Microfinance and Womens Empowerment: A

Contemporary Issues and Challenges

ISSN 2319-9725
M.Sangeetha
Ph.D. Scholar, Depar tment of Commerce,
Periyar University

Abstract: Women Entrepreneurs plays an important role in boosting the Indian economy
system. The development of the business sector may be an indicator of a predictable legal
structure and a prosperous economy. Entrepreneurship development for women is an
important factor in economic development of India. Women entrepreneurs in India are
handicapped in the matter of organizing and running businesses on account of their
generally low levels of skills and for want of support system. The transition from
homemaker to sophisticated business woman is not that easy. But the trend is changing.
Women across India are showing an interest to be economically independent. Women are
coming forth to the business arena with ideas to start small and medium enterprises. They
are willing to be inspired by role models- the experience of other women in the business
arena.
Micro finance is emerging as a powerful instrument for poverty alleviation, employment
generation and empowerment of women folk. In India Microfinance for women is mainly
group based assuming that bringing women together in groups will be more
empowering than the individual lending. Many successful women forums and
organizations are trying to bring rural women together for development of women folk
like Working Womens Forum (WWF), Self-Employed Women s Association (SEWA), shri
mahila griha udyog, Mhaswad, Maharasthra etc.

Keywords: Microfinance, Empowerment, Women Entrepreneurs.

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1. Introduction:
Women Entrepreneurs plays an important role in boosting the Indian economy system. The
development of the business sector may be an indicator of a predictable legal structure and a
prosperous economy. Microfinance is an efficient tool to fight against poverty, but also as a
means of pr omoting the empowerment of the most marginalized sections of the population,
especially women. Entrepreneurship is a form of human resource and entrepreneurial
behavior depends on a number of factors like skill, knowledge of the enterprise, r isk taking
ability, achievement motivation, exposure to mass media, trainings received, and moreover,
with innovativeness of the entrepreneur. Entr epreneurial behavior can be attributed as the
change in knowledge, skills and attitude of entrepreneurs in the enterprise they have taken up.
Women have been star ting businesses at a higher rate than men for the last 20 years and tend
to create home-based micro (less than 5 employees) and small businesses. Women will create
over half of the 9.72 million new small business jobs expected to be created by 2018 and
more and more are doing this from home offices across the countr y. It s a surprising statistic,
especially considering that women-owned businesses only created 16 percent of total U.S.
jobs that existed in 2010.
Ther e is evidence of significant potential for micro-finance to enable women to challenge and
change gender inequalities at all levels if there is a strategic gender focus. There have also
been many important recent innovations in products and ser vices to enable women to better
benefit. Nevertheless benefits cannot be assumed and even financially sustainable microfinance if it is gender blind may seriously disempower women and increase inequality. These
are ( i) official definition of microfinance, (ii) ensur ing the microfinance services, (iii)
approach to subsidy, (iv) banking policies, (v) management information system and ( vi)
legislation processes.

Today s women are taking more and more professional and technical degrees to cope up
with market need and are flour ishing as designers, interior decorators, exporters, publishers,
gar ment manufacturers and still explor ing new avenues of economic participation. It is
perhaps for these reasons that Government Bodies, NGO s, Social Scientists, Researcher s
and I nternational Agencies have started showing interest in the issues related to
entrepreneurship among women in I ndia. Women Entrepreneurs may be defined as the
women or group of women who initiate, organize and co-operate a business enterprise.
Government of India has defined women entrepreneurs as an enterprise owned and
controlled by a woman having a minimum f inancial interest of 51% of the capital and giving

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at least 51% of employment generated in the enterprise to women.

2. Empowerment:
Empowerment is also related to the process of internal change ( Mayoux 1998) and to the
capacity and right to make decisions (Kabeer 2001). It consists of change, choice and power.
It is a process of change by which individuals or groups with little or no power gain the
ability to make choices that affect their lives. Explicit and adequately resourced strategies for
women s empower ment from women to gender : women's empower ment requires not only
strategies targeting women but also strategies to support men in challenging gender
inequality.

