The growth and development of women entrepreneurs required to be accelerated because entrepreneurial development is not possible without the participation of women.
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Therefore, 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.
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:
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1. Steps taken in Seventh Five-Year Plan:
In the seventh five-year plan, a special chapter on the “Integration of women in development” was introduced by Government with following suggestion:
(i) Specific target group:
It was suggested to treat women as a specific target groups in all major development programs of the country.
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(ii) Arranging training facilities:
It is also suggested in the chapter to devise and diversify vocational training facilities for women to suit their changing needs and skills.
(iii) Developing new equipments:
Efforts should be made to increase their efficiency and productivity through appropriate technologies, equipments and practices.
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(iv) Marketing assistance:
It was suggested to provide the required assistance for marketing the products produced by women entrepreneurs.
(v) Decision-making process:
It was also suggested to involve the women in decision-making process.
2. Steps taken by Government during Eight Five-Year Plan:
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:
(i) Prime Minister Rojgar Yojana and EDPs were introduced to develop entrepreneurial qualities among rural women.
(ii) ‘Women in agriculture’ scheme was introduced to train women farmers having small and marginal holdings in agriculture and allied activities.
(iii) To generate more employment opportunities for women KVIC took special measures in remote areas.
(iv) 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.
(v) 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.
3. Steps taken by Government during Ninth Five-Year Plan:
Economic development and growth is 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 adop0ted 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
4. Consortium of Women entrepreneurs of India provides a platform to assist the women entrepreneurs to develop new, creative and innovative techniques of production, finance and marketing.
There are different bodies such as NGOs, voluntary organizations, Self-help groups, institutions and individual enterprises from rural and urban areas which collectively help the women entrepreneurs in their activities.
5. 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)
6. Mahila Vikas Nidhi:
SIDBI has developed this fund for the entrepreneurial development of women especially in rural areas. Under Mahila Vikas Nidhi grants loan to women are given to start their venture in the field like spinning, weaving, knitting, embroidery products, block printing, handlooms handicrafts, bamboo products etc.
7. Rashtriya Mahila Kosh:
In 1993, Rashtriya Mahila Kosh was set up to grant micro credit to pore women at reasonable rates of interest with very low transaction costs and simple procedures.