Women Empowerment through Micro Entrepreneurship Development and Innovation in India

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1 Women Empowerment through Micro Entrepreneurship Development and Innovation in India Pratibha Giri 1 ReevaVerma 2 Assistant Professor Assistant Professor Dept. of Management Studies Dept. of Management Studies JSSATE, Noida, India JSSATE, Noida, India ABSTRACT Women entrepreneurs are found to have an important impact on the economy of any country. Global economy in general and Indian economy in particular is poised for accelerated growth driven by entrepreneurship. In this dynamic world, women entrepreneurs are a significant part of the global expedition forsustained economic development and social progress. Due to the growing industrialization,urbanization, social legislation and along with the spread of higher education and awareness, the emergence of Women owned businesses are highly increasing in the economies of almost all countries. Indian women had undergone a long way and are becoming increasingly visible and successful in all spheres and have shifted from kitchen to higher level of professional activities.unleashing the power of female entrepreneurship can have a dramatic effect on a country s economy. Female entrepreneurs are increasingly being considered to be an important catalyst for economic growth and development in India, as they are contributing substantially to employment generation, and, as such, female entrepreneurship has become an area of research interest over the past few years.india has major chunk of MSME(Micro small and Medium Enterprises) segment where cluster of talent and technology can be unleashed backed by innovative policies and measures to enhance the social and economic foundation of our nation. Thus, the present study focuses and analyses some important aspects of women empowerment through micro entrepreneurship development and innovation in India and policies for effective programming in women's economic empowerment. Keywords:Entrepreneurship, development, empowerment, Innovation, MSME. 1. INTRODUCTION The emergence of women entrepreneurs and their contribution to the national economy is quite visible in India. The number of women entrepreneurs has grown over a period of time, especially in the 1990s. Women entrepreneurs need to be lauded for their increased utilization of modern technology, increased investments, finding a niche in the export market, creating a sizable employment for others and setting the trend for other women entrepreneurs in the organized sector. Indian women business owners are changing the face of businesses of today, both literally and figuratively. The dynamic growth and expansion of women-owned businesses is one of the defining trends of the past decade, and all indications are that it will continue unabated. For more than a decade, the number of women-owned businesses has grown at one-and-a half to two times the rate of all businesses. Even more important, the expansion in revenues and employment has far exceeded the growth in numbers. The entrepreneurship of women is considered to be an effective instrument to the economic development and empowerment of women. The Self Help Groups is considered to be institutional innovation that fosters empowerment of economically and socially deprived women. Women entrepreneurs have been designated as the new engines for growth and the rising stars of the economies in developing countries to bring prosperity and welfare. A variety of stakeholders has pointed at them as an important untapped source of economic growth and development (Minniti and Naudé, 2010). The World Economic Forum identified women entrepreneurs as the way forward at their annual meeting in 2012 (WEF, 2012). Others speak of women entrepreneurs as if they are the New Women s Movement. They state: forget aid, focus on foreign investment in women entrepreneurs as key drivers for growth and development (Forbes, 2011). The growth 103 Pratibha Giri,, ReevaVerma