3. Microfinance And Women Empowerment :

Microfinance programs target women with the explicit goal of empowering them. Wher eas,
other believe that investing in women s capabilities empowers them to make choices which is
a valuable goal in itself but it also contributes to greater economic growth and development.
Microfinance is being promoted as an entry point in the context of a wider strategy for
women s economic and sociopolitical empowerment, which focuses on gender awareness.
(Kessey, 2005). Ranjula Bali Swaina and Fan Yang Wallentin (September 2009) in their
article Does micr ofinance empower women? Evidence from self -help groups in India
concluded that their study strongly indicate that SHG members are empowered by
participating in microfinance program in the sense that they have a gr eater propensity to resist
existing gender norms and culture that restrict their ability to develop and make choices.
The study by Banerjee, Duflo, Glennerster and Kinnan (2009) asserted that microfinance for
women has no impact on participants average monthly expenditure per capita, health,
education, or their decision making in I ndia. A r ecent study by Shillabeer (2008) in
Bangladesh argued that microfinance created indebtedness and led to poverty traps for poor
women. The study of Sugg (2010) conducted with Bangladesh Rural Advancement
Committee (BRAC) clients showed a negative correlation between ownership of assets and
length of membership with the organization. BRAC beneficiaries reported that they have to
sell personal assets in order to repay their debts. In addition, in a study with Grameen Bank
clients in Bangladesh, Sugg (2010) showed that 57% of female clients saw a r ise in spousal

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verbal aggression since the start of their loans, and a 13% rise in both verbal and physical
violence.

4. Gender Equality Of Opportunity:

Elimination of those differ ences which perpetuate unequal power and resources are ascribing
lower value to women's choices. It may also be used to r efer to those more limited areas
where men s choices and access to power and resources ar e limited. Gender is no longer a
basis for discrimination and inequality between people. women s equal access to micro finance and employment to be seen as a human rights issue and an integral part of any
mainstream regulator y and policy framework separation of gender from poverty concer ns
with explicit strategies for addressing gendered resource and power inequalities within
households and communities and explicit strategies for the most disadvantaged women
mainstreaming women s concerns including attention to reproductive work, vulnerability and
wellbeing not as women s projects but as integral par ts of any economic inter vention for
women and men

5. Microfinance Product:
The design of micro-finance products e.g. interest rates, repayment schedules, application
procedures, loan size and purpose and savings conditions are often seen as a technical
banking issue decided from above by programme staff. The main consider ation is financial
self-sustainability or more rarely poverty tar geting. Very little attention has been given to
empowerment questions. However, evidence indicates that women s ability to use
microfinance to increase incomes and control these incomes are also affected by details of the
conditions of micro-finance delivery. Current debates have been pr e-occupied with the issue
of setting interest rates high enough to cover costs of service provision. It is often asserted
that the actual level of interest is not of great concern to borrower s provided they are lower
than those charged by moneylenders.

6. Women Entrepreneurship:
Women entrepreneur s explore the prospects of starting a new enterprise; undertake r isks,
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intr oduction of new innovations, coordinate administration & control of business & providing
effective leader ship in all aspects of business and have proved their footage in the male
dominated business arena. Entrepreneurship amongst women is a relatively recent
phenomenon, which is gradually changing with the growing sensitivity of the roles,
responsibilities and economic status of women in the society in gener al and family in
particular. At the same time, it is also recognized that their challenges are immense and
complex. For women entrepreneurs, starting and operating a business involves considerable
risks and difficulties, because in the I ndian social environment women has always lived as
subordinate to men. There have been noticeable changes in the socio-psycho-cultural and
economic norms of our society due to liberalized policy of the gover nment of I ndia, increase
in the education levels of women and increased social awareness in respect of the role women
plays in the society. It has now been recognized that to promote self-employment and to
reduce the incidence of poverty, some drastic efforts have to be made to accelerate selfemployment of women in various sectors.

