Challenging Factors of Rural Women Entrepreneurs in West Bengal

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A Study on Challenging Factors of Rural Women Entrepreneurs in West
Bengal
ABSTRACT
In rural India Women Entrepreneurship has always been considered as the backbone of
rural economy. With the spreading of awareness programs and education among the
women, the landscape has changed compared to the past few years and women are now
encouraged and motivated to emerge as today’s one of the largest contributor to the
growth of rural economy. The horizon for economic empowerment of women has been
widened due to introduction of various Government initiatives like National Skill
Development Policy and National Skill Development Mission (2009) with a view to provide
skill training, vocational education and entrepreneurship development to the emerging
work force. In rural India, women have a share of 48.6% (as per Census 2011) of the rural
population. Without their participation, the growth of the country may slow down a bit.
It is the need of the hour to extend and widen a conducive environment for women to
push the rural economy vertically upward. Especially in rural areas, challenges like access
to less information, limited financial resources, family ties, lack of education, early
marriage, patriarchal society, absence of entrepreneurial aptitude are the major
challenges that the women population faces. This study unfolds the significance of various
factors of women entrepreneurship in West Bengal. It also intends to explore some
measures that can be taken to uplift the women entrepreneurship.
Key Words: Women Empowerment, Rural Uplifting, Entrepreneur Constraints,
Entrepreneurial Development, Women Entrepreneurship
INTRODUCTION
‘’When women participate in the economy, everyone benefits’’ --- Hillary Clinton
The word Entrepreneurship is derived from a French word ‘entreprende’, which means
to undertake. An entrepreneur is an individual who, rather than working as an
employee, runs a small business and assumes all the risks and rewards of a given
business venture, idea, or good or service offered for sale. The entrepreneur is
commonly seen as a business leader and innovator of new ideas and business processes.
Entrepreneurs play a key role in any economy. These are the people who have the skills
and initiative necessary to take good new ideas to market and to make the right
decisions that lead to profitability. The reward for taking the risk is the potential
economic profits the entrepreneur could earn.
One of the key factors in determining the success of development is the status and
position of women in the society. This means that the neglect of women in the
development process of any country constitutes a human resource waste.
True development means the development in the three categories of a woman. These
are: (1) Individual; (2) Social; and (3) Economic development (Rodney, 1972). Individual

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development means increased skills and capability, greater freedom, creativity, self-
discipline, responsibility and material well-being. Increasing capacity connects social
development, while economic development is determined by the increased capacity of
the members of a society in dealing with their environment. Cultural inhibitions have
always been a major barrier for women to pursue entrepreneurship as their source of
livelihood. Apart from this, access to finance is also a major crisis plaguing these women
led enterprises. Convincing banks and investors to invest in such enterprises has always
been a tough task for these women. Women who innovate initiate or adopt business
actively are called women entrepreneurs. Women entrepreneurship is based on
women participation in equity and employment of a business enterprise.
Women’s equal access and control over economic and financial resources is critical for
the achievement of gender equality and empowerment of women as well as equitable
and sustainable economic growth and development.
The study tried to explore the problems and prospects faced by women entrepreneurs in
West Bengal. The absence of explicit schema of life, absence of balance between family
and career, poor economical freedom, dearth of direct ownership of the property, the
absurdity of entrepreneurial skill, less awareness about capacities, low risk bearing ability,
problems of work place, negligence by financial institutions, lack of self-confidence, lack
of professional education, mobility constraints and lack of interaction with successful
entrepreneurs are major pitfalls of women entrepreneurship development. But besides
having various constraints women have established their own entity with full enthusiasm
and dynamism. They have established their business, they become the owner, more over
now they also deal with every transaction despite of societal hurdles.
REVIEW OF LITERATURE
G.Henry James and Dr. K. Satyanarayana (2015), suggests the status of women
entrepreneurs and possible remedies, problems faced by them and possible remedies to
oovercome the problems. An educated woman does not restrict herself within the four
wall boundaries rather they demand equal respect from their partners. But Indian woman
has to fight a lot for getting this equal right. Gradually they achieve the right and now they
are becoming successful entrepreneurs keeping aside all household liabilities.
Ms. Yogita Sharma, (2013) analyses that a women entrepreneur is one who has the
capability to take right decisions, create good market and organizes and manages the
enterprise successfully. They are risk bearers and innovators too.
Singh, 2008, identifies the reasons & influencing factors behind entry of women in
entrepreneurship. He explained the characteristics of their businesses in Indian context
and also obstacles & challenges. He mentioned the obstacles in the growth of women
entrepreneurship are mainly lack of interaction with successful entrepreneurs, social un-
acceptance as women entrepreneurs, family responsibility, gender discrimination,
missing network, low priority given by bankers to provide loan to women entrepreneurs.
He suggested the remedial measures like promoting micro enterprises, unlocking
institutional frame work, projecting & pulling to Women Entrepreneur in India.