2 of the proportion of women entrepreneurs in developing countries has drawn the attention of both the academic and the development sector. Donors, international public institutions, national and local governments, NGOs, private companies, charities, knowledge institutes and business associations have initiated programs or policies to promote and develop women s entrepreneurship. They initiate programs for capacity-building of entrepreneurial skills, strengthening women s networks, provide finance and trainings, or design policies that enable more and stronger start-ups and business growth. They all claim that women entrepreneurship is essential for growth and development. Some even argue that women entrepreneurs contribution tends to be higher than that resulting from entrepreneurial activity of men (Minniti, 2010). In recent years, the general attention to women and entrepreneurship in developing countries has increased to a great extent and the focus on this untapped source of growth seems to be indispensable nowadays for development practitioners and policy makers (Minniti and Naudé, 2010). However, despite this growing number of initiatives and resources made available to promote and develop women s entrepreneurship in developing countries, women still own and manage fewer businesses than men, they earn less money with their businesses that grow slower, are more likely to fail and women tend to be more necessity entrepreneurs. 2. DETERMINANTS EXPLAINING THE GENDER GAP 2.1 Access to financial resources: Even though the literature is not conclusive, a common challenge for women to establish and run a business is access and control over finance (Minniti, 2009; Jamali, 2009). Women entrepreneurs appear to have less access to external sources of capital than men when securing finances. 2.2 Inadequate training and access to information: One challenge often mentioned in research on women entrepreneurs in developing countries is that they enjoy a relatively low level of education and skill training. This, combined with a lack of career guidance, generally seems to limit their access to various publically and privately offered support services including business development services and information on business growth (Kitching and Woldie, 2004; Davis, 2012). Others found that a lack of experience and skills also accounted for the fact that women entrepreneurs had a preference in industry orientation and thus were less well represented in industrial activities. For instance, Drine and Grach (2010) find that Tunisian women entrepreneurs experience challenges as they do not as yet benefit from existing entrepreneurship support. In particular, the authors claim that their results confirm that professional agencies have not been efficient in disseminating information to entrepreneurs, and that the training and assistance provided by support services do not meet the specific needs of women entrepreneurs Similar challenges identified in other developing countries are a lack of access to ICTs, insufficient entrepreneurial and management skills, together with problems in finding the markets and SaskiaVossenberg, March 2013 FINAL 5 distribution networks. For instance, in their study of women s SMEs in Ethiopia, Gurmeet and Belwal (2008) mention that the absence of technological know-how and access to technology and ICTs poses a challenge for women entrepreneurs. Other studies (Gurmeet and Belwal, 2008) reveal that African women do not (yet) possess the necessary skills to adapt to the impact of globalization, evolving technologies and changing patterns of trade. However, to what extend this is the case compared to men in order to establish the gender gap more country and region specific research is needed. 2.3 Work-family interface: Another more recently frequent mentioned challenge is the combination of the business with family responsibilities, which may undermine the success of the business (Jennings and McDougald, 2007). Women entrepreneurs indicate that they deploy several strategies to cope with the double workload and challenges deriving from combining business with family. But while self-employment may provide flexibility, Williams (2004) found that (in Europe) the amount of time spent caring for children are negatively related to success (as measured by self-employment duration). Furthermore, the location of the business at home may also undermine the legitimacy of the business as perceived by customers and creditors (Marlow, 2002). Furthermore, some studies indicate that women strongly rely on support from husbands, partners, and relatives in order to successfully start and grow a business (Jennings and McDougald, 2007; Brush, de Bruin and Welter, 2009). Much more research is needed on the topic of coping strategies to 104 Pratibha Giri,, ReevaVerma

3 combine business with family in general and specifically, on how to engage husbands and other family members in supporting women entrepreneurs in developing countries. 2.4 Women s safety and gender based violence:the issue of safety and protection of women entrepreneurs, especially those operating in the informal economy has also been identified. Even though less documented in academic research, there are numerous stories of killings, harassment and rape of female vendors and microbusiness owners. This results in stress, constant fear and not having the opportunity to freely choose your business location and time of opening hours which seriously limits the chances and choices of becoming a successful entrepreneur for women in some developing countries (Chu et al, 2008; Rajender et al, 2012; Reeves, 2010). However, more research is needed on for example alternative coping strategies (besides policy frameworks) and how women that are facing these challenges can best be supported. 2.5 Lack of societal support: Scholars point out that normative constraints and societal attitudes based on cultural and religious beliefs in some countries are not supportive of the work of women in general or that of women in entrepreneurship in particular (Jamali, 2009; Baughn et al, 2006). In a variety of countries, the perception is that entrepreneurship is an appropriate career choice for men and not women, or only for the poor and not the educated, which in most cases are women. These perceptions are mostly based on the association of entrepreneurship with traditional male stereotypes (Aidis et al., 2007; Bird and Brush, 2002). 2.6 Legal barriers and procedures:varying across countries, the lack of government support in terms of policy, laws and services has been identified as a barrier for women entrepreneurs (Jamali, 2009). Even though this varies greatly SaskiaVossenberg, March 2013 FINAL 6 across countries, most research indicates that regulations, taxation and legal barriers can pose serious obstacles for running and starting a business. This may affect both men and women to a certain extent and more research is needed to identify country specific issues. Data from the annual report Women Business and the Law (World Bank, 2012) measured that in all Middle Eastern and North African countries, women have fewer inheritance rights than men and moreover, there are 1 or more legal differences between women and men that limit women s economic opportunity in over 75% of the world s economies. According to that same report, women only own 1% of the world s property and in 2/3 of countries, legal rights of women decline with marriage, 44 countries restrict the number of hours women can work and 71 countries restrict the types of industries. 3.FEMALE EMPLOYMENT IN SSI SECTOR IN INDIA The total number of female employees in the SSI sector is estimated at 33,17,496. About % of the female employees were employed in the SSI units located in the States of Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka, West Bengal and Andhra Pradesh. The State-wise details are given in the following table. EMPLOYMENT OF FEMALES IN SSI SECTOR, STATE-WISE S. No. Name of State/ UT No. Of Female Employees Regd. sector SSI Unregd. sector SSI Total 1. JAMMU & KASHMIR HIMACHAL PRADESH PUNJAB CHANDIGARH UTTARANCHAL HARYANA Pratibha Giri,, ReevaVerma

