Unlocking credit for rural women in India: Mann Deshi launches blockchain-based credit scoring solution on Algorand

"No one can steal our thumbs.”

In 1996, Chetna Gala Sinha, the founder of Mann Deshi, a microfinance bank for rural Indian women, explained to members that they needed to create a numerical PIN to access their accounts. 

The women said no. Instead, they suggested using thumbprints for account access, saying, “No one can steal our thumbs.” Today, the Mann Deshi Foundation is expanding on the idea of a “digital thumbprint” to enhance digital identities and credit access. 

For millions of women in India, the lack of a traditional credit history is a major obstacle during conventional credit evaluation or loan approval processes. Although the Mann Deshi Foundation has provided extensive capacity-building support to rural women for decades, its members still struggle to qualify for traditional loans and credit. 

Inadequate collateral, non-existent formal credit history and complex Know Your Customer (KYC) identity documentation create barriers that exclude over 87% of women-owned micro-enterprises from formal loans.
In response, the Mann Deshi Foundation launched the Mann Deshi Credit Scorecard on the Algorand blockchain earlier this year, marking a turning point for credit scoring innovation in India. 

The Credit Scorecard incorporates a pioneering Tokenized Trust Framework (TTF) to dismantle the systemic barriers rural women entrepreneurs face in accessing traditional financial services.

By leveraging Algorand’s blockchain, the initiative expands verifiable digital identities to include an alternative on-chain credit scoring model, enabling women to access credit and financial services previously out of reach. 

The challenge: Persistent barriers to capital access for rural women entrepreneurs

Women micro-entrepreneurs in India have always faced obstacles to using traditional financial services. While organizations like the Mann Deshi Foundation help women build organizational capacity, members trying to qualify for conventional credit or loans still face barriers. 

The result is that some women hit a ceiling when growing their businesses. Lack of traditional credit history, missing documentation and unwieldy, paper-based processes undermine their access to conventional credit to grow micro-businesses into larger enterprises.  

The solution: Blockchain-based alternative credit scoring

Teams from the Mann Deshi Foundation and the Algorand Foundation collaborated to develop the Mann Deshi Credit Scorecard, a blockchain-based credit scoring platform tailored to the unique needs of Mann Deshi’s clients. 

The Mann Deshi Credit Scorecard is a use case built on the Tokenized Trust Framework (TTF) concept. 

The Tokenized Trust Framework

The TTF is a broad foundational framework designed to create verifiable, portable digital credentials that individuals can use to bridge the trust gap between informal and formal sectors. While this case study covers the Mann Deshi credit scorecard example, the Tokenized Trust Framework is a replicable model that can be used in other use cases. 

Adapting the TTF to a Tokenized Credit Scorecard

The Mann Deshi Credit Scorecard goes beyond traditional creditworthiness metrics. It creates a detailed "credit profile" tool that tokenizes banking and transaction history, business ID, business licenses, and social collateral such as certificates from skill training courses.

These tokens form an alternative snapshot of a member’s creditworthiness and business profile. The goal is to increase access to traditional financing sources.

Alternative credit scoring

To help women build credit profiles, the Tokenized Credit Scorecard generates and stores various tokens, each representing a key aspect of an entrepreneur's profile: 

• Verified Identity: This leverages existing KYC information where possible.
• Business Presence: Even informal businesses can be verified by Mann Deshi's field staff.
• Program Participation: Tokens reflect involvement and performance in Mann Deshi's financial literacy and business development programs.
• Repayment History: This includes the entrepreneur's track record with Mann Deshi's internal credit facilities.
• Skills and Certifications: Includes attestations for relevant skills or certifications tied to their enterprise.
• Holistic Data Points: Other verifiable data, such as savings patterns or community standing (if attested by a trusted local verifier), contribute to a comprehensive credit assessment.

Mann Deshi developed the credit score calculator above using a holistic data set from traditional credit markers and non-traditional assets called “social collateral.” 

Innovating privacy through attestation

A key privacy-enhancing innovation of the Mann Deshi system focuses on attestations rather than directly sharing full documents. 

In India, DigiLocker is the government’s secure online document wallet where users can store, share, and verify various documents and certificates issued by government and private entities. 

While DigiLocker stores the foundational documents, the Tokenized Credit Scorecard enables women to show tokens that vouch (attest) for what the documents represent. If the lender accepts the attestation, the applicant does not have to share the entire document. 

For example, instead of sharing an entire bank statement, which often requires providing multiple copies with different agencies, a token could simply attest to a verified “average monthly revenue above X for Y months.”