i. Women Entrepreneurship means an act of business ownership and business creation

that empowers women economically increases their economic strength as well as
position in society.
ii. According to Kamala Singh, A women entrepreneur is a confident, innovative and
creative woman capable of achieving economic independence individually or in
collaboration generates employment opportunities for others through initiating
establishing and running an enterprise by keeping pace with her personal, family and
social life.
iii. In the words of Former President APJ Abdul Kalam "empowering women is a
prerequisite for creating a good nation, when women are empowered, society with
stability is assured. Empowerment of women is essential as their thoughts and their
value systems lead to the development of a good family, good society and ultimately a
good nation."
Khanka (2002) referred to women entrepreneurs as those who innovate, imitate or adopt a
business activity. Given that entrepreneurship is the set of activities performed by an
entrepreneur, it could be argued that being an entrepreneur precedes entrepreneurship. In any
case, the entrepreneurial definitions described above highlight the aspects of risk-taking,
innovating and resource organizing.

Need for the study:

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The efforts of Gover nment of I ndia through various welfare organizations, NonGovernmental agencies, Ministry of Commerce and Industry and hosts of other agencies have
started looking after and helping the efforts of women entr epreneurs. Encouraged with the
efforts made by different agencies, the aim of the present study is to test the status of Women
Entrepreneurs through the microfinance. This study was carr ied out as the role of women
entrepreneurs has gained significance in today's envir onment. Most of them are capable of
fully identifying themselves in their new economic role in society. The study has highlighted
many factor s that have motivated women entrepr eneurs in starting an entrepreneurial career.
Success has been seen mostly among the mid thirty and early for ty age group. The
government schemes, incentives and subsidies have stimulated and provided support
measur es to women entrepreneurs in India.

7. Objectives And Research Methodology Of The Study:

The study is based on secondary data which is collected from the published reports of RBI,
CMIE, Economic Surveys, news paper s, journals, websites, etc. The study was planned
with the following object ives:
i. To provide a national networking forum for women in business that will support them in

starting and growing their businesses.

ii. To identify problems unique to women in setting up and running their enterprises
iii. To suggest certain remedial measures to solve the problems of Women Entrepreneurship

in Indian Economy.
iv. To study the policies, programmes, inst itutional networks and the involvement of support

agencies in promoting women's entrepreneurship.

8. Women Entrepreneurship In India:

Women have gr adually been changing with the sensitivity to their role and economic status in
the society. Women are increasingly being conscious of their existence, their rights, and work
situation. However, the position of women work participation as well as both is low in I ndia
in comparison to selected counties of the world. Women work participation in India is 31.6 %
where as in USA it is 45 %, UK 43 %, Canada 42 %, France 32 %, Indonesia 40 % Sr ilanka
and Brazil both 35 %. Table-1 refers women entrepreneurship position in the selected states

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of I ndia is 30 per cent on an average, but in Bihar it is only 15.04 per cent. Further, in India,
men generally take the lead in the entrepreneurial world. With the change of time as well as
cultural norms, and incr ease in literacy, women are increasingly ready to enter the field of
entrepreneurship.
i. Women entrepr eneur is a person who accepts challenging role to meet her personal

need and become economically independent. There are economic, social, religious,
cultural and other factors existing in the society which responsible for the emergency
of the entrepreneurs.
ii. Women entrepreneur refers equally to someone who has started a one women

business to someone who is a principal in family business or partnership or to

someone who is shar eholder in a public company which she runs.
iii. The Government of India has defined a women entrepreneur is an enterprise

owned and controlled by a women having a minimum financial interest of 51% of the
capital and giving at least 51% of the employment generated in the enterprise to
women .
States

