Rural Women Entrepreneurs: Empowering a New India (Kurukshetra November 2020)

Rural Women Entrepreneurs: Empowering a New India

According to Periodic Labor Force Survey 2018 - 19

  • 59.7% of women in rural India are self-employed.
  • 11% are regular wage or salary earners.
  • 29.3% are casual workers.
  • In rural India 57.4% men are self-employed, 14.2% are regular wage or salary earners and 28.3% are casual workers.
  • Most self-employed women in rural India (63%) work as helpers in household enterprises.
  • Jammu and Kashmir, Mizoram, Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan, and Arunachal Pradesh had the highest share of self-employed female workers in rural India.
  • Chandigarh, Kerala, Bihar, and Assam were the states with lowest share of rural women who were self-employed.

PLFS 2017 - 18

  • Self-employed women in rural areas earned the lowest wage among men and women from rural and urban areas.
  • Wages earned by that of self-employed urban men were 4 times that of self-employed rural women.
  • Self-employed men in rural areas was 2.5 times that of self-employed women in rural areas.
  • Self-employed women in urban areas earned 1.7 the wages earned by self-employed women in rural areas.

NITI Aayog՚s Women Entrepreneurship Platform (WEP)

  • It is a digital initiative that aims to reduce the information asymmetry for women entrepreneurs.
  • Launched in 2018.
  • This online platform collaborates with public and private sector organizations and brings information on all women focused schemes, initiatives, and programs in one portal.

Three Pillars

  • Iccha Shakti to motivate inspiring women entrepreneurs to start new business.
  • Gyan Shakti to provide knowledge and ecosystem support to foster budding entrepreneurs.
  • Karma Shakti to provide hands on support in setting up and scaling businesses.

PMEGP Scheme

  • Prime Minister՚s Employment Generation Programme.
  • Implemented by the Khadi and Village Industries Commission (KVIC) as the nodal agency at the national level.
  • State Khadi and Village Industries Board at state level.
  • District Industries and (DICs) and Banks.
  • The beneficiary gets the subsidy under the scheme through her bank into her account which in turn gets the subsidy from the KVIC.
  • Women in rural fall under the special category of beneficiaries where they are expected to contribute only 5% of the project cost getting a subsidy at the rate of 35% .
  • The balance amount of the total cost is given to the beneficiary as a loan from her bank.

Sukanya Samriddhi Account (Girl Child Prosperity Account)

  • Launched in 2015 by the govt. of India.
  • To address the social issues regarding the financial dependence of the women especially those in rural areas.
  • It is a saving scheme to encourage parents to build a fund for the education and marriage expenses of their daughters.
  • Scheme has the highest tax exemption comes with sovereign guarantee and can be opened at the nearest post office.

Some Other Initiatives to Support Rural Women Entrepreneurs

  • Mahila e-haat for women entrepreneurs and self-help groups for showcasing their products that are made or manufactured by them on an online platform.
  • JAM trinity was instrumental in the proliferation of formal financial services.
  • RBI released the National Strategy for Financial Education (NSFE 2020 - 25) to improve financial literacy among women.
  • Women who opened bank accounts under the Jan Dhan Yojana were benefited from the DBT transfer scheme of the govt. during the nationwide lockdown.

Examrace Team at Aug 20, 2021