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Bowen & Hisrich, (1986), compared & evaluated various research studies done on
entrepreneurship including women entrepreneurship. It summaries various studies in this
way that female entrepreneurs are relatively well educated in general but perhaps not in
management skills, high in internal locus of control, more masculine, or instrumental than
other women in their values likely to have had entrepreneurial fathers, relatively likely to
have frts born or only children, unlikely to start business in traditionally male dominated
industries & experiencing a need of additional managerial training.
STATUS AND POSITION OF WOMEN ENTREPRENEURS
The status of women in India has been subject to many immense changes over the past
few millennia. From equal status with men in ancient times through the dawn of the
medieval period, to the promotion of equal rights by many reformers, the history of
women in India has been eventful. Like: Gargi Vachaknavi (first woman philosopher of the
world, ancient India), beside her Ghosa, Lopamudra, Maitrei, Vakh Ambrini
(composer/contributor of Rig Veda), Rani Laxmi Bai (Rani of Jhansi-the great Warrior)
deserve special mention. At present women perform 66% of the world’s work, produce
50% of the food, but earn 10% of the income and own 1% of the property. (Women,
Business and the Law, World Bank , 2011) Globally, women represent 49.6% of the total
population, but only 40.8% of the total workforce in the formal sector.
In a male dominated economy, women lead by walking with men in same swiftness in
each and every field. In former days, the concepts of women were restricted within
kitchen, kids, knitting along with powder, papad and pickles. But now the flow turns
towards electricity, electronics, energy and engineering. So it can be said that now the
women enter into the digital world with utmost efficiency, intellectual skill and with
strong financial background. Like: Indira Gandhi, Mother Teresa, Mary Kom, Kalpana
Chawla, Lata Mangeskar, Barkha Dutt, Medha Patkar, Kiran Bedi, Bipasa Basu and many
more. The women also work as a main mediator of branded international companies
cosmetic products like Avon, Oriflame etc. According to Government of India, “An
enterprise owned and controlled by a women having a minimum financial interest of 51%
of capital and giving at least 51% of the employment generated by the enterprise to
women”. International Women’s Day (IWD) which is originally called International
Working Women’s Day is a global day celebrated on March 8 every year to empower the
women and girls; moreover it also calls for gender parity. The theme for International
Women’s Day, 8 March 2017, focuses on “Women in the changing world of work: planet
50:50 by 2030”. The 21st leading business women in India:-
 Chanda Kocchar, Executive Director, ICICI Bank
 Ekta Kapoor, Creative Director, Balaji Telefilms Ltd.
 Jyoti Naik, President, Lijjat Papad.
 Lalita D.Gupte, JMD, ICICI Bank.
 Preetha Reddy, Managing Director, Apollo hospitals.
 Priya Paul, Chairman, Apeejay Park Hotels.
 Rajshree Pathy, Chairman, Rajshree Sugars & Chemicals ltd.
 Ranjana Kumar, Chairman, NABARD.