No of Unit s
Registered

No. of Women

Percentage %

Ent repreneurs

Tamil Nadu

9618 2930 30.36

Uttar Pradesh

7980 3180 39.84

Kerala

5487 2135 38.91

Punjab

4791 1618 33.77

Maharastra

4339 1394 32.12

Gujrat

3872 1538 39.72

Karnatka

3822 1026 26.84

Madhya Pradesh

2967 842 28.38

Behar

7344 1123 15.04

Other States & UTS 14576 4185 28.71

Total
64,796 19,971 32.82
Table 1: Source: CMIE Report-2011

9. Challenges Faced By Women Entrepreneurs:

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While empowering women entr epreneurs faced the following problems. Women
Entrepreneurs encounter two sets of problems i.e. general problems entrepreneurs and
problems specific to women entrepreneurs. These ar e discussed follows.
9.1. Male dominated Society:
The greatest deterrent to women entrepreneurs is that they are women. The constitution of
India speaks about the equality between both the sexes, i.e. men and women. But in practice,
women are looked upon as abla i.e. weak in all r espects. In male dominated Indian society,
women are not treated equal to men. This turn serves as a barrier to women entry into
business.

9.2. Problem of Finances arrangement:

The women entr epreneurs are suffering from ; inadequate financial resour ces and working
capital. The women entrepreneurs lack access to external funds due to their inability to
provide tangible secur ity. Very few women have the tangible property in hand. Women
entrepreneurs suffer from shortage of finance on two counts ( i) women do not generally have
property on their own names to use that as collateral securities for obtaining loans/funds from
banks and other financial institutions. Thus their access to external sources is very limited
.(ii) the banks also consider women less credit worthy and discourage women borrowers on
the belief that they cannot repay back the amount of loans taken by them.

9.3. Scarcity of raw materials required for productive capacities:

Most of the women enterprises are plagued by the scarcity of r aw mater ials and necessar y
inputs. Knowledge of alternative source of raw mater ials availability and high negotiation
skills are the basic requirement to run a business. Getting the raw materials from different
souse with discount prices is the factor that determines the profit margin. Lack of knowledge
of availability of the raw materials and low-level negotiation and bar gaining skills are the
factors, which affect women entrepreneur's business adventures.

9.4. Market Oriented Risk:

A number of women have to face the challenges of market because of stiff competition.
Many business women find it difficult to captur e the market and compete with their product.
They are not fully aware of the changing market conditions.

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9.5. Stiff competition with men and established self- sufficient entrepreneurs:
Women entrepreneurs do not have a proper organizational set-up to pump in a lot of money
for canvassing and adver tisements. Thus they have to face a stiff competition with the men
entrepreneurs who easily involve in the promotion and development ar ea and carry out easy
marketing of their products with both the or ganized sector and their male counterparts. Such
a competition ultimately results in the liquidation of women entrepreneurs.

9.6. Mobility Constraints:

Unlike men, women mobility in India is highly limited due to many factors/reasons. A single
women asking for room is still looked with suspicion. Cumbersome exercise involved in
starting with an enterprise coupled with officials humiliating attitude towards women
compels them to give up their spirit of surviving in enterprise altogether.

9.7. Overlapping Of Responsibility of Business And Family:

In I ndia, mainly a woman s duty is to look after her children and manage the other members
of the family. Man plays a secondar y role only. I n case of marr ied women she has to strike a
fine balance between her business and family. Her total involvement in family leaves little or
almost no time or energy to be diverted for the business activities. Support and approval of
husbands seems to be necessary condition for women entry into business. Accordingly, the
educational level and family background of husbands also influences women participation in
the field of enterprise.

9.8. Lack of education and technology:

Knowledge of latest technological changes, know how, and education level of the person are
significant factor that affect business. The literacy rate of women in India is found at low
level compared to male population. Many women in developing nations lack the education
needed to spur successful entrepreneurship. They are ignorant of new technologies or
unskilled in their use, and often unable to do research and gain the necessar y training
(UNIDO, 1995b, p.1). Although great advances are being made in technology, many
women's illiteracy, structural difficulties, and lack of access to technical training prevent the
technology from being beneficial or even available to females (" Women Entrepreneurs in
Poorest Countries," 2001). According to The Economist, this lack of knowledge and the
continuing treatment of women as second-class citizens keep them in a pervasive cycle of

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poverty ("The Female Poverty Trap," 2001). The studies indicates that uneducated women
donot have the knowledge of measurement and basic accounting.
9.9. Lesser risk and uncertainty bearing attitude:
Women in India lead a protected life. They are even less educated and economically not
stable neither self-depended. All these factors reduce their ability to bear r isks and
uncertainties involved in a business unit, which is the most important criteria of ever y
business activity.

