INTRODUCTION:

Entrepreneurship is the dynamic process of creating incremental wealth. The wealth is created by individuals who take the major risks in terms of equity, time and career commitment of providing value to some product or service. According to A. H. Cole, “Entrepreneurship is the purposeful activities of an individual or a group of associated individuals undertaken to initiate, maintain or organize a profit-oriented business unit for the production or distribution of economic goods and services”¹.

It is a process where one person getting himself self-employed and provides job to others also. The person is called entrepreneur. All activities undertaken by an entrepreneur to bring a business unit into existence are collectively known as entrepreneurship. In short, entrepreneurship is the process of creating a business enterprise. Entrepreneurship is breaded by self-employment and enhances economic growth of the country. Small-scale entrepreneurship reduces the concentration of wealth in few hands and helps for achieving balanced economic growth of the nation. In our countries, entrepreneurship development is considered as the way to promote self-employment, to sustain economic development and to augment the competitiveness of industries in the eve of globalization and liberalization.

Women constitute about half of the world population. In traditional societies, they are confined to performing household activities. Hence women are generally called as home makers. But today, in modern society, they have moved out of the house and are taking part in all areas of life. Since the turn of the century, the status of women in India has been changing due to growing industrialization, globalization, and social legislation. With the spread of education and awareness, women have shifted from kitchen to higher level of professional activities. Entrepreneurship has been a male-dominated phenomenon from the very early age, but time has changed the situation and brought women as today's most memorable and inspirational entrepreneurs. Women are willing to take up business and contribute to the Nation's growth. To compete successfully in this new environment our nation needs the talents of all the qualified individuals regardless of their race, gender or ethnicity at the highest levels of corporate there should be continuous attempt is to be made to inspire, encourage, motivate and cooperate women entrepreneurs.² Their role is also being recognized and steps are being taken to promote women entrepreneurship. Women entrepreneurship must be moulded properly with entrepreneurial traits and skills to meet the changes in trends, challenges global markets and also be competent enough to sustain and strive for excellence in the entrepreneurial arena. It is estimated that women entrepreneurs presently comprise about 10% of the total number of entrepreneurs in India, with the percentage growing every year. If the prevailing trends continue, it is likely that in another five years, women will comprise 20% of the entrepreneurial force.³The Tenth Five-Year Plan (2002-07) aims at empowering women through translating the recently adopted National Policy for Empowerment of Women (2001)⁴ into action and ensuring Survival, Protection and Development of women and children through rights-based approach.

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY:

To meet the research objectives the Researcher employed desktop research by reviewing relevant texts, websites, journals, magazines. In depth, literature review helped the researcher. Secondary data have been collected from the various publications of books, journals and periodicals. The main objective of the study is to know the opportunities and obstacles faced by women entrepreneur. The study is mainly based on the secondary source in form of various research papers, websites and Books.

OBJECTIVES:

The main objectives of this study are:

1. To understand the concept of women entrepreneurship in India.

2. To know the status of women entrepreneurship in India.

3. To know the reasons, for women involving themselves in entrepreneurial activities in India.

4. To examine the challenges of women entrepreneurship in India.

5. To identify the opportunities, available for women entrepreneurs.

6. To suggest various measures to develop women entrepreneurs.

WOMEN ENTREPRENEURS:

Women entrepreneur may be defined as a woman or group of women who initiate, organize, and run a business enterprise. In terms of Schumpeterian concept of innovative entrepreneurs, women who innovate, imitate or adopt a business activity are called women entrepreneurs. As an entrepreneur, a woman entrepreneur has also to perform all the functions involved in establishing an enterprise. These include idea generation and screening, determination of objectives, project preparation, product analysis, and determination of forms of business organization, completion of promotional formalities, raising funds, procuring men, machine and materials, and operation of business. The women are spoke wheel of family and they have tendency to participate in both economic and social decisions for the family. Microfinance caters a base for social interaction, and due to resource and information sharing tendencies of groups lead to make women self-sufficient and self-reliant.⁵ The Government of India has defined women entrepreneurs based on women participation in equity and employment of a business enterprise. Accordingly, the Government of India (GOI2006, 1984) has defined women entrepreneur as “an enterprise owned and controlled by a woman having a minimum financial interest of 51 per cent of the capital and giving at least 51 per cent of the employment generated in the enterprise to women.” However, this definition is subject to criticism mainly on the condition of employing more than 50 per cent women workers in the enterprises owned and run by the women. women entrepreneurs are those women who think of a business enterprise, initiate it, organize and combine the factors of production, operate the enterprise and undertake risks and handle economic uncertainty involved in running a business enterprise.

