Women Micro Entrepreneurship facilities - training and other supportive measures

The role of Women in the informal sector is very important and merit special attention mainly because of the major change that has occurred in the labour force over the past two decades exemplified by the increasing participation of women in the labour market.

According to 1991 census, India with a female population of 406 millions has traditionally had limited female participation in the workforce. The 1991 census reported that 91.397 million were main workers and 25.208 million were marginal workers. The work participation rate of females rose from 14.22% in 1971 to 19.67% in 1981 to 22.27 in 1991. The rise in work participation of rural females was steeper from 15.92% in 1971 to 26.79% in 1991.

The distribution of female main workers by industrial categories is shown below.

Agriculture & Allied Activities	80%
Household industry	3.53%
Manufacturing & Processing	5.31%
Outside household industry	3.9%
Trade & Commerce	2.26%

Women’s increased participation is due to four important changes that have taken place in the past twenty years. In India many women are migrating to the city seeking economic opportunity. Urbanisation and changes in production have transformed the work that women used to do at home into work that is done for play in the market place. In addition, although the traditional economic activities of rural women were often home-based and linked to their reproductive responsibilities in the household, lack of access to land and other productive resources along with the modernisation of agricultural production has forced women to orient their activities more directly to the market, making them more visible.

Increasing educational opportunities for women have also led to expanded economic opportunities for them.

Women have entered the field of entrepreneurship fairly recently. The number of women entrepreneurs is negligible and has not made any impact on the system. Self-employment activities by a vast majority of women in poor rural & urban households have not received any recognition nor the policy support they deserve. Their contribution remained unseen and outside the preview of the mainstream production activities relegating them to the informal sector. There is therefore an urgent need to motivate women to take up entrepreneurial activities & realise their potential by making use of available opportunities. On the other hand, the implementing agencies too have to be sensitised so as to meet the requirements of women in micro enterprise.

In this paper an attempt is made to define a microenterprise, review the Government programmes for women entrepreneurs, develop a model for training potential microentrepreneurs and finally suggest a few supportive measures to make the programme more effective.

In this paper an attempt is made to define a microenterprise, review the Government programmes for women entrepreneurs, develop a model for training potential microentrepreneurs and finally suggest a few supportive measures to make the programme more effective. The terms “Micro enterprise” and “Microbusiness” have often been used inter-changeably with “informal sector”. It is helpful at this juncture to use two types of classification in dividing the informal microenterprise sector. The first refers to the industrial classification of these enterprises among industry or manufacturing, services & commerce.

A service or commerce business with more than three employees might be considered beyond the microlevel, a manufacturing operation with upto five employees could be considered a micro-enterprise.

The second type of classification refers to different characteristics of firms as they relate to the economy as a whole. First the “casual work” including temporary or seasonal activities. The other activities could be carrying heavy loads and payment vending. This group contains micro businesses that are independent & more or less stable such as stores or small manufacturing operation.

The last type is that of subcontracting. Many of the microenterprises in this group produce only certain components of a product which are sold to larger firms.

As far as women’s participation in Micro enterprise is concerned, we can make certain genelisations such as:

• Women form an important segment of micro enterprise owners/operators in India.
• Women are concentrated in certain activities like Kirana shops, services, garment making and food production.
• Women’s microbusinesses are concentrated among the smallest and least remunerative activities.
• Many of the womens’ micro enterprises are an extension of their domestic roles and this is evident in the importance that garment making, food production and the sale of processed foods has for women.
• Women’s microenterprise activities are often organised within their homes which gives them an opportunity look after their homes and the market at the same time.