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OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY
1. To explore the status quo of women entrepreneurs in rural West Bengal
2. To identify various challenges of women entrepreneurs
3. To inspect the scopes of the rural women entrepreneurs.
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Method:
Here both the primary and secondary data and information have been analyzed for
exploring the facts. The secondary information have been collected from various online
resources, census reports, articles published in different journals etc. in the collection of
primary data two techniques that is the interview method and the questionnaire method
have been used. Interviews are taken of 100 rural women entrepreneurs, who are
engaged in various types of entrepreneurial activities in the districts of North & South 24
Parganas, remote areas of Kalyani, Hoogly, West Medinipur. (Data Collected in the year
2017).
Sampling Design & Tools for Analysis:
The main sources of primary data are the rural women entrepreneurs whose interview
was done through a well structured questionnaire (Annexure 1). By the applying the
systematic random sampling procedure interview process was done with a sample size
of 100.
The secondary data have been collected from various census reports from Government
sites mentioned in References Section.
Socio-Economic Background:
The personal traits of the selected respondents like age, marital status, educational
status, family income, business category, size of the business, financial sources, utilization
of expenses, various challenges and social status have been taken into account here.
ANALYSIS OF FACTS OF 6TH
ECONOMIC CENSUS DATA:
1. In India female headed households were 11.5 % in rural areas.
2. The total number of establishments owned by women entrepreneurs was 8,050,819 out of
which 5,243,044 constituting about 65.12 % of the total establishments were located in
rural areas and the remaining 2,807,775 (34.88%) were located in urban areas. Further,
about 6,697,354 establishments i.e., 83.19% operated without hired workers and
1,353,465 (16.31%) operated with hired workers. The percentage of establishments
without hired workers in rural areas was 86.85%.
3. The state wise total number of establishments under women entrepreneurship and type of
establishments is depicted in Table 1. The details of five top states in terms of percentage

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share in total number of women owned establishments in the country are: i) Tamil Nadu
(13.51%) ii) Kerala (11.35%), iii) Andhra Pradesh (10.56%), iv) West Bengal ( 10.33%) and v)
Maharashtra (8.25 %).

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4. Table 2 depicts the total no. of establishments under women entrepreneurs by broad
activity. The top five economic activities as per establishments owned by women entrepreneurs
were: i) Agriculture (34.3%), ii) Manufacturing (29.8 %), iii) Trade (18.23 %), iv) Other Services
(5.38 %) and Accommodation & food services (2.77 %).
Total number of agricultural establishments were 2.76 million constituting 34.3% of the
total establishments owned by women, whereas, about 5.29 million establishments (65.7%)
were involved in non-agricultural activities.

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Table: 2
5. NATURE OF OPERATION:
About 89% of the women owned establishments were perennial, 9% seasonal and
remaining 2% casual (Table 3). Perennial establishments were 93.71% in urban areas
whereas it was 86.5% in rural areas.

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6. SOURCE OF FINANCE:
Almost 79% of the women establishments were self-financed (Table 4). The second
important source i.e. donation or transfer from other agencies contributed 14.65%. The
next important sources were Assistance from Government and Borrowing from financial
institutions with contributions of 3.4% and 1.1 % respectively.
Table: 4

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7. SOCIAL GROUP:
Table 5 depicts State wise distribution of women owned establishments by social group
of the owner. It is observed that 3.27 million establishments constituting 40.6 % were
owned by OBCs. Others i.e. General category owned 3.23 million (40.2%)
establishments, SCs owned 12.18%, and ST owned 6.97%.
Table: 5

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ANALYSIS OF FACTS FROM CENSUS 2011:
Work Force Participation, Literacy And Population Growth :

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As per census 2011, India’s working population constitutes around 39% of the total
population and women constitute 32% of the working population. Majority of working
women are crowded in the unorganized sector. As per Country report, presented at the 4th
world conference on women in Beijing in 1995, only 4% of all the working women are in the
organized sector. This means that only about 0.005% of India's population comprises of
working women in the organized workforce. A Comparative statistical profile relating to
women workforce participation in India is shown in table 1.
Table 1 revels that the total women at participation rate increased from 14.2% in 1971 to 25.7
percent in 2001. The rate of rural women at work and urban women at work rate are also
showing an increasing trend over the years. Among the total women workers, rural women
participation at work is more compared with urban women. The workforce participation of
women in urban areas is a mere 14 per cent as compared to 54 per cent for men. In rural areas,
it is 31 percent for women, where as it is 55 per cent for men. Several factors are affecting
either positively or negatively on work participation rate of women. Patriarchal tradition,
influence of family, religious conservatism, economic condition, education, caste, status, etc are
some factors which affects on women work participation rate. Another impediment of women
labour participation is the immobility of labour.
The census survey of India 2011 indicates that there are 940 women for every 1000 men in the
country, making the female population in about 48.46 per cent of the total population. The
demographic changes of India are depicted in table 2.
Table 2 shows the sex wise growth of population, sex ratio and Table 3 shows literacy rates. The
total population of the country has been increased substantially from 361.09 million in 1951 to
1210.19 million in 2011 census. The figures of 2011 census reveals a decline in the rate of