This approach significantly reduces the risk of exposing personally identifiable information (PII).

But why should a lender trust the token? As the issuer of the bank statement, Mann Deshi acts as the trusted financial source verifying this claim. The attestation system offers a more secure, privacy-preserving approach. 

For the first time in history, rural women in India have control over a privacy-compliant, portable digital financial identity.

Implementation

As a first step, the Mann Deshi team is onboarding the first 500 customers to establish a digital credit score. Creating a credit scorecard involves multiple steps. 

Uploading documents

Teams from Mann Deshi help members upload key paperwork such as KYC documents, business licenses, and training certificates to DigiLocker. The Mann Deshi Credit Scorecard mobile phone app then creates a token representing the respective document. 

The tokens are stored in a digital wallet that uses a key-management system (KMS) for cryptographic key protection. These serve as verifiable, tamper-proof credentials that women can easily share with lenders. The wallet and app feature a user-friendly Web2 interface that hides blockchain complexity.

Mann Deshi’s role as verifier

Mann Deshi plays a crucial role as the primary trusted verifier for many of these scorecard components, utilizing its trained field officers and program managers.

Accessing loans

Equally important, the blockchain-based credit scoring solution reduces friction in the traditional loan application process. 

Women can share specific tokens (or the entire scorecard contextually) with external financial agencies to apply for loans or other products. Agencies can verify the tokens’ authenticity and the verifier’s (Mann Deshi) reputation.

Impact and outcomes

The Mann Deshi Credit Scorecard system provides key benefits in efficiency and control of personal information.

Slashes application times from over a year to just days 

In the past, administrative staff from the Mann Deshi Foundation and Bank physically accompanied members to a traditional bank to vouch for the women and their documents. The process took months, involved multiple trips, and document loss was common.

In addition, women applying for loans usually need the funds within 30 days. Long delays often mean they turn to predatory informal money lenders instead.  A key advantage of the system is that it significantly reduces the administrative burden and processing time for loan applications. 

Reduces administrative burdens for borrowers, lenders and the Mann Deshi Foundation staff

The smartphone app substantially reduces friction in the loan process, reducing administrative overhead and decision time. Instead of sifting through thick folders of paperwork, the applicant can share information electronically, and lenders can quickly verify credentials and creditworthiness. 

Enhances financial inclusion and empowerment

It’s important to remember that this case study only covers phase 1 of a much longer process. The initiative's ultimate success depends on lenders accepting the alternative credit scorecard to grant loans. 

At scale, this innovative approach will open doors to traditional loans and credit, allowing women to expand their businesses, improve their livelihoods, and foster greater economic independence.

Overcoming obstacles

Bringing innovation to existing systems is rarely easy. The team continues to tackle several ongoing challenges:

• Digital literacy and adoption

• Verifier training and standardization

• Connectivity in remote areas

• Integration with microfinance institution systems

• Evolving regulatory landscape

Teams from Mann Deshi and Algorand combined their unique perspectives and expertise to address challenges, from supporting first-time users in building digital literacy to integrating new technology into established microfinance operations.

The first step in a longer journey

Mann Deshi’s founder, Chetna Sinha, observed that this initiative is more than just about credit scores. It is a catalyst for future business growth, helping women grow beyond micro-entrepreneurship to build thriving micro-enterprises that uplift families and communities. 

The program's impact ultimately depends on how many women, who cannot qualify for loans now, are able to do so based on the alternative credit score. If successful, the concept could also be adopted by other organizations and regions facing similar challenges.

The big picture: Blockchain and financial inclusion

The success of the Mann Deshi Credit Scorecard is part of a larger movement toward financial and social inclusion using blockchain technology. 

This cryptography-based, portable digital identity model has the potential to open access to other critical services where informal workers are frequently excluded, such as insurance onboarding, subsidy programs, and pension plans.

A recent example comes from India’s Self-Employed Women's Association (SEWA), which has launched a Digital Health Passport built on Algorand’s blockchain. The project leverages the Algorand blockchain to provide secure, portable, and verifiable digital identities, empowering women with control over their own data and the ability to qualify for and enroll in critical programs and services. 

By reducing the administrative burden and replacing paper-based processes, the SEWA and Mann Deshi projects demonstrate how decentralized technology can bridge gaps and increase inclusion for women working outside the formal economy. Blockchain-based digital wallets provide a secure, portable solution to help them securely manage their identities and access essential financial and social services.

For more information about Algorand and the Mann Deshi project, reach out here or message Anil Kakani, Algorand VP and India Country Head, on X.