Women Investors In Stock Market On The Rise? Zerodha's Nithin Kamath Shares Key Stat

The equity investment scenario in India has undergone a drastic change with a significant rise in participation of women over nearly a decade, according to Zerodha co-founder Nithin Kamath. In a post on X, he outlined that women now account for 30% of customers on the platform. This represents a significant increase from 2-3% in 2014-15.

“I still remember that around 2014–15, only 2–3% of our customers were women. Today, that number is about 30%. When I saw this spike, I was surprised and wanted to understand what had changed. So we ran a small survey among a couple of hundred customers,” he said in a X post.

Currently, 50% of women manage their own accounts, while the remaining 50% of women customers take the help of others, such as their husbands, brothers, or children, to operate their trading accounts.

“Roughly 50% of the women use their accounts on their own, while the other 50% have their accounts managed by someone else, such as their husbands, brothers, or children. The fact that half of the accounts are self-managed is a good start, but this needs to change significantly,” Kamath said, highlighting the results of a small survey conducted among a couple of hundred customers.  

Responding to the post, one user wrote, “Create a hedge fund in which women can invest their monthly amount minimum starting from Rs 500 and provide them returns which is more than an FD but less than a SIP at the end of the year.”

Another user suggested, “Add fixed deposits for them and build something, a curated non-risky suggestion for them. Give them dummy investment accounts to invest and trade and let them become confident.”

As per the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation’s (MoSPI) report titled “Women and Men in India 2024: Selected Indicators and Data”, women account for 39.2% of all bank accounts and contribute to 39.7% of total deposits in the country.

The report says that women’s participation is highest in rural areas, where they account for 42.2% of account holders. 

Men’s demat holdings climbed from about 2.66 crore accounts in 2021 to over 11.53 crore in 2024. Women also showed considerable growth in participation, with their accounts rising from nearly 67 lakh to around 2.77 crore over the same period.