9.10. Lack of self-confidence and optimistic attitude amongst women:

Today all the women are suffering from one major problem of lack of self-confidence, willpower, strong mental outlook, optimism etc. They always fear from committing mistakes
while doing their piece of work, more over there is limited initiative of taking risk and
bear ing uncertainty in them. Thus all these psychological factors often obstr uct their path of
achieving success in the area of enterpr ise.

9.11. Lack of Managerial skills:

Women have to depend on office staffs and intermediar ies, to get things done, especially, the
marketing and sales side of business. Here there is more probability for business fallacies like
the inter mediaries take major part of the sur plus or profit. Marketing means mobility and
confidence in dealing with the external world, both of which women have been discouraged
from developing by social conditioning. Even when they are otherwise in control of an
enterprise, they often depend on males of the family in this area.

9.12. Society:
It also one of the dominant reasons for their failure is the attitude of society people towards
their modern business prospects and developing attitude. Women nowadays have low risk
taking ability because of the number of questions put forward by the conservative society
people. Thus they are under a social pressure which r estrains them to prosper and achieve
success in the field of entrepreneurship.

9.13. Lack of proper support in family and Relation:

Many a times their own family members are not supporting and cooperating as well as having
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encouraging attitude to dare to enter into the entrepreneurship field. They are always making
many pessimistic feelings to be aroused in their minds and making them feel that family and
not business is a place meant for them. Due to such limited scope of help and cooper ation
from family and other people, they drop the idea of excelling in the enter prise field. Apart
from the above discussed problems there may occur other ser ies of serious problems faced by
women entrepreneurs are improper infrastructural facilities, high cost of production, attitude
of people of society towards the women modern business outlook, low needs of achievement
and socio-economic constraints often puts women behind in the field of enter prise.

9.14. Motivational Factors:

Successful businessmen can be self-motivated through setting up a mind and taking up risk
and accepting social responsibilities on shoulder. The other factors such as family support
government policies financial assistance etc. are also important to set up business.

9.15. Lack of Confidence:

Women lack of confidence in their strength and competence. The family members and the
society are reluctant to stand beside their entrepreneurial growth.
9.16. Training Programs:
Tr aining programs are essential to new r ural and young entrepreneurs who wish to set
up a small and medium scale unit. The programs enrich the skill and potential of women
entrepreneur.
The Indian Economic Outlook Report 2011-12 indicates a GDP growth rate of 8.2% and
women entrepreneurs in India have good reason to be feeling bullish.
Women s Web Women & Entrepreneur ship in I ndia 2012 shows a significant rise in female
entrepreneurship in the country, there are a still few challenges that they face to achieve
success.
Women in India have done ver y well for themselves and the country. I ndra Nooyi
Chair man and Chief Executive Officer of PepsiCo, is the most well-known face amongst
Indian businesswomen, HP Managing Dir ector Neelam Dhawan, ICICI Bank Limited
Managing Director and CEO Chanda Kochhar and I BM India CMO Virginia Sharma are just
a few examples that exemplify the strength of Indian women.

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While there are women who have become successful businesswomen and role models for the
Indian Industry, there are others including Ekta Kapoor who changed the face of Indian
television, Neeta Lulla who is an Indian fashion stylist and made a mark for herself in the
fashion industry and Shahnaz Husain, one of the most pr ominent Indian female entrepreneurs
known for her herbal cosmetics and beauty products.

