The Ministry of Women and Child Development has recently established National Women Entrepreneurship Council (NWEC). The NWEC is expected to act as an umbrella organization for socio-economic gender parity, financial inclusion and economic empowerment of women in India thereby catalysing women entrepreneurship in India.

National Women Entrepreneurship Council

• The NITI Aayog launched the National Women Entrepreneurship platform. It is expected to give a dynamic entrepreneurial ecosystem where women do not face any gender-based barriers.
• It is expected to magnify the number of women entrepreneurs who will power a dynamic New India. It creates an ecosystem in which women can realize their entrepreneurial aspirations, upgrade innovative initiatives and formulate sustainable, long-term strategies for their businesses.
• The supportive ecosystem meant to be created by it also entails cooperation and coordination with various partner organisations like getting industry linkages for women entrepreneurs etc.
• It also entails the creation of a national database via a centralised portal for registration of women entrepreneurs and provision of evidence-based policy recommendations for the sake of a vibrant entrepreneurial system.

Why we need a body solely focused on Women Entrepreneurship?

• According to Mastercard Index of Women Entrepreneurs, India scored an overall 41.7 points which are very low. In the same index, it got a low ranking of 49 among 54 economies globally with a significantly low score in Women Business Ownership percentages.
• There is an urgent need for women who are economically empowered as they can be catalysts for development. There is empirical evidence to show that increased economic activity by women translates into improved social outcomes.
• Experiences attest to the fact that women have a propensity to reinvest their income in their children s education, health and nutrition. This has a significant impact on economic growth.

Challenges for Women Entrepreneurs

• India presents reduced opportunities for women to take on leadership roles in business activities. However, women with dynastic business links are often at an advantage.
• There are also problems like a dearth of education and technological inputs faced by women.
• Cultural bias along with tough business and government regulations also pose serious obstacles when they try to utilize entrepreneurial opportunities in India.
• Women are missing from India s labour force with severe socio-economic costs. India currently ranks 70 out of 77 nations on the Female Entrepreneurship Index. Women entrepreneurs represent only 10 percent of the total number of entrepreneurs in the country.
• Labour force participation rate (LFPR) for working-age women (15 years and older) is very low in India. It is only about 27%, which is only marginally better than Afghanistan, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia. Hence, in this adverse situation, it will be an uphill task to achieve a turnaround in terms of women s participation.

Why India requires more women entrepreneurs?

• It will rectify the lopsided gender balance of our labour force.
• Women tend to invest their income into health and education needs of their children leading to higher human development indices.
• Economically, an improvement in labour force participation rate will catalyse an improvement in the country s GDP.
• It will have more egalitarian outcomes in terms of gender balance within an inclusive framework. For example, Bangladesh s export-oriented garment industry has been successful in bringing a large number of women into the workforce which has translated into significant egalitarian outcomes leading to improvement in social development indicators.
• Studies have shown that women are more emotionally intelligent and hence prove to be good business leaders. Business houses led by women have an excellent success rate.
• The government needs to encourage women entrepreneurship through the creation of a supportive ecosystem. It assumes enhanced significance because of the fact that successful women entrepreneurs can be job-creators instead of job-seekers and they can also bring other women on board. The government needs to positively encourage women entrepreneurship.

Way Forward

• Women entrepreneurs have been successful in carving out a niche for them across the globe, including India in various fields. However, much more needs to be done to harness the untapped potential of women s entrepreneurship in India.