REASONS FOR THE RISE OF WOMEN ENTREPRENEURS:

The economic empowerment of women has brought about a cascading effect in non-economic aspects of women’s life, such as empowerment in self-decision-making in the matter of education, nutrition, participation, mobility, exercise of rights, property, credit, earnings, self-reliance in the study area.⁶

Freedom to work:

If woman wants successful career with an equally successful family life, becoming an entrepreneur is the way to make it happen. As a business owner, women run the show by setting their own hours and creating the ideal life balance. When they start their own business, they will enjoy having the liberty to make it happen on their own terms.

More gender equality:

Traditionally male dominated fields, like technology, are opening up more and more to women. Where it was once unusual to see a female CEO in certain industries, it is becoming common place today. Businesswomen are rising to the top in every fields.

Breaking Stereotypes:

Society had imposed various role on women so there used to be a very limited number of professions for women to choose from. With the opportunities to break these stereotypes, women have redefined their role. They no longer stick to the professions that society expected them to stick to.

Better access of education:

As the education has spread and compulsions for earning have grown, more and more women have started to go out of the homes and opt either for wage employment or self-entrepreneurial career.⁷

The other reasons for the growth of women entrepreneurship are:

· Awareness of democratic values

· Overall changing perception of entrepreneurship

· Increasing social acceptance of women entrepreneurship.

STATUS OF WOMEN ENTREPRENEURS IN INDIA:

Entrepreneurship is considered as one of the most important factors contributing to the development of society. India has been ranked among the worst performing countries in the area of women entrepreneurship in gender-focused global entrepreneurship survey, released in July 2013 by PC maker Dell and Washington based consulting firm Global Entrepreneurship and Development Institute (GEDI)⁸. Of the 17 countries surveyed, India ranks 16th, just above Uganda. Countries like Turkey, Morocco and Egypt has outperformed India. Status of higher education in women in India came out to be lower than most countries in the world. At present, women’s entrepreneurial role is limited in the large-scale industries and technology-based businesses. But even in small scale industries, the women’s participation is very low. As per the third all-India census of Small-Scale Industries, only 10.11% of the micro and small enterprises were owned by women, and only 9.46% of them were managed by women. While the number of women operating their own business is increasing globally, women continue to face huge obstacles that stunt the growth of their businesses, such as lack of capital, strict social constraints, and limited time and skill. Only few women entrepreneurs in present scenario whose business operations are in large scale but we find more women entrepreneurs whose operations are limited to some extent they only concentrate on kitchen items such as making pappad, pickles and some snacks as well as powders which were used for cooking. This is because of the financial and the educational background which were adversely affecting the women entrepreneurship in India.⁹

TOP MOST WOMEN ENTREPRENEURS IN INDIA:

There are top most women entrepreneurs in different zone in our India. Some examples are Dr. Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw (Chairman & Managing Director of Biocon Ltd.), Indra Nooyi (CFO, Pepsico), Neelam Dhawan (Managing Director, Microsoft India), Naina Lal Kidwai (Group General Manager & Country Head–HSBC, India), Indu Jain (Chairperson (former), Times Group), Priya Paul (Chairperson of Park Hotels), Simone Tata (former Chairperson of LAKME, Chairperson of Trent Limited), Mallika Srinivasan (currently the Director of TAFE- Tractors and Farm Equipment), Chanda Kochar (MD & CEO–ICICI Bank), Sulajja Firodia Motwani (JMD–Kinetic Motors), Ekta Kapoor (JMD & Creative Director, Balaji Telefilms), Ritu Kumar (Fashion Designer), Shahnaz Hussain (CEO, Shahnaz Herbals Inc), Jyoti nayak (President Shri Mahila Griha Udyog Lijjat Papad), Ravina Raj Kohli (Founder & Executive Director, JobCorp), Preetha Reddy (Managing Director of Apollo Hospitals), Keya Seth (Founder of Keya Seth’s Aromatherapy) etc.

