ESAF hid a secret cash drawer in the rice canister to bank rural women

Financial inclusion is one of the hardest products to sell to people who distrust banks, and in India about a quarter of rural women have no bank account. Many prefer to save at home in kitchen jars and canisters — a habit with deep cultural meaning, but one that is vulnerable to household members taking the money.

ESAF Small Finance Bank, working with McCann Worldgroup India, redesigned the product around the habit. The bank recreated the steel rice canister, the dabba, with a hidden partition for cash, so women could keep saving exactly as they always had — but safely.

Distribution followed the customer: women staff brought the dabbas to women-only village gatherings, opened savings accounts on the spot and collected deposits regularly, while micro-ATMs were placed at village rice shops for easy withdrawals. Deliberately, none of it was publicized — the campaign respected the privacy of the women it served.

The familiar object removed the intimidation of formal banking. WARC reports that more than 120,000 women opened accounts and that the product contributed to a 35% increase in ESAF's total deposits, with the One Show awarding the work a Merit in Direct Marketing in 2025.