COMPARATIVE STUDY OF DIGITAL PAYMENT IN RURAL AND URBAN AREAS OF GWALIOR DISTRICT (MP): AWARENESS AND ADOPTION

Abstract

India has witnessed an extraordinary expansion of digital payment in the past decade, driven by rising smartphone penetration, the spread of the Unified Payments Interface, and policy initiatives such as Digital India. This growth, however, has not been uniform, and a persistent gap separates the adoption of digital payment in urban centres from that in rural areas. The present study undertook a comparative analysis of the awareness and adoption of digital payment systems between the rural and urban areas of Gwalior district in Madhya Pradesh, and examined the factors that influence adoption in each setting. A descriptive and comparative survey design was adopted, and data were collected from 400 respondents—200 from urban Gwalior and 200 from the rural blocks of the district—through a structured questionnaire. The findings reveal that awareness and adoption of digital payment are significantly higher among urban respondents than among rural respondents, and that the dominant mode of digital payment in both areas is the mobile-based Unified Payments Interface. Adoption is shaped by smartphone and internet availability, education, income, and trust, and the relative weight of these factors differs between the two settings. The study concludes that bridging the rural-urban gap requires targeted attention to connectivity, digital literacy, and trust, and it offers recommendations for policy and practice.