Tamil Nadu, Kerala have most number of women entrepreneurs in India

New Delhi, April 14: We are hearing a lot about encouraging entrepreunership among the common man after the NDA government headed by Narendra Modi came to power at the Centre two years ago, but statistics says a lot has to be done on the ground, especially in terms of promoting women entrepreneurs.

According to India's Sixth Economic Census (2012-13), women operate just 8.05 million of the total 58.5 million economic establishments running in India, which is just 13.76 per cent. [Read: Sixth Economic Census data on women entrepreneurs; Chapter 6]

Tamil Nadu, Kerala top the list

Of that, the two southern states of Tamil Nadu and Kerala have the highest number of units run by women entrepreneurs. While Tamil Nadu has 1.08 million women-run establishments (13.51%), Kerala has 0.91 million (11.35%), according to the latest census.

Karnataka accounts for only 6.78%

Karnataka has 0.54 million women-run establishments and account for just 6.78 per cent. Delhi has a poor 0.07 million women-run establishments (0.87%).

The total number of workers engaged in women-run establishments were 13.48 million, which is 10.24 per cent of the total number of workers engaged under different economic activities in India.

Rural prevails over urban

The report also indicated that out of the 8.05 million women-owned establishments, 5.24 million (65.12%) were located in rural areas and the remaining 2.80 million (34.88%) in urban areas.

It is the first time that questions on women entrepreneurship in proprietary ownership have been added in the economic census, the report said.

Agriculture vs non-agriculture

In the agricultural sector, there are 2.76 million women-run establishments (34.3%) while in the non-agricultural sector, the number is 5.2 million (65.7%)

Another striking feature of this report said while 79.07 per cent of the women-run establishments are self-financed, only 3.37 per cent of the financial assistance comes from government sources.

Oneindia News