Policies are needed to address income and other inequalities, but also that between regions and between States, Ritu Dewan, former director, Mumbai School of Economics and Public Policy, University of Mumbai, and president of the Indian Society of Labour Economics, has said.
She was delivering the K.R. Gouri Amma Endowment Lecture on ‘Reimagining women’s entrepreneurship in India’s Economic Transformation’ as part of ‘Escalera,’ a week-long women entrepreneurs and innovators’ expo organised by Kerala State Women Development Corporation Ltd., in the State capital on Tuesday.
Ms. Dewan called for serious study on Centre-State relationships and how funds were devolved.
Speaking on women’s entrepreneurship and what it meant in the context of economic transformation, she rued that data had become a serious problem where India was concerned the past few years. Even the Census had not been conducted. There was not much data on MSMEs either, she said.
Ms. Dewan, in her presentation, said only 19.4.% of women were employers, that is who run enterprises by hiring at least one worker. Of them, only 0.9% of rural women were employers. The larger the enterprises the lower the ownership of women was. Over 20% of micro enterprises were owned by women. However, only 5.26% small enterprises and 2.67% of medium enterprises were owned by them, Ms. Dewan said.
Women own-account workers, that is who did not hire wage workers, earned one-third of the wages of regular workers. Women helpers in household enterprises earned below 30% of what female regular workers did.
Making entrepreneurs out of women
Figures for the number of women MSMEs varied. Women MSMEs were also unregistered and informal. During 2021-22, it was found that women were not self-employed out of choice, but by necessity. Ms. Dewan said lack of employment opportunities and declining allocation to Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme were driving women to self-employment, often termed entrepreneurship. In one year during COVID-19, necessity-driven entrepreneurship by women rose 10%. It was calculated that today 92% of MSMEs owned by women were necessity driven, Ms. Dewan said.
Self-employment was very different from entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurship was for profit, while self-employment was for survival and subsistence. It was essential to transform self-employment into entrepreneurship and make enterprises viable through incentives, reduced rate of interest, guaranteed prices, fixed markets, and research and development. However, there was inequality in taxation such as 18% GST on stationery but zero on sindoor, bangles, rudraksh, puja materials had to be focussed on, Ms. Dewan said.
The late K.R. Gouri not only talked about women empowerment but also put it in practice. Her life was very inspiring, Ms. Dewan said.
Minister for Women and Child Development Veena George who inaugurated ‘Escalera’ emphasised the need for more women to become employers. There were 52,161 women entrepreneurs in the State at present, she said.
P.C. Beenakumari, former head of the Department of Philosophy, SN College, Kollam, remembered Gouri Amma. Kerala State Planning Board member Ravi Raman spoke.
Published – February 25, 2025 09:22 pm IST