Women and Entrepreneurship

The role of gender in economic development process has been increasingly recognized as crucial, both in terms of potential for success and in the nature of the impact of particular development strategies and programs. Gender becomes especially important to consider in case of micro-enterprise approach, as the traditional home-centred roles of women can make it far easier for women to participate in such programs as opposed to the more traditional, large and medium scale enterprises.

Jharkhand is rich in mineral resources like coal, iron ore, copper ore, uranium, mica, bauxite, granite, limestone, silver, graphite, magnetite, and dolomite. 80 per cent of the rural population of Jharkhand depends upon agriculture for their livelihood. The effective literacy rate for Jharkhand in Census 2011 works out to
67.63 per cent, with corresponding figures for males and females being 78.45 and 56.21 per cent respectively, with at least 10 districts being below 50 per cent. It is estimated that
56 per cent of young women (ages 15-24) are neither engaged in education, nor employment nor training. This is further accentuated by the lack of female education. It is estimated that beyond schooling, only 8 per cent of young women of age 18-24 ever participated in some form of training, and less than 0.1 per cent had secured a vocational training diploma. Given the above context, the gaps in educational status in girls, mainly due to marriage and domestic pressures, have contributed to fewer opportunities. Within the larger context of social entrepreneurship, Jharkhand has limited success in creating women-based social entrepreneurship. First, the above lack of education has been a major barrier. Secondly, there is a lack of supportive ecosystems that can enable women to become social entrepreneurs. Most community-based organizations and civil society organizations working on a right-based approach focus on the objective of getting one employed rather than instilling a sense of entrepreneurship
Girl Power initiated a baseline study of 5000 women to assess the livelihoods of the 10 districts of Jharkhand. The study also aimed to identify and explore the availability of raw materials, potential for entrepreneurship, current entrepreneurial activities and market access and environmental sustainability. With the larger project objective to promote entrepreneurship through a bundle of work packages of network building, capacity building, market connect, skill-building and policy dialogues, over the past year of project implementation, the community resource persons at the ground level have been rigorously working in 10 districts of the state of Jharkhand, gathering information and collecting data of 5000 potential women beneficiaries of the project. The baseline survey studied the potential of rural entrepreneurship among women and the current entrepreneurial activities that add to the larger livelihood generational activities of the household, and their market access for products and services to be sold. Entrepreneurial activities range from women involved in the selling of agricultural and non-agricultural produce, to non-timber forest produce that is so richly available in the state of Jharkhand.
Covering four zones of the state, the survey analysis concluded that 30 per cent of the respondents are already engaged in small entrepreneurial activities that include agricultural and non-agricultural produce. The respondents agreed on the feasibility of various other sectors – handicrafts, mushroom cultivation, organic farming, leaf plate production, candle, incense stick making and running a beauty salon, being a few among others that can be established within the village area.

Rural markets have been growing faster than the urban sector, resulting in overall balanced economic and social development. For consumer durables and services, the rural market has more potential than the urban market. Also, since the rural population largely depends on agriculture, it contributes to nearly 50 per cent of the total national income. Operating a business comes with its own advantages and disadvantages. Women establishing and operating businesses come with added responsibilities and obstacles. During the baseline survey, it was visible that there were a lot of obstacles that existing women entrepreneurs had to face on a daily basis in the day-to-day operation of their enterprise. Major obstacles faced by women lie in the marketing of goods or services. Lack of knowledge of new products in the urban market and technical skills of running an enterprise are two of the major obstacles, coupled with the hiked transportation prices for the long distance between the village and the market. The Girl Power Project will focus on a critical element of market-led enterprise-building, which is identifying gaps in already functioning value chains so that one knows where the maximum margins can be made to benefit the informally employed poor, create quality entrepreneurs for growing the business, laying emphasis to serve a variety of market segments and women with varying levels of capacities and social constraints. The integration aims to support women to move ahead confidently in new market situations. Integration allows for linking women’s roles in enterprise, their needs and therefore their rights, and hence builds perspective; it is less threatening for the ecosystem than directly addressing violence against women; it is novel to have mainstreamed domestic violence issues into core business-oriented training and hence has strategic value in many contexts.
The project aims at developing the capacity of the women beneficiaries turned entrepreneurs to contribute towards benefit and well being of their families. It tries to enhance the purchasing power, decision making, and dignity of women. Girl Power strongly believes in the transformative approach to economic empowerment in new market conditions, while empowering women to adopt differential roles the market expects, and internalize and manage the competition that market causes. It is imperative to realize that training and handholding in women’s microenterprise promotion would need to address life-cycle issues that are crosscutting along a spectrum of women’s market engagement because they affect women’s confidence and motivation, ultimately impacting sustainability of women’s empowerment through enterprise. It is necessary for gender sensitive-responsive women enterprise promotion.

Indeed, gender-related issues such as traditional patriarchal norms have relegated women to secondary status within the household and community. Women are commonly married young, quickly become mothers, and are then burdened by stringent domestic and financial responsibilities. They are frequently malnourished since women typically are the last member of a household to eat and the last to receive medical attention. Women receive little schooling, and suffer from unfair and biased inheritance and divorce laws. These laws prevent women from accumulating substantial financial assets, making it difficult for women to establish their own security and autonomy.  These issues have rarely been addressed in these contexts. Civil Society Organisations deems such integration as imperative hence implementing it if we want women to move ahead confidently in new market situations. Integration allowed for linking women’s roles in enterprise, their needs and therefore their rights and hence builds perspective; it’s less threatening for the eco-system than directly addressing violence against women; it is novel to mainstream domestic violence issues into core business-oriented training (consisting of topics such as production management, costing, pricing, feasibility and business planning) and hence has strategic value in many contexts. Integrating gender throughout the business model and engaging both women and men throughout the enterprise the value chain has the potential to increase customers’ perceived value of products/services, as well as their adoption and use. Innovations that contribute to enhancing women’s quality of life or narrowing gender inequalities, can greatly impact their lives.