Women Entrepreneurship in India: The Way Forward

It is a widely known fact that women are born natural leaders. Apart from being excellent with managing finances, women also own the required soft skills to excel in leadership positions. Furthermore, women-led enterprises play an extremely prominent role in empowering the ecosystem by generating employment opportunities as well as serving as an example for other female entrepreneurs who are hoping to make it big.

If we were to quote statistics, according to McKinsey Global, India can apparently add 700 billion dollars to the global GDP by increasing women’s participation in the labour force. In addition to that, as per a report by IBEF, 20.37% of women are MSME owners which account for 23.3% of the labour force. While these statistics certainly look encouraging, we still need to do a lot of work in terms of encouraging women entrepreneurship in India. 

What Hinders Women Entrepreneurship in India?

While starting a new business is challenging for anyone, it could be all the more complicated for women for the following reasons:

Primary caregivers: Women are often viewed as the primary caregivers in India, wherein they are expected to fulfil certain responsibilities towards their families. They will invariably bank upon family support to help them further their ambitions. This sometimes serves as a hindrance while they progress in their career ladders.

Career breaks: Women inadvertently are mandated to take several breaks in their career for child care and other familial responsibilities due to which they tend to fall behind in their careers. In fact, according to a recent LinkedIn report found that 77 percent of working women in India felt that a career break had set them back in their careers due to stigma. The study further found that 78 percent of working women in India take career breaks to improve their well-being, plan career changes, and boost their confidence at work. There are also not enough return to work programs or child care support that is being offered to women entrepreneurs.

Unconscious bias: Various studies have stated that women also often miss out on funding opportunities due to a subtle unconscious bias of women not being “capable” of handling businesses. It has also been reported that, women often times have been asked to be supported by a male co-founder or even asked to hand over the reins of the company in order to manage business better.

Lack of flexibility in work places: All though the pandemic has certainly improved the flexibility aspects of working hours, a lot more still needs to be done. The LinkedIn survey mentioned above also found that 7 out of 10 working women in India either quit or consider quitting their jobs due to lack of flexibility. 

Programs to Support Women Entrepreneurship in India

Thankfully, several companies as well as the Government of India have realised the benefits of supporting female entrepreneurs in India are offering support in terms of career return-ship programs, upskilling and reskilling courses, work-from-anywhere models and even funding support for startup ventures being driven by women. In fact, Crayon Software Experts was recently recognized as one of India’s top 50 Workplaces for Women 2022. 

We at Crayon India strive to provide the best environment for nurturing women's talent, and in enabling people to help them to grow, and win through constant engagement, cutting-edge tools, training, events, and programs. Crayon Aspire is a program created for our Crayon women.

This aligns with our commitment to power prosperity amongst women to be industry-ready with guidance from domain experts. The program is specifically designed to equip our women to develop core competencies and complement career aspirations.

As far as the Indian Government is concerned, Startup India, an initiative by the Government of India, has listed the states with startup policies for women. Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, Jammu and Kashmir, Odisha, Uttarakhand, Chattisgarh, Gujarat, Kerala, Karnataka and Goa among other states offer special support to women entrepreneurs. Some of the policies are listed as follows:

• Monthly funding of Rs 20,000 for a period of one year for startups with women co-founders in Andaman and Nicobar Islands.
• All Universities in Andhra Pradesh have been allowed to give 5% grace marks and 20% attendance every semester for student startup teams, which have at least one woman as a cofounder.
• Special one-time incentive of Rs 5,000 per woman candidate hired subject to an upper limit of Rs 1 lakh per startup for a period of 3 years in Assam.
• Monthly allowance of Rs 12,000 for a period of one year is paid to women founded startups subject to the approval of Start-up Task Force in Jammu and Kashmir.
• All Government supported incubators have been mandated to allocate minimum 10% seats for startups with women cofounders on preferential basis in Karnataka.

Similarly, other states are also offering support in terms of finances, regulations and mentoring for women entrepreneurs. In conclusion, it would be prudent to state that women entrepreneurship must to supported in India for women are great multi-takers, adaptable, intelligent and judicial risk takers who have a lot to offer to the budding entrepreneurship landscape in India. 

The article has been written by Vikas Bhonsle, CEO, Crayon Software Experts