S.No

Name

Company

Chanda Kochhar ICICI Bank

Kiran M Shaw Biocon

Shobhana Bhartia HT Media

Shikha Shar ma Axis Bank

Naina Lal Kidwai HSBC India

Kalpana Morparia JP Morgan India

Neelam Dhawan Hewlett-Packard India

Mallika Sr inivasan TAFE

Preetha Reddy Apollo Hospitals

10

Roopa Kudva CRISI L

Table 2: Source: women web 2012
Top 10 Women Entrepreneurs and Leaders of India for the year 2012

10. Major Uplift To Women Entrepreneurs:

i. Enroll women or ganizations for government schemes and incentives
ii. Get collective representation of women businesses on major for ums, economic policy
making, banking and funding. etc.
iii. Providing marketing platforms for products produced by women businesses. Give
women businesses global representation
iv. Leadership training and advanced skill development programs of the highest
standards to compete globally
v. Provide opportunities for women to get them a level playing field

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11. Government Adopt Steps To Draw More Women Into Entrepreneurship:

i. Increase the ability of women to participate in the labour force by ensur ing the
availability of affordable child care and equal treatment in the workplace. More
generally, improving the position of women in society and promoting
entrepreneurship generally will have benef its in terms of women s entrepreneurship.
ii. Incorporate a women s entrepreneur ial dimension in the formulation of all SMErelated policies. This can be done by ensuring that the impact on women s
entrepreneurship is taken into account at the policy stage.
iii. Periodically evaluate the impact of any SME-related policies on the success of
women-owned businesses and the extent to which such businesses take advantage of
them. The objective should be to identify ways to improve the effectiveness of those
that should be retained. Good practices that ar e identified in this way should be
disseminated and shared by all.
iv. Improve the factual and analytical underpinnings of our understanding of the role of
women entrepr eneurs in the economy by strengthening the statistical basis for
carrying out gender-related cross-country comparative analyses and longitudinal
studies of the impact of important developments and policies.

All the government bodies should induct women entrepreneurs on

their boards, to generate
gender sensitivity and cr eate policies which are conducive for
the growth of women
12. Women Entrepreneur Associations:
entrepreneurship.
The efforts of government and its different agencies ar e supplemented by NGOs and
associations that are playing an equally important role in facilitating women empower ment.
List of various women associations in I ndia is provided in the table below.
S.no. Association Name
Website
1 Feder ation of Indian Women Entrepreneurs

http://www.fiwe.org/

( FIWE)
2 Consortium of Women Entrepreneurs(CWEI) http://www.cwei.org/
3 Association of Lady Entrepreneurs of Andhra
http://www.aleap.org/index.html
Pradesh
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4 Association of Women Entrepreneurs of

http://awakeindia.org.in/

Karnataka (AWAKE)
5 Self-Employed Women's Association (SEWA) http://www.sewa.or g/
6 Women Entrepreneurs Promotion Association
Click here for Profile
( WEPA)
7 The Marketing Organisation of Women

Click here for Profile

Enterprises (MOOWES)
8 Bihar Mahila Udyog Sangh

http://www.biharmahilaudyogsangh.co
m/

9 Mahakaushal Association of Woman

http://www.maweindia.com/

Entrepreneurs (MAWE)
10 SAARC Chamber Women Entrepreneurship

http://www.scwec.com/index.htm

Council
11 Women Entrepreneurs Association of Tamil

Click here for Profile

Nadu ( WEAT)
12 TiEStr ee Shakti (TSS)

http://www.tiestreeshakti.org/

13 Women Empowerment Corporation http://www.wecindia.org

Table 3: Details of Women Entrepreneur Associations in India
At present, the Gover nment of: I ndia has over 27 schemes for women operated by
different departments and ministr ies. Some of these are
Integrated Rural Development Programme (IRDP)
Khadi And Village I ndustr ies Commission (KVIC)
Training of Rural Youth for Self-Employment (TRYSEM)
Prime Minister s Rojgar Yojana (PMRY)
Entrepreneur ial Development programme (EDPs)
Management Development programmes
Women s Development Corporations(WDCs)
Marketing of Non-Far m Products of Rur al Women (MAHIMA)
Assistance to Rural Women in Non-Far m Development (ARWIND) schemes
Trade Related Entrepreneurship Assistance and Development (TREAD)
Working Women s Forum
Indira Mahila Yojana
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Indira Mahila Kendra

