Probit models have been applied for arriving at empirical findings regarding impact of government financial benefits, marital status, household economic wealth status, education, gender of the household head, family size (number of children), area of residence, age, age square and female empowerment through providing them with employment on violence against women. Findings suggest that public initiatives of providing financial benefits to women for the purpose of enhancing their empowerment have empirical evidence with regard to mitigating violence against women in Pakistan. Public policy interventions for initiation of more research for provision of target based financial benefits to the women who are actually trapped in abusive relationships and social milieus are required to be prioritized in Pakistan. In addition to these research support initiatives, the government should link its budgetary allocations to the female entrepreneurship development and stipulate the departments with achievement of given targets for receiving further allocations. The results further suggest that effective planning and meticulous execution of government financial benefits programs designed especially for women play an established role in aggregation of uplifting their financially empowered status as well as decreasing their physical, emotional and sexual exploitation.