Literacy-independent adoption of digital payments: the moneywork of India’s street vendors
Milind Kamat, Arunima Haldar, Sanjogita RameshPurpose
This study aims to examine how India’s informal street vendors adopt and adapt QR-based digital payments with limited textual literacy. It applies the moneywork framework (Perry and Ferreira, 2018) to surface the hidden labour required by financial transactions in an economically marginalised setting. Across these accounts, empowerment and constraint coexist within the same acts of digital adoption.
Design/methodology/approach
Methodologically, a qualitative design combined thematic analysis of 51 semi-structured interviews with urban and peri-urban vendors and field observation of vendor–customer interactions. Purposive sampling, triangulation and evidence of saturation secured analytical rigour, and the interviews yielded 1,456 codable sentences across four Indian cities.
Findings
Findings suggest literacy-independent adoption, a route to digital payment use that asks vendors to neither read, type, nor calculate. Two mechanisms make it work. The 2V Framework distinguishes between how a payment is confirmed: voice (V1) via soundbox audio and visual (V2) via screen proof, while the QR code merely initiates the transfer. A Community Infrastructure Model (CIM) then describes three supports that sustain the practice: peer demonstration, customer-initiated confirmation, and customer-driven adoption. These mechanisms go beyond the formal institutions and facilitate supply from peers and customers.
Research limitations/implications
The evidence here covers informal vendors in India’s urban and peri-urban marketplaces, so the findings may differ across other socio-economic settings. Future work could test the framework in comparable informal sectors elsewhere.
Practical implications
Interface designers should treat sensory confirmation as central rather than incidental. Policymakers should recognise peer infrastructures as real financial-inclusion assets, and researchers should revisit adoption models that presume individual literacy.
Originality/value
This study on literacy-independent adoption is grounded in dual-modality confirmation and community infrastructure. These are theorised as moneywork, extending the concept beyond its Global North origins into the informal economy (Perry and Ferreira, 2018).