CHALLENGES FACED BY WOMEN ENTREPRENEURS IN INDIA:

Women in India are faced many problems to get ahead their life in business. Women entrepreneurs face many problems in their efforts to develop their enterprise. There are umpteen problems faced by women at various stages beginning from their initial commencement of enterprise, in running their enterprise. The problems faced by the emerging and established by the women entrepreneurship are as follows:

Problem of Finance:

Woman entrepreneurs will always suffer for the financial resource. The family members do not invest the amount for their business due to lack of confidence. The complicated procedure of bank loans also creates lot of problems in getting the required finance. Women entrepreneurs even face problems in getting requisite working capital financing day-to-day business activities. Women entrepreneurs have to depend upon their personal saving and loans from family friends. Most of the women entrepreneurs fail due to lack of proper financing facilities, because finance is life blood of every business activities. Obtaining the support of bankers, managing the working capital, lack of credit resources are the problems which still remain in the male’s domain. Women are yet to make significant mark in quantitative terms. There are several bottlenecks and a gap in availability of credit for women. The multiplicity of schemes is not adequately listed nor is there networking among agencies. As a result, clients approaching one institution are not made aware of the best option for their requirements. As finance is the life blood of a business organization and no business organization can function properly in the absence of adequate funds.

Problem of Marketing:

One of the major problems faced by entrepreneurship is in the field of marketing. It has not in a position to get first-hand information about the market i.e. information about completion, taste, liking disliking of consumers. Therefore, it is not able to upgrade the products according to the changing business environment. As a consequence, the product quality compares UN favourably with the quality of the products of the large-scale industries.

Patriarchal Society:

India still remains largely patriarchal. And there's no escaping it. Women entrepreneurs will constantly have to battle male egos and mental barriers. Entrepreneurship in business has long been a male bastion, and the idea of women going toe to toe with them won't sit well always. Don't get sucked into fighting the bias though. Find your niches, set up a support system that works for you and let your work, rather than gender be the focal point. It is a question of society’s outlook on the appropriate role for women and the consequent self-estimation by women. In that sense it touches the problem of social regeneration.¹⁰

Raw materials:

A major problem that the women entrepreneurship faces is the procurement of raw materials. The failure of many entrepreneurial units is due to the inadequacy of raw materials. The prices of raw materials are quite high. Women entrepreneurs find it difficult to procure the required raw materials and other necessary inputs for production in sufficient quantity and quality.

Gender gaps in education:

While women are making major strides in Educational attainment at primary and secondary levels, they often lack the Combination of education, vocational and technical skills, and work experience Needed to support the development of highly productive businesses. Women entrepreneur are those women who think of a business operate the business take risk and handle economic uncertainties involved in running business with education and training the women have gained confidence to do all work which was the privilege of man and do it excellently than man. Educate women have become ambitious, acquired experience and basic skill of competency and self-assurance.¹¹

Heavy household responsibilities:

leave a demand on women especially those in rural areas who have more children. They are required to perform their traditional role as housewives and therefore, they have fewer hours of free time than men, both during the weekend and on weekdays. An ILO report on women entrepreneurship identifies the following problems faced by women entrepreneurs.

Absence of Entrepreneurial Aptitude:

One of the biggest problems of women is the lack of entrepreneurial aptitude. They have no entrepreneurial bent of mind. The basic characteristics of an entrepreneur such as innovation, risk bearing etc. are absent in a women entrepreneur. Many women take the training by attending the Entrepreneurship Development Programmes without entrepreneurial bent of mind.

Inadequate infrastructure:

Insufficient quality and quantity of transportation, communication and other basic services particularly in backward areas is another problem. Inadequate infrastructure results in underutilization of capacity and wastages. Inadequate infrastructures also adversely affect the quality, quantity and production schedule of the enterprises operating in these areas. Therefore, their functioning will become uneconomical and unviable.