4 7. DELHI RAJASTHAN UTTAR PRADESH BIHAR SIKKIM ARUNACHAL PRADESH NAGALAND MANIPUR MIZORAM TRIPURA MEGHALAYA ASSAM WEST BENGAL JHARKHAND ORISSA CHHATTISGARH MADHYA PRADESH GUJARAT & 26 DAMAN & DIU & DADRA & NAGAR HAVELI MAHARASHTRA ANDHRA PRADESH KARNATAKA GOA LAKSHADWEEP KERALA TAMIL NADU PONDICHERRY ANDAMAN & NICOBAR ISLANDS All India The proportion of female employees in the total employment in the SSI sector was of the order of %. In the States of Mizoram, Orissa, Karnataka, Goa, Lakshadweep, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Pondicherry, the share of women employment was significantly higher (more than 20 %) compared to the total employment in the respective States. 106 Pratibha Giri,, ReevaVerma

5 S. No. Name of State/ UT 1. JAMMU & KASHMIR HIMACHAL PRADESH PUNJAB CHANDIGARH UTTARANCHAL HARYANA DELHI RAJASTHAN UTTAR PRADESH BIHAR SIKKIM ARUNACHAL PRADESH NAGALAND MANIPUR MIZORAM TRIPURA MEGHALAYA ASSAM WEST BENGAL JHARKHAND ORISSA CHHATTISGARH MADHYA PRADESH GUJARAT & 26 DAMAN & DIU & DADRA & NAGAR HAVELI MAHARASHTRA ANDHRA PRADESH KARNATAKA GOA LAKSHADWEEP KERALA TAMIL NADU PONDICHERRY ANDAMAN & NICOBAR ISLANDS 5.59 All India Percentage of Female employment in the total employment of the State 107 Pratibha Giri,, ReevaVerma