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growth of population from 21.54 per cent in 1991-2001 to 17.64 per cent in 2001-2011 census
decades. Table also reveals that the women population has substantially increased over the
years, whereas, female growth rate and the sex ratios are showing a declining trend. The overall
literacy rate has increased from about 18.3 per cent in 1951 to about 74.4 per cent in 2011.
Women literacy rate has also increased considerably over the years. The female literacy rate has
showing an increasing trend of 8.9 per cent in 1951 to 65.46 per cent in 2011. Even through the
literacy rate has increased over the years, the male female gap has not narrowed.
ANALYSIS OF SAMPLED DATA ON WOMEN ENTREPRENEURS:
1. Age of the respondent women entrepreneur
AGE UPTO 30 31-40 41-50 51-60
MORE THAN
60
FREQUENCY 32 51 12 3 2
Interpretation: From the sample drawn, it can be concluded that in rural area of West
Bengal, out of 100 respondents, 51 women’s age is between 30 to 40 which mean more
than 50% rural women entrepreneurs are from middle age.
2. Marital status of the respondent women entrepreneur

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MARRIED AT EARLY AGE MARRIED AT IDEAL AGE
WORKING FOR
FINANCIAL
PROBLEM
WORKING
FOR OTHER
REASON
WORKING FOR
FINANCIAL
PROBLEM
WORKING
FOR OTHER
REASON
51 (82%) 11 (18%) 15 (83%) 3 (17%)
62 (78%) 18 (22%)
Interpretation: It can be seen that 80% of the women are married and after getting
married at an early age they have to earn money for their livelihood by engaging in
business.
Assuming the ideal age for marriage of women as 23, it has been found that – from the
sample of married women (80% of the total sample drawn) – 78% have married at early
age and 22% married at the ideal age.
Further analysis shows that, 82% women had to engage in business due to financial
issues after an early marriage, and 83% women had to engage in business due to financial
issues after getting married at ideal age. Both the figures shows that the age factor in
marriage has less significant effect when it comes to engaging in business.
3. Educational qualification of the respondent women entrepreneur
ILLITERATE
RECEIVED PRIMARY
EDUCATION
CLASS 5 PASSED
75 15 10

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Interpretation: Here it can be seen that 75% of rural women are illiterate, 15% got the
primary education and rest 10% were 5 passed.
4. Challenges affecting monthly income of the respondent women entrepreneur
Interpretation: In rural Bengal, maximum women entrepreneur are very poor and their
business very small due to lack of different facilities.
From the table, it can clearly be seen that the income group “less than 5000” are mostly
affected by various challenges, where “extreme poverty” has the most significant effect.
The second most significant factor i.e. “lack of training & awareness” which has affected
income group “15000 and above” the most.
48% women earns less than 5000 Rs., 26% earns about 15000 Rs. and 13% each for the
income groups 5000 to 10000 and 10000 to 15000. Hence it can be concluded that poverty
alleviation is a must necessary step that is to be taken to improve the standard of living,
thus encouraging the rural women to take a step forward towards entrepreneurship.
CHALLENGES AFFECTING INCOME
INCOME
CHALLENGES
TOTAL
EXTREME
POVERTY
LACK OF
TRAINING &
AWARENESS
LACK OF
CAPITAL
GENDER
DISCRIM
I-
NATION
EARLY
MARRIAGE &
FAMILY
CONSTRAINTS
LESS
CONFIDENCE &
EDUCATION
LIMITED ACCESS
TO INFORMATION
<5000 40 0 0 1 7 0 0 48
>=5000
&
<10000
0 0 6 1 2 3 1 13
>=10000
& <15000
0 6 3 2 0 1 1 13
15000
AND
ABOVE
0 13 5 6 0 1 1 26

