Tatsat Chronicle Magazine

Women MSMEs Entrepreneur Increased by Only 13% in Last 8 Years, Finds Study

India also witnessed an increase in the number of women entrepreneurs, but the country is still far from achieving SDG 5 (Gender Equality).
June 27, 2022
Women MSMEs Entrepreneur

The annual report released on International MSME Day pointed out gender inequality in the Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) sector.

The report, released on 26 June 2022, highlights that despite the sector growing steadily, the number of women entrepreneurs in the MSME has increased by only 13 percent in the last eight years.

India also witnessed an increase in the number of women entrepreneurs, but the country is still far from achieving Sustainable Development Goal Number 5 (Gender Equality).

Rashmi Sarita, Executive Director, Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry Ladies Organisation (FLO), said that societal and socio-economic set-up is such that the progress of women is relatively slow. To change this, FLO has moved forward from giving basic education and health to women to providing them with knowledge, mentorship and a conducive ecosystem to help them become entrepreneurs.

A survey shows that only 3.7 percent of CEOs and CEOs of companies listed on the National Stock Exchange (NSE) are women. Despite India’s economic growth and the working-age population expected to reach 800 million by 2050, women currently make up only 20 per cent of India’s total workforce.

Dinesh Rai, former MSME secretary and founding chairman of the Alliance of Indian MSMEs, said that in the last two to three years, MSMEs have received a mixed response due to COVID-19, but business has grown. He explained that MSMEs are the backbone of the economy which creates a lot of employment. He said the creation of agriculture MSMEs would help reduce migration from rural areas. Governments and NGOs have provided strong support to MSMEs through various programmes and interest-free loans.