6 4. EXISTING POLICIES FOR EFFECTIVE PROGRAMMING IN WOMEN'S ECONOMIC EMPOWERMENT Various policies of MSME for women s entrepreneurship development play a major role in thisprocess. After reviewing existing policies and the way they impinge on women enterprises, the keyfindings can be classified under the following broad headings: 1. Regulatory Policies; 2. Promotional Policies; 3. Credit Policies; 4. Representational Policies. To measure the benefits offered to women in enterprise development, the policies are further categorized as: i) Women-specific Policies where 100 per cent of allocation is meant for women; ii) Pro-women policies - which incorporate at least 30 percent of allocation for women or are significantly beneficial to women and; iii) Gender-neutral policies - meant for the community as a whole (both men and women). 1. Regulatory Policies: Policies concerned with ensuring compliance, by individual women entrepreneurs, firms, with laws, and the rules and regulations laid down under those laws for various aspects of a business are classified as regulatory policies. Those are related to: Registration and incorporation, licensing for production and quotas for scarce raw materials, taxation, labour wages, welfare and safety, environmental protection, consumer protection quality and standards and specific subsector laws and rules, etc. One can conclude the following: - Regulatory policies are well structured for enterprise development; most are gender -neutral,few women-specific. - In practice, regulation has become distorted and many regulations are too complex to be implemented effectively. 2. Promotional Policies: Policies that have been applied directly or indirectly to women for promotion of self-employment and entrepreneurship, specific subsectors, traditional industries and industries in backward regions are classified as promotional policies. Those are related to self-employment and entrepreneurship. Key points arising from a review of those policies can be summarized as follows: - Inadequate attention is given to promotion of primary resource base, physical and social infrastructure (lack of literacy, skill building, etc.) for small and micro entrepreneurial activities for women. - Promotional strategies adopted by the Government have often sought to preserve employmentrather than further develop the economic potential. - There have been numerous efforts to promote women s entrepreneurship and subsectors, eventhough the overall policy framework is gender -neutral. - Only the micro credit and women and industry national policies for the empowerment of women have very specific gender focus. 3. Credit Policies: Policies that have been applied directly or indirectly to women for credit andfinance support for business are credit policies. They relate to credit and finance support andinstitutional arrangement for credit and finance support. The following can be said in relationto those policies: - Those policies increase direct lending to selected sectors such as agriculture and small-scale industry; it was initiated in priority sectors first and then extended to specific categories such as rural poor as part of Government schemes. - The Indian credit system comprises of two main streams: a) the commercial banking system including commercial banks and regional rural banks; b) the cooperative credit system which extends subsidized credit. Besides marginal attention accorded to the credit needs of micro enterprises, the main focus remains on subsidized credit. Almost all those policies are genderneutral. - Very few opportunities are available for women in terms of grant, financial support and creditif they aim to start their own business. - Major policies are gender-neutral and very few policies are specifically for women entrepreneurs. - Policies are a mix of welfare and credit for women entrepreneurs: most of the nationalized banks have to offer loans to women entrepreneurs as a policy. 4. Representational Policies: Those are policies which ensure broad-based citizen participationin the processes of formulation, implementation and monitoring of policies and regulationsthat affect them, and citizen control over the affairs of promotional agencies (chamber ofcommerce, industries associations, workers, trade unions, etc.) meant to serve them. Thisincludes about four groups: Producers (small artisans, large entrepreneurs) traders, workersand consumers. 108 Pratibha Giri,, ReevaVerma

7 - There are no major policies in effect to ensure representation of women entrepreneurs in policy-making process and institutions. 5. GOVERNMENT S INITIATIVE FOR PROMOTING INNOVATION AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP Considering that innovation is the catalyst for national growth, employment andcompetitiveness in the 21st century, Prime Minister Dr.Manmohan Singh hasdeclared as the Decade of Innovation. To institutionalize thisprocess, National Innovation Council has been created in September2010 to promote innovation centres nationwide to augment new inventions andtechnologies for solving the problems. The Economic Policy initiative of 1990s had five main components which attracts both domestic and global entrepreneurs a) Devaluation of the Indian rupee in order to increase exports b) Deregulation or dismantling of government controls over domesticindustry c) Privatization, including formation of jointly owned public privateenterprises and sale of public sector enterprises d) Liberalization or opening up of monopoly markets to increase foreign anddomestic competition e) Globalization by opening the Indian economy to foreign investments The major Government Schemes for promoting Innovation andentrepreneurship includes the following: 1. Scheme of Entrepreneurship Development Centres through PartnerInstitutions - National Institute for Entrepreneurship and Small Business Development (NIESBUD), Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises,Noida, Uttar Pradesh 2. New Millennium Indian Technology Leadership Initiative (NMITLI) Scheme,Department of Science & Technology, Ministry of Science & Technology 3. Technology Promotion, Development and Utilization Programme (TPDU),Department of Scientific & Industrial Research, Ministry of Science & Technology a. Technology Development and Innovation Programme (TDIP) i. Technology Development and Demonstration Program (TDDP) iitechnopreneur Promotion Programme (TePP) b. Industrial R&D Promotion Programme (IRDPP) c. Technology Management Programme (TMP) d. International Technology Transfer Programme (ITTP) e. Consultancy Promotion Programme (CPP) f. Technology Information Facilitation Programme (TIFP) g. Technology Development & Utilization Programme for Women (TDUPW) 4. Innovation in Science Pursuit for Inspired Research (INSPIRE), Department of Science & Technology, Ministry of Science & Technology 5. Drug Development Promotion Board (DDPB), Department of Science & Technology, Ministry of Science & Technology 6. Instrumentation Development Programme, Department of Science &Technology, Ministry of Science & Technology 7. Inter sectoral Science & Technology Advisory Committee, Department ofscience & Technology, Ministry of Science & Technology 8. Participation of Youth in Real-Time Observation to Benefit Education (PROBE) 109 Pratibha Giri,, ReevaVerma