Overview of Governmental Programmes for Entrepreneurship Development Among Women

 

Scheme	Details of the Scheme
·        Self Employment Scheme for the Registered Unemployed	Provides subsidy to a ceiling of 25% of the loan sanctioned by banks. This scheme is in operation in West Bengal.
·        Self Employment Scheme	Provides assistance towards margin money for seeking loans from banks and is being operated in Madhya Pradesh.
·        Sanjay Gandhi Swavalamba Yojana	Provides assistance for promoting small self employment ventures & operated in Maharashtra.
·    Societies for Training and Employment Promotions (STEP)  ·Society for Training and Employment Promotion and Training ·    Development of Women & Children in Rural areas ·    Rural Landless Employment Graduate Programme (RLEGP)  ·  National Rural Employment Programme (NREP) ·      Integrated Rural Development Programme (IRDP) ·        Training of Rural Youth in Self Employment (TRYSEM)	These schemes are operated in AP & other States.  These Schemes are operated by different departments & ministries of Government of India in all the states. The thrust of all these programmes is mainly in (1) Employment and Income Generation Services (2) Education and Training Services (3) Support Services (4) General Awareness Services (5) Legal Support Services.
·        Prime Minister’s Rojgar Yojaja (PMRY)	Loans upto Rs. One Lakh is provided without any security. 10% would be women
·       Women Development Corporation Scheme (WDCS)	WDCS identify women entrepreneurs, prepareviable projects, facilitate the availability of credit through banks.
·        Working Women’s Forum	Access to credit without collateral and helping women in local sales (Tamil Nadu).
·        Indira Mahila Yojana	Helps in setting up of groups in villages and urban slums operating in 200 blocks in the country.
·        Indira Mahila Kendra at Anganwadi level	Economic Empowerment by ensuring direct access mobilisation & their actual participation in the development process.
·        Rashtriya Mahila Kosh (National Credit Fund)	Extends credit to poor women (informal credit delivery)
·        Mahila Samithi Yojana	Informal Banking
Scheme	Details of the Scheme
·        Khadi & Village Industries Commission (KVIC)	Provides training for women & markets products in handloom and weaving, handicrafts, products of wool, marbles, Stone, Semi Precious stones and Metal.
·        Indira Priyadarshini Yojana	Provide Rs. 2 lakhs as term loans & upto Rs. 1 lakh as working capital.
·        IDBI’s Mahila Udyam Nidhi ·        Mahila Vikas Nidhi	Provides seed capital assistance for Voluntary Organisation working for the upliftment of the status of women.
·        SBI’s Street Shakti Scheme	Loans upto Rs. 25, 000. No guarantee nor margin money
·        State Financial Scheme for Women Entrepreneurs	Loans provided for acquiring fixed assets such as loans, building, plant & machinery.

There are a number of state undertakings and also organisations funded by financial institution that are directly or indirectly connected with improving the status of women, product development & organising EDPs. Some of the organisations involved in these activities are State Women Development Corporations, State Financial Corporations, National Institute of Small Industry Extension Training. National Institute of Rural Development, Entrepreneurship Development Institute of India, State Export Corporations etc.

Inspite of the government efforts women’s entry in entrepreneurship has been rather slow when compared to that of their counterparts in the west. For instance in Canada, a third of all small business enterprises are owned by women. In France their share is more than twenty percent, in Britain it is thirty percent, but in India, it is a dismal six percent.

World Position of women entrepreneurs % of women enterprise

Canada	33.3%
France	20%
U.K.	30%
India	6%

TRAINING MODULE

The main obstacles faced by informal sector or microenterprises are training and credit. If these two are the main hindrances to the growth of microenterprises then any strategy for support and promotion should contribute to eliminate or limit these obstacles in both establishment of new enterprises and strengthening the existing enterprises.

The first step in training is identification of a target group. All women do not form one single target group for training institutions. One has to think of different target groups with different needs, education, experience, financial background, culture and caste. The figure given below will help in grouping women according to characteristics. 

Types of Training

There are three types of training programme an agency can think before offering a programme.

• Type I – Entrepreneurship Orientation and Awareness programme, which focuses on general information about entrepreneurship and encourage women to think in terms of entrepreneurship as a career.
• Type II – New enterprise creation. Develops competencies, which lead to self-employment.
• Type III – Programme for existing microentrepreneurs. Focus on survival and growth and the programmes are mostly need based.