Mahila Samiti Yojana
Mahila Vikas Nidhi
Micro Credit Scheme
Rashtr iya Mahila Kosh
SIDBIs Mahila Udyam Nidhi
Mahila Vikas Nidhi
SBI s Stree Shakti Scheme
NGO s Cr edit Schemes
Micro & Small Enterprises Cluster Development Programmes (MSE-CDP).
National Banks For Agriculture and Rural Development s Schemes
Rajiv Gandhi Mahila Vikas Par iyojana (RGMVP)
Priyadarshini Project- A programme for Rural Women for Rural Women
Empowerment and Livelihood in
Mid Gangetic plains
NABARD- KFW-SEWA Bank project
Exhibitions for women, under promotional package for Micro & Small
enterprises approved by CCEA under market ing support

The efforts of government and its differ ent agencies are ably
supplemented by NGOs that
are playing an equally important role in facilitating women empower
ment. Despite concerted
efforts
of governments and NGOs there are certain gaps.
13. Future Prospects of Development of Women Entrepreneurs:
Women entrepreneurs are contributing a lot in rural development and growth of economic but
there potential is still untapped. Right efforts on from multi direction are required in the
development of women entrepreneur s. The following efforts can be taken into account for
effective development of women entrepreneurs:i. Easy availability of cr edit and at preferential interest rate for women entrepreneurs
remains long standing demand.
ii. Better educational facilities and schemes should be extended to women folk from
government part.
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iii. Government should felicitate various schemes and plans for the encouragement of
women s entrepreneur.
iv. Women entrepreneur should more competitive and efficient in the local &
international market. There should be a strong monitoring of these policies at
different levels of execution.
v. Government should organize training programmes to develop skills, professional
competencies, leadership, and infor mation of marketing and financial at village
level.
vi. Infor mation should flow in r ight direction with the help of NGOs and
government organizations to about policies, plans and strategies on the
development of women in the field of industr y, trade and commer ce.
vii. Counseling through the aid of committed NGOS, Psychologists, managerial
experts and technical personnel should be provided.
viii. Government making provisions of marketing and sales assistance and making
provisions of micro credit system and enterprise credit system to the women
entrepreneurs
ix. Financial sector to build up an effective and efficient financial strategy to impr ove
access of women entrepreneurs to banks and financial institutions. It should take
up steps to reach the potential women entrepreneurs and encourage them to avail
credit and credit plus service from banks.
x. The banks should simplify the procedural formalities in extending loans for
women entrepreneurs. The managerial staff in the banks should assist women
applicants in understanding the formalities in simple manner.

14. Conclusions:
Women entrepreneurship must be moulded proper ly with entrepreneur ial traits and skills to
meet the changes in trends, challenges global markets and also be competent enough to
sustain and str ive for excellence in the entrepreneur ial arena. Micro finance is playing a vital
role in the success of SHGs; particularly the entry of r ural women in micro enterprises will be
encouraged and aggravated. Women s are facing great challenges at the family, community
and state levels, ranging from poverty, illiteracy, and irreligious patriarchy to sociopolitical
exclusion. The gover nment should embark on a comprehensive programme for local women,

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May, 2013

www.ijirs.com

Vol 2 Issue 5

focusing
References:

on enhancing their capacity building and increasing

their productivity. The rural
1. S. P. Gupta (2009) -Statistical methods, Thir ty eight revised Editions, Sultan Chand
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are having basic indigenous knowledge, skill, potential and
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resources
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manage
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regarding
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3. Manjula Bolthajjira Chengappa. Micro-Finance and Women Empowerment: Role of
various
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awareness
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technical
skill Entrepreneurs"
and support
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4. Rajendran N (2003)
, "Problems and
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" Educated Women , powered, women" Yojana Vol.50, No.12
gover
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Some microfinance practitioners, community social
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workers, donor agencies
and academic, alternative models of microfinance ar e needed in
the near future to reduce
poverty and increase women s empowerment. Capacity building
involves mor e than simply
stimulus assistance through microfinance.

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