Women entrepreneurship development in India

Paper prepared by 1) Dr. Prabhakar.B. Vajir Associate Professor D.S.M Mandal Arts, Commerce & Science College, Jintur,Dist : Prabhani 2) CA Bhavna M Binwani Assistant Professor in Accountancy Dept, Smt.CHM College, Ulhasnagar

Abstract Women entrepreneurship development is an essential part of human resource development. Women entrepreneurs have been making a significant impact in all the segments of the economy in India These successful women have made name & wealth for themselves with their hard work, diligence, competence and will power. This paper focuses on women entrepreneur. Any understanding of Indian women, of their identity, and especially of their role taking and breaking new paths, will be incomplete without a walk down the corridors of Indian history where women have lived and internalized various role models. The paper talks about the status of women entrepreneurs and the problems faced by them when they ventured out to carve their own niche in the competitive world of business environment.

Introduction
Woman constitutes the family, which leads to society and Nation. Social and economic development of women is necessary for overall economic development of any society or a country. Entrepreneurship is the state of mind which every woman has in her but has not been capitalized in India in way in which it should be. Due to change in environment, now people are more comfortable to accept leading role of women in our society, though there are some exceptions. Our increasing dependency on service sector has created many entrepreneurial opportunities especially for women where they can excel their skills with maintaining balance in their life. In this dynamic world, women entrepreneurs are an important part of the global quest for sustained economic development and social progress. In India, though women have played a key role in the society, their entrepreneurial ability has not been properly tapped due to the lower status of women in the society. It is only from the Fifth Five Year Plan (1974-78) onwards that their role has been explicitly recognized with a marked shift in the approach from women welfare to women development and empowerment. The development of women entrepreneurship has become an important aspect of our plan priorities. Several policies and programmes are being implemented for the development of women entrepreneurship in India. There is a need for changing the mindset towards women so as to give equal rights as enshrined in the constitution. The progress towards gender equality is slow and is partly due to the failure to attach money to policy commitments. In the words of president APJ Abdul Kalam

"empowering women is a prerequisite for creating a good nation, when women are empowered, society with stability is assured. Empowerment of women is essential as their thoughts and their value systems lead to the development of a good family, good society and ultimately a good nation." When a woman is empowered it does not mean that another individual becomes powerless or is having less power. On the contrary, if a women is empowered her competencies towards decision- making will surely influence her family's behavior.

Women Entrepreneurship Entrepreneurship refers to the act of setting up a new business or reviving an existing business so as to take advantages from new opportunities. Thus, entrepreneurs shape the economy by creating new wealth and new jobs and by inventing new products and services. However, an insight study reveals that it is not about making money, having the greatest ideas, knowing the best sales pitch, applying the best marketing strategy. It is in reality an attitude to create something new and an activity which creates value in the entire social eco-system. Entrepreneurship is a turf where men are the major players, but, lately many women entrepreneurs have also prove their mettle. Women who were earlier the bread maker have now become the bread earners and they are doing a great job indeed. In the simplest sense, women entrepreneurs are those women who take the lead and organize the business or industry and provide employment to others. It signifies that section of female population who venture out into industrial activities. It may be defined as a woman or group of women who initiate, organize and run a business enterprise. However, Government of India has given a broader definition of the term women entrepreneur. It defined women entrepreneur as an enterprise owned and controlled by women having a minimum financial interest of 51% of the capital and giving at least 51% of the employment generated in the enterprise to women. The Indian government has introduced several programmes to promote women entrepreneurship in India. They are as followed: 1) The TREAD programme was operated through Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI). SIDBI has initiated various schemes for the growth of women entrepreneurs through Mahila Udyam Nidhi (MUN), 2)Mahila Vikash for Nidhi (MVN), Micro Credit Scheme(MSC), Women Entrepreneurial Development Programme (EDP), and Marketing Development Fund (MDF) for women entrepreneurs. 3) In the context of the opening up of the economy and the need for upgradation of technology, the Consortium of Women Entrepreneurs of India (CWEI) is a common platform to help the very women entrepreneurs in finding innovative techniques of production and marketing and finance. 4) Stree Shakti Package by SBI 5) Women's University of Mumbai. 6) Self Employed Women's Association (SEWA)