What to Train

The content of any type of business training programme set out to impart knowledge, develop skills and change the attitude. The balance between these elements and the level at which the training is offered will reflect the aims of the programme and the particular groups of women one has targeted.

In addition to teaching the topics mentioned above certain gender elements should also be included in any business programme for women like

Cofidence building, Assertiveness, Negotiation skills and, Personal development.

Methodology

In teaching all the elements it is important to relate things to the every-day experience of trainees. Women have a wide range of skills developed from their childhood which helps in managing their own lives, homes and families. The trainers have to play the role of facilitator, and help them in transferring their skills and experiences to the business context. Besides lectures, interaction with successful women in microenterprises should be organised. Since women are under-represented in business sector, sincere efforts should be made to get a few successful people to the classroom. Field visits should also form a part of the training programs. It is believed that classroom learning will be reinforced when they practically see units managed by women. Active learning is necessary to equip women with the skills to manage the situation effectively. This can be achieved through role plays, case discussion and assignments.

Training Activity Model

An attempt is made to present a model of the training process indicating the broad elements and the sub-elements in the training system. The major important elements in the training process may be stated as six which cannot be skipped in the process of formulation and implementation of a training plan. They are in their sequential order (i) assessment of needs of entrepreneurs, (ii) setting up objective of training, (iii) formulation of a training plan or the training programme, (iv) conduct of training, (v) evaluation and finally, (vi) feed back.

The training activity or the process could be initiated only with the assessment of need of the entrepreneurs (setting up of enterprise for potential entrepreneurs and improvement in the present scale of operation for existing entrepreneurs). The needs of agency flow from the agency objectives.

With the needs of the training, thus established, the second stage in the process is setting up of the objectives of training, classifying them as the knowledge objectives, skills objectives and attitude objectives, for training seeks to enhance the present status in respect of these to a higher or desired status. It is important to succinctly lay down the objectives since at the penultimate stage, the outcome of the training will have to be measured against these pre-set objectives.

The third stage in the process in the formulation of the training plan. The plan should include primarily the content of training i.e., what is going to be taught to the trainees which they are expected to learn. Depending upon the general, specific and allied aspects of the subjects proposed to be covered in accordance with the design of the curriculum proposed, the trainers may have to be chosen either internally or externally not only on the basis of their proficiency but also on the record of rating of them by the trainees. In consultation with these trainers, who have been carefully picked, the training aids and the course material will have to be got ready.

The plan of training is now ready to be implemented. The implementation would start with the selection and admission of the candidates for training, based on their suitability which is judged with reference to their qualification, position, business experience and keeping in view the need for homogeneity in the group.

The penultimate stage in the training process in evaluation. This may be undertaken during (concurrent) and after (ex-post) training. The evaluation will cover both the trainee and the training programme. The trainee evaluation will cover her reaction, learning and behaviour while the training evaluation covers the ultimate outcome of training i.e., setting up of new microenterprise and the impact of the training will be that more number of sponsors approaching the agency for training & increase in the number of trainees.

The last stage i.e., feed back stage is perhaps the most important, its importance in the training activity mostly remaining hidden. The results of evaluation, the findings arising out of such evaluation will have to be fed back to every level and to every person involved in the training activity, the sponsor, the trainer and the training institute. The data generated and the information processed should be used to refine the need analysis, to modify the objective setting techniques, enrich the training content, improve the selection process both by the sponsors and the training institutes, after the training methods and aids & revise the course material and so on.

The six stage training process now proposed is a practical one, which given the will and the determination, will also be able to maximise training results without any serious technical problems. A model designed on the basis of the foregoing structure of the proposed training activity may be seen in the following figure.

References

1. McClelland, David, (1976). Achieving Society. New York: Irvington publishers, p. 512.
2. McClelland, David and David Winter (19781). Motivating Economic Achievement. New York: The Free Press, p. 415.