Lack of confidence:

Lack of role models undermines the self -Confidence of women entrepreneurs. The activity of selling is considered abhorrent to the female gender.

Managerial problem:

Another serious problem for women entrepreneurship is managerial inadequacies. Modern business demands vision, knowledge, skill, aptitude and whole-hearted devotion. The managerial competence of the entrepreneur is very important for the success of any venture.

Less Risk Bearing Capacity:

Women in India lives secure and protected life in family. Decision making power related to business activities is less due to economic dependent and domination of male headed society.

Lack of Infrastructure:

Insufficient quality and quantity of transportation, communication and other basic services particularly in backward areas is another problem. Inadequate infrastructure results in under utilization of capacity and wastages. Inadequate infrastructures also adversely affect the quality, quantity and production schedule of the enterprises operating in these areas. Therefore, their functioning will become uneconomical and unviable.

Lack of entrepreneurial training:

Large number of women is no proper and sufficient technical and professional training to set-up a new venture. All women entrepreneurs are given the same training through EDPs. Second-generation women entrepreneurs don't need such training as they already have the previous exposure to business.

Stiff competition:

In the present market scenario, the competition is too high; women entrepreneurs must survive in the market against the male counterpart who has enormous experience and capacity to adopt technology in running enterprises.

Insufficient Training programs:

In India, women are ignorant of new technologies or unskilled in their use, and often unable to do research and gain the necessary training. Due to lack of access to technical training programmes for women entrepreneurs, it becomes structural difficulties and prevent the technology from being beneficial or even available for them. Training programs and workshops for every type of entrepreneur is available through the social and welfare associations, based on duration, skill and the purpose of the training program. Such programs are really useful to new, rural and young entrepreneurs who want to set up a small and medium scale unit on their own.

Motivational Factor:

Self-Motivation, Attitude to take up risk and behaviour towards the business society, family support, financial assistance from public and private Institutions and also environmental suitable for Women to establish business units.¹²

ROLE OF GOVERNMENT TO DEVELOP WOMEN ENTREPRENEURS IN INDIA:

Development of women has been a policy objective of the government since independence. Until the 70s the concept of women ‘s development was mainly welfare oriented. In 1970s, there was a shift from welfare approach to development approach that recognized the mutually reinforcing nature of the process of development. The 80s adopted a multi-disciplinary approach with an emphasis on three core areas of health, education and employment. Women were given priorities in all the sectors including SSI sector. Government and non-government bodies have paid increasing attention to women ‘s economic contribution through self- employment and industrial ventures.

The Government of India devised special programs to increases employment and income-generating activities for women in rural areas. The following plans are lunched during the Eight-Five Year Plan:

· Prime Minister Rojgar Yojana and EDPs were introduced to develop entrepreneurial qualities among rural women.

· ‘Women in agriculture’ scheme was introduced to train women farmers having small and marginal holdings in agriculture and allied activities.

· To generate more employment opportunities for women KVIC took special measures in remote areas.

· Women co-operatives schemes were formed to help women in agro-based industries like dairy farming, poultry, animal husbandry, horticulture etc. with full financial support from the Government.

· Several other schemes like integrated Rural Development Programs (IRDP), Training of Rural youth for Self-employment (TRYSEM) etc. were started to alleviated poverty. 30-40% reservation is provided to women under these schemes.

The Government of India has also formulated various training and development cum employment generations programs for the women to start their ventures. These programmes are as follows:

Steps taken by Government during Ninth Five-Year Plan:

Economic development and growth are not achieved fully without the development of women entrepreneurs. The Government of India has introduced the following schemes for promoting women entrepreneurship because the future of small-scale industries depends upon the women-entrepreneurs:

(a) Trade Related Entrepreneurship Assistance and Development (TREAD) scheme was lunched by Ministry of Small Industries to develop women entrepreneurs in rural, semi-urban and urban areas by developing entrepreneurial qualities.

(b) Women Comkp0onent Plant, a special strategy adopted by Government to provide assistance to women entrepreneurs.

