Women entrepreneurs breaking into new ventures

New Delhi, Apr 30 (UNI) The small scale enterprises, which normally centre around its owner, continue to be male-dominated with barely one-tenth of them being managed by women.

Though the total number of women employees in the small scale sector is estimated at 33,17,496, the number of according to latest official figures.

Interestingly, many of these first generation women entrepreneurs have achieved remarkable success in business. They have been beneficiaries of the various training and support services being offered by the Union Government to encourage women entrepreneurship and have broken free from the traditional moulds, according to the Ministry of Small Scale Industries sources.

Available feedback shows that these women trained by Institutes of the Ministry are venturing into new territory: they have set up high tech industries in the fields of Information Technology, engineering, and sophisticated electronic equipment.

But in India, reasons attributed for the lack of women entrepreneurs are inhibitions arising from the traditional and societal perception of the role of women.

Like any other entrepreneur, a woman entrepreneur has to compete with those already established in the field in addition to facing gender insensitivity and bias.

According to the third All India Census of SSIs, the participation of women in the SSI sector has been categorised into women owners of enterprises, managers of enterprises and employees.

The total number of women enterprises in the sector was put at 10,63,721 and those actually managed by women was 9,95,141.

Going by statistics available, the women-managed units generated in terms of employment was 7.14 per cent. The employment generated per Rs 1 lakh investment in the units managed by women was 2.49.

The definition of 'Women Enterprises' states, "A small scale industrial unit/industry-related service or business enterprise, managed by one or more women entrepreneurs in proprietary concerns, or in which she/they individually or jointly have a share capital of not less than 51 per cent as partners/shareholders/directors of private limited company/members of co-operative society." About 13 per cent of the women enterprises were in the registered SSI category, the rest being unegistered. Of the enterprises managed by women, 11.5 per cent were in the unrgistered SSI category.

About 57.62 per cent of the women were employed in SSI units located in the states of Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka, West Bengal and Andhra Pradesh.

The proportion of female employees in the SSI sector was 13.315 per cent. However, the share of women employment was sigificantly higher -- more than 20 per cent -- in Mizoram, Orissa, Karnataka, Goa, Lakshadweep, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Pondicherry compared with the total employment in the respective states.

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