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5. Business category of the respondent women entrepreneur
FAMILY
PARTNERSHIP
PARTNERSHIP
BUSINESS
SELF-
PROPRIETORSHIP
19 10 71
Interpretation: Out of 100 respondents here we can see that 71 respondents were carrying
out the sole proprietorship business, 19 were carrying out family partnership business and
rest 7 were carrying out partnership business.
6. Size of the business of the respondent women entrepreneurs
INVESTMENT AMOUNT (in Rs.)
BELOW
25000
25000-50000
50000-
75000
75000-
100000
100000
AND
ABOVE
33 2 18 15 32

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Interpretation: Out of the 100 respondents about 32% have invested Rs. 1,00,000/- and
above as capital, 15% have their business size of capital Rs.75,000/- to 10000,000/-, 18%
have invested between Rs.50,000/- to 75,000/-, and 33% is below Rs. 25,000/-. Hence, it
can be said that in rural India one of the major problem is lack of capital.
To check whether there is any correlation between Monthly Income and Investment
Amount towards business:
Using Pearson’s Correlation Coefficient formula – considering the data sets of Monthly
Income and Investment Amount (shown in Annexure 2 ) we find the correlation coefficient
as :
= 0.53
Based on the data set, it can be concluded that there is a moderately high relationship
between Monthly Income and Investment Amount towards business. The higher the
investment, greater the chance of monthly return.
7. Source of financing of the respondent women entrepreneur
SOURCE OF FINANCE
SPOUSES'S
INCOME
OWN
SAVINGS
BANK
LOAN
OTHER
SOURCES
55 38 2 5

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Interpretation: From the bar diagram, it can be seen that among 100 women
entrepreneurs, 55 have used the capital money out her spouse’s income for business, 38
respondents have invested money from their own saving, 2 of them have taken loan from
bank and 5 of them had raised the fund from other sources.
8. Utilization of the business income of the respondent women entrepreneur
UTILIZATION OF BUSINESS INCOME
PERSONAL
SAVINGS
RE-INVESTMENT
IN BUSINESS
TO RUN
HOUSEHOLD
10 5 85

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Interpretation: Majority of the women respondents viz. 85% women entrepreneurs of
rural Bengal utilize their business income to run family expenses, 10% of them saves the
money personally and 5% of them re-invest their earning in their own business.
9. Challenges faced by the respondent women entrepreneurs
Out of 100 samples which are drawn, the challenges faced by women respondents are
shown in the table below. To identify which factors have more significant effect, a Pareto
Analysis has been carried out. In Pareto Analysis, the principle that is followed here is :
20% of the causes affects around 80% of the respondents.
PARETO ANALYSIS
CHALLENGES TO ENTREPRENEURSHIP
PROBLEMS (CAUSE) COUNT [C]
CUMULATIVE
COUNT [CC]
CUMULATIVE
PERCENTAGE
[CP=(CC/N)*100]
EXTREME POVERTY 40 40 40.0
LACK OF TRANING &
AWARENESS 19 59 59.0
LACK OF CAPITAL 14 73 73.0
GENDER DISCRIMINATION 10 83 83.0
EARLY MARRIAGE & FAMILY
CONSTRAINTS 9 92 92.0
LESS CONFIDENCE &
EDUCATION 5 97 97.0
LIMITED ACCESS TO
INFORMATION 3 100 100.0
N=100

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In the above Pareto Diagram, a line has been drawn from 80% on the y-axis running
parallel to the x-axis. Then the line has been dropped at the point of intersection with the
curve on the x-axis. This point on the x-axis separates the important causes on the left
(vital few) from the less important causes on the right (trivial many).
Interpretation : As per the Pareto Diagram cited above, around 20% of the causes that
affects the women entrepreneurs are Extreme Poverty, Training and Awareness and Lack
of Capital in the development of their business aspirations. So greater focus should be on
these three aspects to motivate women entrepreneurship in rural Bengal.
10. Social status of the respondent women entrepreneur
As per the Sixth economic census, 60% of female entrepreneurs are from disadvantaged
communities like SC, ST and OBC. To examine whether the sample drawn from a rural
population supports this fact, consider the null hypothesis H0DC : p0DC = 0.60 and
alternative hypothesis H1DC : p1DC <0.60.
SOCIAL STATUS
DISADVANTAGED
COMMUNITIES (DC)
GENERAL CATEGORY TOTAL SAMPLE SIZE
64 36 100
In a sample of 100 respondents (64*100)/100= 64% respondents are from disadvantaged
communities.
np = 100 * (0.60) = 60, n (1-p) = 100 * (1-0.60) = 40
Since both n and n(1-p) are at least 10, the normal approximation method has been used
here.