(c) Swarna Jayanti Gram Swarozgar Yojana and Swaran Jayanti Sekhari Rozgar Yojana were introduced by government to provide reservations for women and encouraging them to start their ventures.

(d) New schemes named Women Development Corporations were introduced by government to help women entrepreneurs in arranging credit and marketing facilities.

(e) State Industrial and Development Bank of India (SIDBI) has introduced following schemes to assist the women entrepreneurs. These schemes are:

(i) Mahila Udyam Nidhi

(ii) Micro Cordite Scheme for Women

(iii) Mahila Vikas Nidhi

(iv) Women Entrepreneurial Development Programmes

(v) Marketing Development Fund for Women.

The Tenth Five-Year Plan (2002-07) aims at empowering women through translating the recently adopted National Policy for Empowerment of Women (2001) into action and ensuring Survival, Protection and Development of women and children through rights-based approach.¹³ The Eleventh Five Year plan encourage women in setting up their own ventures.

Training programmes:

The following training schemes specially for the self-employment of women are introduced by government:

(i) Support for Training and Employment Programme of Women (STEP).

(ii) Development of Women and Children in Rural Areas (DWCRA).

(iii) Small Industry Service Institutes (SISIs)

(iv) State Financial Corporations

(v) National Small Industries Corporations

(vi) District Industrial Centres (DICs)

SUGGESTION FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF WOMEN ENTREPRENEUR:

Right efforts are required in the improvement of women entrepreneurs and their greater contribution in the entrepreneurial activities. Women entrepreneurs need to be given assurance, freedom, and mobility to come out of their absurdities. For effective and sustainable development and technology transfer for women entrepreneurs, proper training based on scientific inputs, Suitable product ideas, product identification, market survey, project formulation and necessary approvals from the government at the right time with less legal formalities, soft recovery rules are of utmost importance.¹⁴ The following actions are recommended to authorize the women to grab different opportunities and face challenges in their business.

i. Awareness program must be conducted on a huge scale for increasing awareness among women,

ii. There must be a constant attempt to inspire, motivate women entrepreneurs,

iii.By arranging unlimited vocational training to women community to understand them the production process and production management,

iv.Proper training programs must be organized to develop professional competencies in managerial, leadership, financial, production process, profit planning, marketing, maintaining books of accounts and other skills. These all will encourage women to start business,

v.Educational institution should tie up with various government and non-government agencies to support in entrepreneurship development,

vi.Various scheme plans must be provided by the government to develop entrepreneurs in the state. E.g. the Prime ministers Rozgar Yojana, Community Development Programme (CDP), Scheme of Discriminatory Interest Rate, Rural village industries scheme etc,

vii. The financial institutions should lend their hand to provide more working capital assistance both for small scale venture and large-scale ventures,

viii.NGOs and government organizations must spread information about policies, plans and strategies on the improvement of women in the field of industry, trade and commerce. Women entrepreneurs should employ the various schemes provided by the Government,

ix.Workshops and seminars should be organized frequently for women entrepreneurs to make their relations more cordial.

x.Government should recognize the successful or growing women entrepreneurs and award them. This recognition and publicity will motivate other women entrepreneurs.

xi.Encourage women’s participation in decision making.

xii. Steps may be taken to make family members aware of the potential of girls and their dual role in society. At the same time there must be a change in negative social attitude towards women.

xiii.Apart from training programs, Newsletters, mentoring, trade fairs and exhibitions also can be a source for entrepreneurial development. As a result, the desired outcomes of the business are quickly achieved and more of remunerative business opportunities are found.¹⁵

xiv.Consider women as specific target group for all developmental programmes.¹⁶

xv.Media has the potential to play the most vital role in entrepreneurial development by creating and highlighting all such platforms which can bring out the creativity and innovation among the women and men to grow entrepreneurship culture in society.¹⁷

For the growth and development of women entrepreneurs their active participation is required to be accelerated entrepreneurial development of women. Hence, a congenial environment is needed to be created to enable women to participate actively in the entrepreneurial activities. There is a need of Government, non- Government, promotional and regulatory agencies to come forward and play the supportive role in promoting the women entrepreneur in India.¹⁸

