Shaping New India through Rural Entrepreneurship

Shaping New India through Rural Entrepreneurship

By: WE STAFF | Tuesday, 19 January 2021

India as a nation is rich in talent, but to develop and flourish, the country needs stringent attention and measures. It’s not a hidden fact now that empowered women entrepreneurs in rural India are contributing capital gain of $200 million in the form of livelihood worth. But, with only around 14 percent of total entrepreneurs being women in the country, it is very difficult to imagine a sustainable future. The goals of sustainable development can’t be achieved leaving half of the society lagging behind. The growth and development of rural entrepreneurs are complex issues, which can be tackled by social, political and economic institutions. The sooner they are established, the better it would be for the commercial development in the rural sector and the subsequent economic growth of our country.

Hence, the need of the hour is to essentially dwell on the belief that the economically poor have innate capabilities and will to emerge out of poverty. A clear focus on their development will help determine the development of rural India and the overall country. It can be stated that currently, the existing empowered women cadre are transforming the economy of the country. Noticeably, they are contributing in the form of livelihood. This marks that development can be determined from the development of women in rural areas. In order to achieve this goal, the government, the NGOs and all the civil societies have to come together to stand strong. Together they have the potential and can help in increasing the presence of women in the entrepreneurial arena. The situation demands a long-term view and the emerging society will be led by those of us who’d be more far-sighted. Though, the government is doing its best to promote and empower entrepreneurship in rural India; it’s now on the hands of the willing leaders who need to stay aware and grab the opportunity to twitch a venture of their own. For our viewers, through this article, we have tried to cover the various programs offered by the government to empower rural entrepreneurship. Let’s have a look.

Since the last decade, the Government of India has taken several measures aimed at promoting entrepreneurship among women in the country through various programmes. Here are some latest programs and measures that every women entrepreneur and the interested candidate must know and stay aware of.

Economic Empowerment of Women Entrepreneurs and Start-ups - To encourage women entrepreneurship within the country, Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship (MSDE) implements the project named ‘Economic Empowerment of Women Entrepreneurs and Start-ups by Women’. The project navigates incubation and acceleration programmes for women micro-entrepreneurs to start new businesses and scale up existing enterprises.

Prime Minister’s Employment Generation Programme - The Prime Minister’s Employment Generation Programme (PMEGP) under Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME), is a major-credit-linked subsidy programme aimed at generating self-employment opportunities through the establishment of micro-enterprises in the non-farm sector. Interested candidates must know that the eligibility criteria to avail the benefits of this programme is to be of age 18 years and above. For beneficiaries belonging to special categories such as women, scheduled caste, scheduled tribe, OBC, minorities, ex-serviceman, physically handicapped, North Eastern Region (NER) and hill and border areas the margin money subsidy is 35 percent in rural areas and 25 percent in urban areas. There is a special provision of three percent procurement by Government departments and PSUs from Micro and Small Enterprises owned by women.

Rural Self Employment and Training Institutes - Government has introduced self-employment and training facilities for rural entrepreneurship development. Under the Ministry of Rural Development, skill development is being imparted through Rural Self Employment and Training Institutes (RSETIs). It’s is a Bank-led initiative, enabling a trainee to take bank credit and start their own micro-enterprise. RSETI programme is currently being implemented through 585 RSETIs by 23 leading banks in both public sector and private sector as well as few rural banks in 33 states and union territories, covering 566 districts in the country. Training in RSETI is being imparted for 61 courses aligned with National Skill Qualification Framework (NSQF). Out of 61 courses as many as 38 following courses are exclusively suitable for women candidates for taking up self-employment ventures after being trained in these courses.

Women Entrepreneurship Platform - The Women Entrepreneurship Platform (WEP) of NITI Aayog was launched on March 8, 2018 on the occasion of the International Women’s Day as NITI Aayog’s flagship initiative. WEP has pan India coverage and does not have state-specific programmes. Registration on the portal and all subsequent services are provided free of cost for WEP users. WEP caters to both aspiring and well-established women in the space of entrepreneurship.

Awareness about Loan Programs - To see growth in the number of women entrepreneurs, we need to walk a long way working towards changing the mindset of society and facilitating women in availing loans to support them throughout their ventures are a few efforts to be counted that need to be ensured. Several government and non-government agencies are working towards attaining these. Start and Improve Your Business (SIYB) programme of the International Labour Organization and government’s Trade Related Entrepreneurship Assistance and Development (TREAD) are few of them supporting women at various levels while starting their businesses or establishing an enterprise. Swayam Shikshan Prayog is an NGO working diligently towards uplifting rural women. Biz Sakis - trained by Disha project, a partnership between UNDP India, IKEA Foundation and India Development Foundation is also supporting women at physical and psychological levels to build their own enterprise. These efforts need to be intensified with the help of more organizational participation.

Changing Mind Set towards the Third Gender Community - India has a population of more than 500,000 transgender. They are continuously subjected to stigma and social backlash due to long-standing social prejudices, making it difficult for them to live a life of a normal productive citizen. Although they form a very insignificant slice of the general population, they represent a historically suppressed and excluded set of people and thus bringing them in the mainstream can have a transformative effect on the problem of social exclusion for other groups.  Empowering the transgender community by providing livelihood opportunities and entrepreneurial support can go a long way in improving rural development as well as human development in India. Recently the Kerala government initiated an event in which various policymakers, academics, professionals and domain experts from across the globe will brainstorm about developing measures that can unleash the economic potential of women and transgender community that would empower them to become sustainable entrepreneurs. The event is known as the second edition of the International Conference on Gender Equality (ICGE). Such events, measures and steps are highly essential for the actual development of the nation.

Conclusion

The current situation of India is very fast-moving with technology development, transformation, and industrialization. In such situations, employment opportunity can enlarge drastically for rural women. Entrepreneurship into rural women, no hesitancy develops the wealth of the nation in general and of the family in individual. India used to be a socially male-dominated country decades ago, and women were assumed to be economically and socially dependent on male members. But now the scenario has changed, women are not just doing more work than their counterpart but are excelling at doing whatever they chose. All they need is backing and support from the family members, government, society, male colleagues and others. With the right assistance from various groups stated above, they can connect to the mainstream of national rural economy and thereby contribute to the rural economic development.