Challenges and opportunity for women entrepreneurship in India

 I. Introduction

                      The role of entrepreneurs in economic development varies from economy to economy, country to country, depending upon its material resources, industrial climate and more importantly, the responsiveness of the political system to the growth of entrepreneurs. Liberalization and the new economic policy have thrown upon the doors for every entrepreneur to seek its own fortunes and thus contribute to the growth of the economy. And entrepreneur is an important input of economic development. He is a catalyst of development.

Only the entrepreneurs create capital, wealth and resources in a country by their inventive and risk-taking behavior. They are the prime movers of industrial development in a country. Entrepreneurs are found in every economic system and in every type of economic activity. Artisans, traders, importers, engineers, exporters, bankers, industrialists, farmers, forest workers, tribal’s, professionals, politicians, and bureaucrats any one from these could be entrepreneur

 

                     The purpose of the paper to examine the constraints and opportunities facing female entrepreneurship in developing countries at micro- and macro-level perspectives and seeks to provide a detailed account of opportunities and constraints bought by entrepreneurship

 

                     According toAPJ 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."

 

                    Now when women enter the field of entrepreneurship there are various factors which

Motivate her. These factors are education; desire to be independent, desire to earn money and

Desire to make their own identity in the society

 

 

Challenges of women entrepreneurs

         Recent surveys indicate that the gender gap in entrepreneurship persists at different levels and Varying widely in India. Yet a quick scan of current research suggests that there are some

Commonalities as to the proximate and ultimate determinants of these differences:-

 

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. Women entrepreneurs appear to have less

access to external sources of capital than men when securing finances.

 

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. 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.

          In particular 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 distribution networks.

 

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 .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. 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.Furthermore, some studies indicate that women strongly rely on support from husbands,

partners, and relatives in order to successfully start and grow a business. Much more research

is needed on the topic of coping strategies to combine business with family in general and

specifically, on how to engage husbands and other family members in supporting women

entrepreneurs in developing countries.

 

4. Women’s safety and gender based violence

Others identify the issue of safety and protection of women entrepreneurs, especially those

operating in the informal economy. Even though less documented in academic research, there

are numerous stories of killings, harassment and rape of female vendors and micro-business

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 country.

 

5. Lack of societal support:

     Furthermore, research 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 . 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.

 

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. Even though this varies

greatly 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.

 

 Challenges:

➢ Problems of raising equity capital

➢ Difficulty in borrowing fund.

➢ Throat-cut competitions endangered existence of small companies.

➢ Problems of availing raw-materials.

➢ Problems of obsolescence of indigenous technology

➢ Increased pollutions Ecological imbalanced.

➢ Problems of TRIPS and TRIMS.

➢ Exploitation of small and poor countries, etc.

 

Opportunities for Women Entrepreneurs

  Education is a boon to mankind, while lack of education to a person is a bane now- adays.

Throughout the world, we can observe that the ratio of women entrepreneurs is growing tremendously. The emergence as well as development of women entrepreneurs is quite

visible in India and their over-all contribution to Indian economy is also very significant.

Today the role of Women entrepreneur in economic development is inevitable because

women are entering not only in selected professions but also in professions like trade,

industry and engineering.

 

 

➢ Free entry into world trade.

➢ Improved risk taking ability.

➢ Governments of nations withdrawn some restrictions

➢ Technology and inventions spread into the world.

➢ Encouragement to innovations and inventions.

➢ Promotion of healthy completions among nations

➢ Consideration increase in government assistance for international trade.

➢ Establishment of other national and international institutes to support business among nations

of the world.

➢ Benefits of specialization.

➢ Social and cultural development

 

Objectives of the study:

i) To assess the preferences and aspirations for entrepreneurship among women.

ii) To study the nature and type of initiatives undertaken by women to start their venture.

iii) To identify major factors promoting / hindering women entrepreneurship in India.

iv) The purpose of research study is to know the status of Women entrepreneurship in India.

v) The study also reveals the opportunities of employment for Women.

 

Conclusion:

    Women entrepreneurship in India faces many challenges and requires a radical change in attitudes and mindsets of society. Therefore, programs should be designed to address changes in attitude and mindset of the people. It is important to promote entrepreneurship among women to improve the economic situation of the women. This can be made possible with the help of education as education is a powerful tool in bringing out the entrepreneurship qualities in a human being.

       Proper training should be given to the women by establishing training institutes that can enhance their level of work-knowledge, risk-taking abilities, enhancing their capabilities. The actions & steps that have been taken by the government sponsored development activities have benefited only small strata of society and more needs to be done in this area. Effective steps need to be taken to have entrepreneurial awareness and skill development to women.

 

                              “Expect the unexpected and

                                           Whenever possible, be the unexpected.”

                                                                        -Lynda Berry