Fuelling India's Mutual Fund Boom: An Analysis of Increasing Women Investor Participation

Abstract

Over the past decade, the mutual fund industry has grown tremendously and becoming an incredibly significant part of the Indian economy. Mutual fund market helps general population to be the part of capital market indirectly by pooling money from the investors, those who wants to invest their money in the stock market instruments with an objective to earn better return with minimum risk. Since the establishment of mutual fund industry in India men’s are solely dominated the mutual fund market and also actively participated in it but in the recent years Indian women’s awareness and participation towards mutual fund has increases due to enhancement in their financial literacy and will to getting financial independence. In the last five years, there has been a significant surge in the number of women investing in mutual funds in India. The assets managed on behalf of women have more than doubled, rising from ₹4.59 lakh crore in March 2019 to ₹11.25 lakh crore by March 2024. Women now account for 23.4% of the total mutual fund industry in the country. As of December 2024, one in every four mutual fund investors was a woman, and approximately ₹33 out of every ₹100 invested by individual investors came from women—highlighting a strong upward trend in women taking charge of their financial planning and investments. This study examines the increasing participation of women investors in Indian mutual fund market, drawing insights from secondary data of CRISIL report available on the AMFI website with the aim to analyse the Indian women investors primary sources of guidance, their financial investments between fixed assets and mutual funds, their growing share in mutual fund industry and so on. The findings of this study offer valuable perspectives on the evolving landscape of Indian women's investment behaviour in mutual fund market, highlighting both progress and areas for future growth and targeted interventions.