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The test H0DC : p0DC = 0.60 against H1DC : p1DC <0.60 is therefore a left-tailed test.
Therefore the appropriate test statistic would be,
Where, is the sample mean, is the hypothesized population
proportion and n is the sample size
Here, = 0.64 , = 0.60, n = 100
= 0.04 / 0.0489= 0.818
Given that the population proportion is 0.60, a sample of n = 100 translates to a z score
of 0.818
Therefore the p value is , p = P [z < 0.818] = 0.7933 assuming the level of significance α
at 0.05.
Distribution plot of N(0,1)
Since p = 0.7933 is greater than 0.05, the chosen level of significance, hence we should
accept the null hypothesis and reject the alternative hypothesis.
Hence it can be concluded that the percentage of female entrepreneurs as cited by the 6th
economic survey – holds for the sample taken from rural Bengal, that is 60% of the rural
entrepreneurs are from disadvantaged communities.
MAJOR CHALLENGES AND PROBLEMS BEING FACED BY WOMEN ENTREPRENEURS IN
RURAL AREAS

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 Absence of Explicit Schema of Life: Due to extreme poverty the rural women are
not in a position to execute any entrepreneurial activities either medium or small
scale.
 Absence of Balance between Family and Career: One of the main constraints is
the absence of balance between family and career. A simple example can be cited
that immediately after completing the school level examination the rural girl got
married, which create a is gap between family and career.
 Poor Economical Freedom: Finance, the life blood of any business whether big or
small poses a serious problem in rural Bengal. Women entrepreneurs suffered a
lot due to poor economical condition, though there is provision of getting loan
from bank but it is not sufficient (Like Axis bank has embarked on a unique rural
banking initiatives to spread its presence in the rural areas, RRBs also take certain
initiatives like green loan, several micro-finance institutions were set up ‘Self-
help(SHGs)’ groups are created with 10-20 individuals who get saving & internally
helping each other in times if need, ICICI Bank take the initiative to transform 100
villages into ‘ICICI Digital Villages’, a new project was developed “Muktidhara: A
Sustainable livelihood Project in West Bengal” which means obtaining freedom
from clutches of poverty and entering into the stream of development through a
collective approach, initially this project will cover 850 SHGs of Purulia I and
Balarampur blocks of the district.. the SHGs are trained stating examples from the
model of Rajiv Gandhi Mahila Vikas Pariyojana(RGMVP) currently which is
implemented in Uttar Pradesh only). Again sometimes many financial institutions
used to neglect them for which they go to money lenders and lend money at a
high interest. Moreover dearth of direct ownership of the property, also leads to
poor economical problem.
 The Absurdity of Entrepreneurial Skill and Less Awareness about Capacities: It
also poses serious problems in case of women entrepreneurship. Due to dearth of
quantitative knowledge and skill they suffered a lot in business. Moreover it also
leads to low motivation in achieving success.
 Problems in Work Place: It is a well known fact; many women workers or
entrepreneurs faced various problems in their workplace (gender
discrimination/inequality) and as it is a male dominated society so many issues did
not use to come in the lime light. Hence proper security is necessary for every
women entrepreneur. (Since 2004 onwards SEWA has mobilized over Bengal to
improve the work and living conditions of women. Women’s Social Security and
Protection in India – PWESCR: a project that gives security to every Indian women
entrepreneur. ‘Parichiti – Making Women Visible[July – August 2012]’ is a society
for empowerment of women is conducted for the safety of women domestic
workers in local trains of Kolkata. Jagori (awaken, women! Whose mission is to
inform, inspire and empower women) conducted two orientation workshop with
Parichiti on Women’s safety audit. Among the government initiatives “Women’s
Right and Labour Statutes” contain the measures in regard to health, safety and
welfare for women including social security measures and wage protection for
women. ).
 Lack of Self-Confidence and Lack of Professional Education: Lack of self-
confidence and lack of professional education is also there for which many fraud

