Women Own 195 of Every 1000 MSMEs in India: Govt. Data

With the progress of women-centric incubators, mentors and angel investors women entrepreneurs are rising in numbers in India. Today, more and more women want to be their own boss and have their ideas materialized into start-ups. Recently, Minister of State (I/C) for Micro, Small and Enterprises, MSME Minister Giriraj Singh stated that women own around 195 MSMEs out of every 1000 MSMEs across the country. He also said that in the capital, women own 93 out of 1000 MSMEs, reported KNN India.

The government data specifies that the number of women entrepreneurs have grown over the years but the inter-state growth remains uneven. Manipur, Mizoram, Telangana states top among other states in having the largest pool of women entrepreneurs with 481, 393 and 373 respectively.

West Bengal, Tamil Nadu and Uttar Pradesh are the states that provide maximum employment to its women.

However, the downside is that Uttarakhand, Assam, Bihar have only about 50-55 women proprietors, as per National Sample Survey Office under Ministry of Statistics. Prime Minister’s Employment Generation Programme (PMEGP), Micro & Small Enterprises Cluster Development (MSE-CDP) and Scheme of Fund for Regeneration of Traditional Industries (SFURTI) are some of the initiatives by the govt. that claim to achieve progress in gender equality in the start-up ecosystem.

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West Bengal, Tamil Nadu and Uttar Pradesh are the states that provide maximum employment to its women. But Daman and Diu and Lakshadweep have the least number of women employed.

Women have always found it difficult to come forward because of the conservative and patriarchal set-up of the society. Yet several women have broken the glass ceiling and emerged equal to men when it comes to entrepreneurship. Hence, people need to see such women entrepreneurs as role models and take inspiration from them.

Earlier in 2015, Global Women Entrepreneur Leaders scorecard scored India on the 29^th position out of 31 countries. It focused on showing the startup ecosystem and how comfortable it is for women.