REASONS FOR WOMEN OPTING FOR ENTREPRENEURSHIP Self determination, expectation for recognition, self esteem and career goal are the key drivers for taking up entrepreneurship by women sometimes, women chose such career path for discovering their inner potential, caliber in order to achieve self satisfaction. It can also provide a mean to make best use of their leisure hours. However, dismal economic conditions of the women arising out of unemployment in the family and divorce can compel women into entrepreneurial activities With growing awareness about business and due to growth of educational level, in professional education, industrialization, urbanization and democratic values awareness, the tradition bound Indian society has undergone a change and women entrepreneurs have shifted their entrepreneurial activities to engineering,electronics and energy. They made personal choices, stood up for their convictions and had the courage and strength to enter into new ventures. As a result of these efforts, numbers of women entrepreneurs have increased over the years.

Categories of Women Entrepreneurs in Practice in India First Category Established in big cities Having higher level technical & professional qualifications Nontraditional Items Sound financial positions Second Category Established in cities and towns Having sufficient education Both traditional and nontraditional items Undertaking women services-kindergarten, crches, beauty parlors, health clinic etc Third Category Illiterate women Financially week Involved in family business such as Agriculture, Horticulture, Animal Husbandry, Dairy, Fisheries, Agro Forestry, Handloom, Power loom etc.

Women Entrepreneurship in India States No of Units Registered Tamil Nadu 9618 Uttar Pradesh 7980 Kerala 5487 Punjab 4791 Maharashtra 4339 Gujrat 3872

No. of Women Entrepreneurs 2930 3180 2135 1618 1394 1538

Percentage 30.36 39.84 38.91 33.77 32.12 39.72

Karnataka Madhya Pradesh Other States & UTS Total

3822 2967 14576 57,452

1026 842 4185 18,848

26.84 28.38 28.71 32.82

Women Work Participation in India Year 1970-1971 1980-1981 1990-1991 2000-2001 2010-2011

Percentage 14.2 19.7 22.3 31.6 40.5

Some examples of Women entrepreneur in India Mahila Grih Udyog 7 ladies started in 1959: Lizzat Pappad Lakme Simon Tata Shipping coorporation Mrs. Sumati Morarji Exports Ms. Nina Mehrotra Herbal Heritage Ms. Shahnaz Hussain Balaji films - Ekta Kapoor Kiran Mazumdar - Bio-technology Naina Lal Kidwai, Investment Banker Fortune magazine listed her as one of the world's most powerful businesswomen in 2003. India Inc recognises her as one of its most powerful investment bankers. But Naina Lal Kidwai, HSBC's deputy CEO, can't be reduced to simple woman-banker equations; her professional vision transcends gender. Shahnaz Husain, Herbal Beauty Queen She's the "Estee Lauder of India", with even famous department stores like Galleries Lafayette in