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and theft cases use to become the major pitfall in the way for developing the
entrepreneurial activities.
 Mobility Constraints and Lack of Interaction with Successful Entrepreneurs: As
the periphery of rural women are limited within local areas only hence business
dealings, interaction with sound businessman left behind the curtain of
advancement. And so they have to face stiff competition.
SUGGESTIONS FOR IMPROVEMENT
There should be a continuous up-liftment to instigate, persuade, induce and co-operate
women entrepreneurs. Government should encourage and support women by providing
infrastructural facilities, finance, training programmes, skill development programmes
etc. An Awareness programme should be conducted on a mass scale with the intention
of creating awareness among women about the various areas to conduct business.
Vocational Training to be extended to women community that enables them to
understand the production process and production management. A Women Entrepreneur
Guidance Cell may be set up to handle the various problems of women entrepreneurs.
International, National, Local trade fairs, Industrial exhibitions, seminars and conferences
should be organized to help women to facilitate interaction with other women
entrepreneurs. Women in business should be offered soft loans & subsides for
encouraging them into industrial activities. The financial institutions should provide more
working capital assistance both for small scale venture and large scale ventures.
Infrastructure, in the form of industrial plots and sheds, to set up industries is to be
provided by the state run agencies. Making provision of micro credit system and
enterprise credit system to the women entrepreneurs at local level.
STEPS TAKEN BY THE INDIAN GOVERNMENT
The Government of India has also formulated various training and development cum
employment generations programs for the women to start their ventures. These
programmes are as follows:
1. Steps taken in Seventh Five-Year Plan:
a. Specific target group
b. Arranging training facilities:
c. Developing new equipments:
d. Marketing assistance:
e. Decision-making process:
2. Steps taken by Government during Eight Five-Year Plan:
a) Prime Minister Rojgar Yojana and EDPs were introduced to develop
entrepreneurial qualities among rural women.
b) Women in agriculture scheme were introduced to train women farmers having
small and marginal holdings in agriculture and allied activities.
c) To generate more employment opportunities for women KVIC took special
measures in remote areas.

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d) Women co-operatives schemes were formed to help women in agro-based
industries like dairy farming, poultry, animal husbandry, horticulture etc. with full
financial support from the Government.
e) Several other schemes like integrated Rural Development Programs (IRDP),
Training of Rural youth for Self employment (TRYSEM) etc. were started to alleviated
poverty.
3. Steps taken by Government during Ninth Five-Year Plan:
a) Trade Related Entrepreneurship Assistance and Development (TREAD) scheme
was lunched by Ministry of Small Industries to develop women entrepreneurs in
rural, semi-urban and urban areas by developing entrepreneurial qualities.
b) Swarna Jayanti Gram Swarozgar Yojana and Swaran Jayanti Sekhari Rozgar Yojana
were introduced to provide reservations for women and encouraging them to start
their ventures.
c) New schemes named Women Development Corporations were introduced by
government to help women entrepreneurs in arranging credit and marketing
facilities.
d) State Industrial and Development Bank of India (SIDBI) has introduced following
schemes to assist the women entrepreneurs. These schemes are:
(i) Mahila Udyam Nidhi
(ii) Micro Cordite Scheme for Women
(iii) Mahila Vikas Nidhi
(iv) Women Entrepreneurial Development Programmes
(v) Marketing Development Fund for Women
4. Consortium of Women entrepreneurs of India provides a platform to assist the
women entrepreneurs to develop new, creative and innovative techniques of production,
finance and marketing. There are different bodies such as NGOs, voluntary organizations,
Self-help groups, institutions and individual enterprises from rural and urban areas which
collectively help the women entrepreneurs in their activities.
5. Training Programmes:
The following training schemes especially for the self employment of women are
introduced by government:
(i) Support for Training and Employment Programme of Women (STEP).
(ii) Development of Women and Children in Rural Areas (DWCRA).
(iii) Small Industry Service Institutes (SISIs)
(iv) State Financial Corporations
(v) National Small Industries Corporations
(vi) District Industrial Centres (DICs)
6. Mahila Vikas Nidhi:
SIDBI has developed this fund for the entrepreneurial development of women especially
in rural areas. Under Mahila Vikas Nidhi grants loan to women are given to start their
venture in the field like spinning, weaving, knitting, embroidery products, block printing,
handlooms handicrafts, bamboo products etc.