CONCLUSION:

Empowering women entrepreneurs is essential for achieving the goals of sustainable development and the bottlenecks hindering their growth must be eradicated to entitle full participation in the business Entrepreneurship among women, no doubt improves the wealth of the nation in general and of the family in particular. Women today are more willing to take up activities that were once considered the preserve of men, and have proved that they are second to no one with respect to contribution to the growth of the economy. Women entrepreneurship must be moulded properly with entrepreneurial traits and skills to meet the changes in trends, challenges in global markets and also be competent enough to sustain and strive for excellence in the entrepreneurial arena. Apart from training programs, Newsletters, mentoring, trade fairs and exhibitions also can be a source for entrepreneurial development. As a result, the desired outcomes of the business are quickly achieved and more of remunerative business opportunities are found. Henceforth, promoting entrepreneurship among women is certainly a short-cut to rapid economic growth and development.

REFERENCES:

1. Cole A H. Business Enterprise in its Social Setting. Harvard University, Cambridge. 1959, p.5.

2. Rai Vinita. Beyond Gas Ceiling: A New Wave in Women Entrepreneurs. Asian Journal of Management. 5 (2); 2014: 140-144.

3. Saidapur, S et.al, ‘Women candle entrepreneurs in Gulbarga district–A micro analysis’, Spectrum: A Journal of Multidisciplinary Research’. 1 (4); 2012, 7-17.

4. Planning Commission. Tenth Five Year Plan 2002-2007. Government of India, New Delhi. p.21.

5. Singh H and Atria A k. Social Capital Formation and Growth of Micro Entrepreneurship through Microfinance: A Study of Women in Self Help Group in Rajasthan. Asian Journal of Management. 6 (2) ; 2015 : 91-100.

6. Chakravorty P K and Neogy D. Does Women Employment in Group Activities ensure Improved Social Status? A Study with Select Indicators on Some Urban Areas of The North-East India. Research Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences. 9 (2) ; 2018: 356-374.

7. Dhameja S K (2002), Women Entrepreneurs : Opportunities, performance, problems, Deep publications (p) Ltd., New Delhi. 2002. p 22.

8. Wiki gender> Gender-Global Entrepreneurship and Development Index (GEDI) 2014 (https://www.Wikigender. org>wiki>gen).

9. B S Raj Pruthvi. Women Entrepreneurship and Government Support in Present Scenario in the Context of India. IOSR Journal of Business and Management. 20(2); 2018:25-28.

10. Mohan M S and Sharma A. Women Entrepreneurship in India: Growth and Problems. Asian Journal of Management. 5 (2) ; 2014: 170-172.

11. Verma B. Scenario of Women Entrepreneurs in India. Asian Journal of Management. 5 (2) ; 2014: 125-128.

12. Arakeri Shanta. V. Women Entrepreneurship in India. National Monthly Refereed Journal of Research in Arts and Education. 1(3); 2001 :1–7.

13. Jai parkash. Women Entrepreneurship in India-Problems and Prospects. International Journal of Multidisciplinary Research.1 (5); 2011: 132-137.

14. Palannivelu V R and Manikandan D. A Study on Prospects and Challenges of Women Entrepreneurs in Erode District of Tamil Nadu. Asian Journal of Management. 9 (1) ; 2018: 297-301.

15. Singh N. Women Entrepreneurship and Its Development in India. Asian Journal of Management. 1 (1) ; 2010: 33-36.

16. Varkey S. A Study on Women Entrepreneurs and Their Goals for Nation Building. Asian Journal of Management. 5 (2) ; 2014 : 179-182.

17. Jain S. Challenges Faced by Women Entrepreneurs in India. Research Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences. 6 (3) ; 2015 : 213-217.

18. Batola M and Singh G. Financial Policies in Women Entrepreneurial Development (A Case of Uttarakhand). Asian Journal of Management. 8 (1) ; 2017: 49-58.

Received on 03.02.2019 Modified on 28.02.2019

Res. J. Humanities and Social Sciences. 2019; 10(2):376-382.

DOI: 10.5958/2321-5828.2019.00064.0