Even though Indian population constitutes 48.1 per cent women and 51.9 per cent men, the entrepreneurial world of India is still a highly male-dominated field. Women empowerment is considered indispensable for achieving the goals of sustainable
and inclusive growth. In an exclusive interview, Dr
Rajnee Aggarwal, president, Federation of Indian Women Entrepreneurs
(FIWE), explores the current status and opportunities available for
Indian women entrepreneurs.
What is the current status of women entrepreneurship in India?
Dr Rajnee Aggarwal: The Indian social setup has been
traditionally a male-dominated one. However, the traditional set up is
changing in modern era. Women sector today occupies 45% of Indian
population. The literary and educational status of women has improved
considerably in last few decades. At this juncture, effective steps are
needed to harness the economic potential of enterprising women in
strengthening our economy.
Women entrepreneurship is growing at a rapid pace…more education and government initiatives to support entrepreneurship.
What is the role that your organization aims to play to uplift women entrepreneurs?
Dr Rajnee Aggarwal: As you know, FIWE is a national level
organization with a large membership base of 15000 individual
members/professionals sand 28 member associations spread across the
country. We are also affiliated with International Federation of Women
Entrepreneurs (IFWE), which has a membership base of 21 countries and
more countries are being added soon.
Our main task is to promote entrepreneurship
amongst women and bring them in the mainstream. As of now, women are
not given a fair representation in the MSME sector whereas their
contribution is consideration.
- Enroll women organizations for government schemes and incentives
- Get collective representation of women businesses on major forums, economic policy making, banking and funding. etc.
- Providing marketing platforms for products produced by women businesses. Give women businesses global representation
- Leadership training and advanced skill development programs of the highest standards to compete globally
- Provide opportunities for women to get them a level playing field
What are the current challenges faced by Indian women
entrepreneurs? Please elucidate on the support and subsidy being given
to them.
Dr Rajnee Aggarwal: Opportunities are immense. The
knowledge economy has certainly created large number of never before
opportunities for women particularly in service sector. Today one can
see a women entrepreneur in almost every field be it ICT, retail,
service sector, health care, insurance, tourism, education and even
international trade. I keep meeting so many management and technology
women professionals who are eager to take a dip in world of business.
There are many challenges faced by women entrepreneurs
- start-ups or struggling to grow their existing business. Take for
example, large number of women are not able to take advantage of
Government schemes because they are not registered under MSME Act.
Registration of a unit under MSME Act is not as easy as it needs to be.
We are taking up this issue shortly with MSME Ministry and hope to make
it easier at least for women enterprises. Easy availability of credit
and at preferential interest rate for women entrepreneurs remains our
long standing demand. We also find that at large women are not aware of
women focused financial and non-financial schemes. Government should
support FIWE to organize more of awareness seminars.
There are challenges for women, as women owned business are assumed to be inferior by stereotypical, male dominated thinking.
Earlier this month, Mauritius invited Indian women entrepreneurs to
collaborate with their counterparts in various areas. According to you,
how it can prove useful for Indian women entrepreneurs?
Dr Rajnee Aggarwal: We also plan to organize Buyer-Seller Meets
and Exhibitions. FIWE is also organizing two, one in Delhi and another
in Bangladesh with each event likely to see participation of over 1000
women entrepreneurs from across the world.
What steps state should governments adopt to draw more women into entrepreneurship?
Dr Rajnee Aggarwal:
- Increase the ability of women to participate in the labour force by
ensuring 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 benefits in terms of women’s entrepreneurship.
- Listen to the voice of women entrepreneurs
- Incorporate a women’s entrepreneurial dimension in the formulation
of all SME-related policies. This can be done by ensuring that the
impact on women’s entrepreneurship is taken into account at the policy
stage.
- 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 are identified in this way should be disseminated and
shared by all.
- Improve the factual and analytical underpinnings of our
understanding of the role of women entrepreneurs 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 create policies which are
conducive for the growth of women entrepreneurship.
Recently, MSME Minister Vayalar Ravi highlighted the need to
increase the share of women entrepreneurs to atleast 25%. How do you
observe the scenario now?
Dr Rajnee Aggarwal: This is a very positive statement. As it
has never been a political agenda, though women constitute almost 50 p%
of our countries population But still no body is serious about it. Mr
Ravi s statement shows that there is a leader who thinks in these terms.
I am sure he will make some strong and workable schemes for women and
draw a road map for women entrepreneurs.
Womens are found to be better managers as compared to men. Do you support this statement?
Dr Rajnee Aggarwal: Well, the topic of the GD is 'Do Women make good Managers'. Of course women do make good managers...
There are 'n' number of examples to support my view - Chandra Kocher,
Hillary Clinton, Angela Markel, Indra Nooyi, Shiksha Sharma etc. etc.
Now as far as comparison between men and women is concerned, there has
been a male dominance in the past 50 years for obvious reasons, which
were due to cultural ethos which the world as well as India had. But
this has now changed. Today no one cares whether the leader of a
company/country/ group is a male or female. The world just wants
effective and efficient leadership skills, which either way a man or a
women possesses.
Higher EQ as compared to the male counterparts have helped women in
achieving an edge. Women are versatile, flexible, agile and yet firm to
handle the ever dynamic pressures and challenges of manpower
management. The latest example of the Goan girl having an IQ of 162 ,
higher than that of Mr. Einstein is no surprise that now women are
equally or more gifted than their male counterparts.
Please name the Indian states which offer an investment-friendly
environment for setting up a business for women entrepreneurs. According
to you, which region or state tops the count of women-owned
enterprises.
Dr Rajnee Aggarwal: The top on the list is Andhra Pradesh and
Karnataka. In Andhra first Industrial state for women entrepreneurs was
stabilised way back in 1995.
Karnataka also was able to establish a marketing hub for women
entrepreneurs The other states have not shown much interest in this
area.
As per your opinion, after how many years will India be called as the hub of women entrepreneurs?
Dr Rajnee Aggarwal: Difficult to say. June 2012 Women Global
Entrepreneurship study by Dell showed optimism from women entrepreneurs
in India who expect median business growth of 90%, eliciting this
response on India’s Economic Times from Amit Midha, Dell’s Chairman For
Global Emerging Markets, “We have found the ideal country for a woman
starting a business in 2012 could well be India.”
“In India, women and girls continue
to be sold as chattels, married off as young as 10, burned alive as a
result of dowry-related disputes and young girls exploited and abused as
domestic slave labor,” Gulshun Rehman, a gender specialist and health
programme development adviser at Save the Children UK, told the
Guardian.
It makes you bewildered! To see this contrast.
The educational or professional gap between women is probably the answer.
Please share your roadmap for the current fiscal (2012-13).
Dr Rajnee Aggarwal:
- Conduct market research & demand potential for women entrepreneurs as alternate source of suppliers
- Successfully establish marketing linkages for women entrepreneurs
– crucial input for their sustenance and growth. Focus on Networking is
which is the biggest tool of success these days. Making them globally
competitive and getting them level playing field by creating awareness.
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