25
7. Rashtriya Mahila Kosh:
In 1993, Rashtriya Mahila Kosh was set up to grant micro credit to pore women at
reasonable rates of interest with very low transaction costs and simple procedures.
FUTURE PERSPECTIVE OF WOMEN ENTREPRENEURSHIP IN RURAL BENGAL
Citizens are the asset of their country, employees are the asset of their organization they
are working or the businessman or entrepreneurs are the asset of their business. So to
utilize these resources properly both in quantitative and qualitative aspects is very
important for the well-being of mankind which influences their work-culture. Women,
pillar of every society are nowadays rapidly becoming self-sufficient specially assuming
the designation of an entrepreneur. Participation of women in various economic activities
in rural Bengal is of utmost importance not only from a human resource point of view but
also is essential even from the objective of raising the status of women in the society. The
enduring objectives of the expansion programmes for women should aim to raise their
economic and social status in order to bring them into the mainstream of national life and
development. For this, outstanding gratitude has to be accorded to the role and
contribution of women in the various social economic and political and cultural activities.
The uncharted ability or women should be identified, trained and used for various types
of activities to increase the productivity in the industrial sector, thus developing them into
entrepreneurs, which is the need of the hour.
CONCLUSION
The surfacing of women entrepreneurs and their contribution to the national economy is
quite visible in India as well in rural Bengal. They are thriving as designers, interior
decorators, exporters, publishers, garment manufacturers and still exploring new
avenues of economic participation. Though the overall literacy rate has increased and the
workforce participation has risen over the years, the male female gap has not narrowed.
Their primary ply is not financial gains but rather personal satisfaction and achievement.
Time has come for women to come out of the lumber of housework and give way to their
creativity and entrepreneurship. In a fast developing country like India, progress and
development do not confine to increase in production, health and social welfare alone.
We cannot have any major development by marginalizing the majority of educated
women with professionalskills. The first step in national development is to recognize their
merit and their contribution. Social and political developments in India have also been
responsible for determining the role of women in a changing society. Consequently the
need of the hour is essential for growth of women entrepreneurship for any economy
whether it is a large or a small country. Women should really feel proud of their
accomplishments and status in the society. That will strengthen themselves to fight
against the social evils. The entire success of the family and nation depends of the women
of the house and at the working place.

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REFERENCES
 All India Report of Sixth Economic Census
 Entrepreneurship (2nd
edition) – Rajeev Roy (Oxford Higher Education)
 http://mail.mospi.gov.in/index.php/catalog/167/related_materials
 http://www.censusindia.gov.in/2011-common/census_2011
 http://www.mospi.gov.in/sixth-economic-census
 Some Critical Issues of Women Entrepreneurship in Rural India Vijay Kumbhar.
 Financing Constraints and Entrepreneurship: William R. Kerr & Ramana Nanda.
 Promoting Entrepreneurship and Innovative SMEs in a Global Economy: Towards
a more responsible and inclusive globalization, Istanbul, Turkey 3-5 June 2004.
 Women’s Entrepreneurship: Issues and Policies.
 Policy Issues in Financing Entrepreneurship, Dietmar Grichnik, Germany
 Women Entrepreneurship: Challenges in the Present Technological Era, SatpalȦ,
Rupa Rathee and Pallavi Rajain.
Annexure 1:
QUESTIONNAIRE:
1. Name of the respondent
2. Age of the respondent
3. Marital status of the respondent
4. If married, then at which age you were married?
5. At which age you engaged yourself in business?
6. Did you engaged in business due to financial problem?
7. What is your educational level?
8. What is your monthly income?
9. What kind of business you are in?
(i)Self-Proprietorship (ii) Family Partnership (iii) Partnership Business
10. How much money you have invested towards your business?
11. What was your source of finance while starting business?
12. How you utilize your business income?
13. What impediment you have faced/have been facing in starting/continuing your
business?
14. What caste you belong?
Annexure 2: Data sheet

Challenging Factors of Rural Women Entrepreneurs in West Bengal

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