Paris, Harrods and Selfridges in London and Bloomingdales in New York stocking her cosmetics, creams and lotions. Women and the Economy The participation of women in the workforce, the quality of work allotted to them, and their contribution to the GDP are indicators of the extent of their being mainstreamed into the economy. The National Skill Development Programme (NSDP) has identified 231 modular courses for women. It is critical that the training has relevance to the changing labour markets. Efforts are needed to link skill development programmes to the NSDP to ensure relevance and enhance employability. An important strategy for financial inclusion of women, which is crucial for their integration into the economy, has been micro-finance. The model encourages access of SHGs to banks both as a means of savings and as providers of loan services. By March 2010, 69.53 lakh SHGs including those formed under the SGSY had been covered under the National Bank for Agricultural and Rural Development's (NABARD) SHG-bank linkage programme. Of these 76 per cent are exclusively women SHGs, accounting for 72.5 per cent of savings and 82 per cent of outstanding loans. Women Entrepreneurship in India earlier there were 3 Ks: Kitchen, Kids & Knitting, then came 3 Ps: Powder, Pappad & Pickles, At present there are 4 Es: Electricity, Electronics, Energy & Engineering. Promoting Gender Mainstreaming Through Gender Budgeting (GB) Recognizing that women, constituting 48 per cent of India's population, lag behind men on many social indicators like health, education, and economic opportunities and warrant special attention due to their vulnerability and lack of access to resources, GB, as a tool for achieving gender mainstreaming, has been adopted by the government in 2005. The first step in this direction was the establishment of Gender Budgeting Cells in 56 ministries/departments at union level. A significant breakthrough was the introduction of the GB Statement in 2005-06, which is placed in parliament with the Union Budget documents every year. It serves as a reporting mechanism and provides an indication of the funds flowing to women. Over the years, the number of ministries/departments reporting in the GB Statement has gone up from 9 (2005-6) to 29 (201112). The magnitude of GB allocations as a percentage of total budget has also gone up from 2.79 per cent in 2005-6 to 6.22 per cent in 2011-12. Problems of Women Entrepreneurs in India Women in India are faced many problems to get ahead their life in business. A few problems cane be detailed as; 1. The greatest problem to women entrepreneurs is that they are women. A kind of male dominant social order is the building block to them in their way towards business success. Male members think it a big risk financing the ventures run by women. 2. The financial institutions are doubtful about the entrepreneurial abilities of women. The bankers consider women owned business as higher risk than men owned business. The bankers put unrealistic and unreasonable securities to get loan to women entrepreneurs. According to a report by the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), "despite evidence that womans loan repayment rates are higher than men's, women still face more difficulties in

obtaining credit," often due to discriminatory attitudes of banks and informal lending groups 3. Entrepreneurs usually require financial assistance of some kind to launch their ventures - be it a formal bank loan or money from a savings account. Women in developing nations have little access to funds, due to the fact that they are concentrated in poor rural communities with few opportunities to borrow money . The women entrepreneurs are suffering from inadequate financial resources and working capital. The women entrepreneurs lack access to external funds due to their inability to provide tangible security. Very few women have the tangible property in hand. 4. Women's family obligations also bar them from becoming successful entrepreneurs in both developed and developing nations. "Having primary responsibility for children, home and older dependent family members, few women can devote all their time and energies to their business" The financial institutions discourage women entrepreneurs on the belief that they can at any time leave their business and become housewives again. The result is that they are forced to rely on their own savings, and loan from relatives and family friends. 5. Indian women give more emphasis to family ties and relationships. Married women have to make a fine balance between business and home. More over the business success is depends on the support the family members extended to women in the business process and management. The interest of the family members is a determinant factor in the realization of women folk business aspirations. 6. Another argument is that women entrepreneurs have low-level management skills. They have to depend on office staffs and intermediaries, to get things done, especially, the marketing and sales side of business. Here there is more probability for business fallacies like the intermediaries take major part of the surplus or profit. Marketing means mobility and confidence in dealing with the external world, both of which women have been discouraged from developing by social conditioning. Even when they are otherwise in control of an enterprise, they often depend on males of the family in this area. 7. The male - female competition is another factor, which develop hurdles to women entrepreneurs in the business management process. Despite the fact that women entrepreneurs are good in keeping their service prompt and delivery in time, due to lack of organizational skills compared to male entrepreneurs women have to face constraints from competition. The confidence to travel across day and night and even different regions and states are less found in women compared to male entrepreneurs. This shows the low level freedom of expression and freedom of mobility of the women entrepreneurs. 8. Knowledge of alternative source of raw materials availability and high negotiation skills are the basic requirement to run a business. Getting the raw materials from different source with discount prices is the factor that determines the profit margin. Lack of knowledge of availability of the raw materials and low-level negotiation and bargaining skills are the factors, which affect women entrepreneur's business adventures. 9. Knowledge of latest technological changes, know how, and education level of the person are

