EMPOWERMENT OF WOMEN FOR SELF EMPLOYMENT

The last decade has seen a steady rise of women entrepreneurs in India. With a larger number of women taking to entrepreneurship, academic institutions as well as manufacturing industry, the significance of women entrepreneurs cannot be denied. Women in India have crossed many barriers like the gender-based barriers of starting and growing their businesses, discriminatory property, matrimonial and inheritance laws and/or cultural practices. The lack of access to formal finance mechanisms; limited mobility plus access to information and networks are bottlenecks hindering the growth of women entrepreneurs which should be eradicated to entitle them to fuller participation in business.

Women economic independence by entrepreneurship not only provide benefits to her own family but also can reach out to other economic well-being of the other families and communities, thus contributing to the upliftment of women and contributing to society for advancement.

In order to produce more women entrepreneurs in the country, the National Small Industries Corporation (NSIC) has launched a specialised incubation programme for unemployed girls and women to set up their own businesses.

In India, although women constitute the majority of the total population, the entrepreneurial world is still a male-dominated field. NSIC’s incubation programme is an integrated support scheme that will provide hands-on training on working projects. It provides necessary facilities for prospective entrepreneurs and start-ups to enable them to learn about product manufacturing processes, technology development and business development.

According to the MSME ministry, the MSME sector contributes about 45 per cent of India’s total manufactured output and nearly 40 per cent of its exports. There are some 26 million MSMEs in the country, providing employment to more than 60 million persons. Of a total of 1,564,000 registered enterprises, 215,000 or 13.7 per cent are those of women entrepreneurs.

To encourage women to set up their own ventures, the ministry runs a scheme named Trade Related Entrepreneurship Assistance and Development (TREAD), which envisages economic empowerment of women through the development of their entrepreneurial skills in non-farm activities.

Under the scheme, the Central government gives a grant of up to 30 per cent of the total project cost to non-government organisations (NGOs) for promoting entrepreneurship among women. The remaining 70 per cent is financed by the lending agency as a loan for undertaking activities envisaged in the project.

One of the obstacles faced by entrepreneurs is the lack of physical infrastructure. The NSIC Incubation program is an integrated support by way of providing hands on training on working projects, it provides necessary facilities for prospective entrepreneurs and startup companies to learn product manufacturing processes coupled with technology development and business development.

Courtesy: Smetimes, Business-Standard, Press Information Bureau