8 9. Technology Systems Programme, Department of Science & Technology, Ministry of Science & Technology 10. The following programs exist under the National Science and Technology Entrepreneurship Development Board (NSTEDB) a. Technology Based Entrepreneurship Development Programme (TEDP) b. Entrepreneurship Awareness Camp (EAC) c. Entrepreneurship Development Programme (EDP) d. Faculty Development Programme (FDP) e. Open Learning Programme in Entrepreneurship (OLPE) 6. CONCLUSION The hidden entrepreneurial potential of women has gradually been changing with the growing sensitivity to the role and economic status in the society. Women are increasingly becoming conscious of their roles, their rights and their work situations.women, being almost 50% population of India, have a pivotal role to play as far as economic development of the country is concerned. It is now well-recognized that education and training opportunities play a key role in cultivating future entrepreneurs and in developing the abilities of existing entrepreneurs to grow their business to greater levels of success.among the reasons for women to run organized enterprises are their skills and knowledge, their talents, abilities and creativity in business and a compelling desire of wanting to do something on their own. The promotion of micro and small scale enterprises has been recognized as an important strategy for advancing the economic empowerment of women. The Indian society is shifting from conservative approach to progressive attitude towards women entrepreneurship. The Government has increased the importance of women by adopting various schemes and programs for their participation in economic activities.the economic status of the women is now accepted as an indicator of a society's stage of development and therefore it becomes imperative for the government to frame policies for development of entrepreneurship among women. REFERENCES [1] Aidis, R.; Welter, F.; Smallbone, D. and Isakova, N (2007). Female Entrepreneurship in Transition Economies: The case of Lithuania and Ukraine. Feminist Economics 13(2), April 2007, p [2] Bhargava, S. (2007). 'Towards Entrepreneurship Development in the 21st Century,' in S.Bhargava (ed.), Developmental Aspects of Entrepreneurship, Response Books, Business Books from Sage, New Delhi. [3] Baughn, C.; Chua, B.; Neupert, K. (2006) The Normative Context for Women s Participation in Entrepreneurship: A multicountry study. Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice Volume 30, Issue 5, P [4] Bird, B. and Brush, C. (2002) A gendered perspective on organizational creation. Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, 26(3), p [5] Davis, Paul J. (2012) The global training deficit: the scarcity of formal and informal professional development opportunities for women entrepreneurs. Industrial and Commercial Training, Jan 1, 2012, Vol. 44, Issue 1, p [6]Gurmeet, Singh and Rakesh, Belwal (2008) Entrepreneurship and SMEs in Ethiopia: Evaluating the role, prospects and problems faced by women in this emergent sector. Gender in Management: An International Journal, Vol. 23 Iss: 2 p [7] GiriPratibha, KarinjePrithvi,VermaReeva(2015), Women entrepreneurship and economic progress of India International Journal of Entrepreneurship & Business Environment Perspectives; ISSN: (PRINT) ISSN: (ONLINE)Volume 4, Number 1,pp [8] GiriPratibha, VermaReeva(2015), Women Entrepreneurship and Economic Liberalisation: Celebrating 68 glorious Years of Indian Independence International Journal of Entrepreneurship & Business Environment Perspectives; ISSN: (PRINT) ISSN: (ONLINE) Volume 4,Number 3. [9] Hisrich, R. D., & Brush, C. G. (1985). Women and minority entrepreneurs: A comparative analysis. In J. A. Hornaday, E. B. Shils, J. A. Timmons & K. H. Vesper (Eds.), Frontiers of Entrepreneurial Research, (pp ). Boston, MA: Babson College. 110 Pratibha Giri,, ReevaVerma

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