significant factor that affect business. The literacy rate of women in India is found at low level compared to male population. Many women in developing nations lack the education needed to spur successful entrepreneurship. They are ignorant of new technologies or unskilled in their use, Although great advances are being made in technology, many women's illiteracy, structural difficulties, and lack of access to technical training prevent the technology from being beneficial or even available to females 10. Low-level risk taking attitude is another factor affecting women folk decision to get into business. Low-level education provides low-level self-confidence and self-reliance to the women folk to engage in business, which is continuous risk taking and strategic cession making profession. Investing money, maintaining the operations and ploughing back money for surplus generation requires high risk taking attitude, courage and confidence. Though the risk tolerance ability of the women folk in day-to-day life is high compared to male members, while in business it is found opposite to that. 11. Achievement motivation of the women folk found less compared to male members. The low level of education and confidence leads to low level achievement and advancement motivation among women folk to engage in business operations and running a business concern. 12. Finally high production cost of some business operations adversely affects the development of women entrepreneurs. The installation of new machineries during expansion of the productive capacity and like similar factors dissuades the women entrepreneurs from venturing into new areas. Solutions for Solving the Above Discussed Problems On the basis of the above mentioned problems faced by women entrepreneurs and various other problems too, there is a provision of a number of solution measures to overcome the aforesaid problems. Such solutions or remedies can be well understood as under:1) There should be a continuous attempt to inspire, encourage, motivate and cooperate women entrepreneurs. 2) To enhance the standards of education of women in general there should be effective provisions for their training, practical experience and personality development programmes, to improvise their over-all personality standards. 3) Attempts to establish for them proper training institutes for enhancing their level of workknowledge, skills, risk-taking abilities, enhancing their capabilities. 4) Attempts to bring about a society attitude change, generation of awareness and consciousness on the policy of self-development of women entrepreneurs. 5) Attempts by various NGOs and government organizations to spread information about policies, plans and strategies on the development of women in the field of industry, trade and commerce. 6) Establishing various policies to offer easy finance schemes for economically strengthening the position of women. 7)Forming a cooperative association of women entrepreneurs to mobilize resources and pooling capital funds, in order to help the women in the field of industry, trade and commerce. 8)Offering seed capital, up-liftment schemes, women entrepreneurs fund etc. to encourage them economically.

9) To extend confessional rates facilities and schemes for women entrepreneurs to prosper in the field of enterprise. 10)To establish all India forum to discuss the problems, grievances, issues, and filing complaints against constraints or shortcomings towards the economic progress path of women entrepreneurs and giving suitable decisions in the favour of women entrepreneurs and taking strict stand against the policies or strategies that obstruct the path of economic development of such group of women entrepreneurs. Thus by adopting the following aforesaid measures in letter and spirit the problems associated with women can be solved.

Conclusion
Entrepreneurship among women, no doubt improves the wealth of the nation in general and of the family in particular. Women today are more willing to take up activities that were once considered the preserve of men, and have proved that they are second to no one with respect to contribution to the growth of the economy. It can be said that today we are in a better position wherein women participation in the field of entrepreneurship is increasing at a considerable rate. Efforts are being taken at the economy as brought promise of equality of opportunity in all spheres to the Indian women and laws guaranteed equal rights of participation in political process and equal opportunities and rights in education and employment were enacted. But unfortunately, the government sponsored development activities have benefited only a small section of women i.e. the urban middle class women. Women sector occupies nearly 45% of the Indian population. Despite all these odds, successful womens entrepreneurs do exist. Women entrepreneurs have evidently more to acquire than their males counterparts

References 1. Dhameja S K (2002) , Women Entrepreneurs : Opportunities, performance, problems, Deep publications (p) Ltd, New Delhi, 2. Rajendran N (2003) , "Problems and prospects of women Entrepreneurs" SEDME WEBSITES