Woman is the eye of the nation
Women in our country are hardworking, talented and multi-tasking. The real potential of women remains untapped. Sri. Narendra Modi ji after becoming Prime Minister has emphasized and launched several schemes to solve the problems faced by women for several decades even after independence.
- Over 11 crore toilets were constructed through Swachh Bharath Mission
- Over 8 crore households given gas connections through Ujwala scheme.
- “Beti Bachao Beti Padhao” scheme increased gender awareness in masses and helped in improving
– gender ratio at birth from 918 (2014-15) to 934 in (2019-20)
– first trimester pregnancy at registrations in hospitals from 61% (2014-15) to 71% (2019-20) – Gross Enrolment Ratio of girls in schools by 25 percentage points from 2014.
- By 2019, Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) of girls at all levels was higher than that of boys. GER at elementary level being 94.32% for girls against 89.28% for boys, at secondary level it is 81.32% for girls against 78% for boys & at higher secondary levels it is at 59.7% for girls against 57.54% for boys.
- Through Pradhana Mantri Mathrutva Vandana Yojana directly money was transferred to pregnant & lactating women & Maternal Mortality decreased from 167(2011-13) to 113 (2016-18).
There are many other schemes implemented by Modi government for the welfare of women.
The vision of honorable PM Sri. Narendra Modi
Honorable PM Sri. Narendra Modi said “Daughters are not a burden but the pride of the whole family. Whenever woman got an opportunity, she made India proud and further strengthened it. The country is now determined to provide equal opportunities for self -employment and employment to women. Now, women are also working in coal mines. We realize the power of our daughters when we see a women fighter pilot. The country feels proud whenever our daughters bag medals”
The Realities faced by women
Women still have difficulties to run own businesses.
- The main problem being getting financial support from banks or family or friends as women are not taken seriously. Most women do not own properties, hence face lot of difficulties in getting collateral based loans and end up using personal savings. Nearly 95.6% of women- run MSMEs are unregistered making them inaccessible to Institutional finance. When the loan gets sanctioned, average amount sanctioned was just 68% of the required. Percentage of rejection was twice for women (19%) compared to men (8%). Over 70% of women entrepreneurs could not get the needed financial assistance.
- Gender bias, restrictions on mobility and social norms are other harbingers.
- Most of businesses, start-ups and online platforms are dominated by men.
- Compared to men women are judged more regarding skills, education, performance and outcomes.
Reforms in MSME sector by Modi Government
Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) are second biggest contributors of Indian economy accounting to over 30% of GDP. In India nearly 95% of MSMEs are micro-businesses. A higher percentage-98% of women run MSMEs are micro businesses. Benefitting many, in 2020 Modi government revised definitions of MSMEs. Both manufacturing and service MSMEs were seen as single unit rather than two. Investment and annual turnover caps were significantly enhanced bringing many firms under the sector.
Boost to women Entrepreneurs
Only 33% of early-stage entrepreneurs in India are women. Modi government has launched, strengthened and implemented several schemes for supporting women who want to run enterprises. The important schemes which really helped women are mentioned below:
MUDRA
Modi government launched Micro Units Development and Refinance Agency (MUDRA) scheme to provide financial assistance for small businesses ranging from Rs.50,000 to Rs.50 lakhs at 1-4% lower interest rates than business loans.
Loans up to Rs.10 lakhs are sanctioned without collateral. The three categories under this scheme are
- Shishu Plan- Loans up to Rs.50000
- Kishor Plan-Loans between Rs.50000 to Rs.5 lakhs
- Tharun Plan -Loans between Rs.5 lakhs to Rs.10 lakhs
Women received 70% of Mudra loans & 80% of Shishu loans. The scheme definitely helped women to establish own enterprises, particularly nano enterprises.
TREAD
Trade -Related Entrepreneurship Assistance and Development (TREAD) Scheme provides credit to projects, conducts training and counselling programs to improve knowledge & expertise for running business. Of the total project cost 30% will be provided through government grant and rest 70% by financial institutions.
Mahila Udyam Nidhi Scheme
Scheme provides financial assistance up to Rs.10 lakhs to women to establish or modernize existing small-scale units. The loans are given at lesser interest rates varying as per market rates. Loans are to be repaid in 10 years including five -year moratorium period.
Annapurna Scheme
Provides financial assistance to women for establishing firms concerned with cooking. Women can avail loans up to Rs. 50000 for purchasing kitchen equipment, utensils and water filters. Loans have to be repaid in 3 years with 1 month grace period.
Stree Shakti Package
- Women enrolled in Entrepreneurship Development Program (EDP) can avail this scheme.
- Women should have majority (over 50%) ownership in small business.
- Interest concession of 0.05% will be given for loans above Rs. 2 lakhs.
Bharatiya Mahila Business Bank Loan
- Aim is to provide financial assistance to underprivileged women.
- Loans up to Rs. 20 crores will be provided with a repayment tenure of seven years at lesser interest rates.
- There is no need of collateral for loans up to Rs. 1 crore under the Credit Guarantee Fund Trust for Micro and Small Enterprises.
- Several women have utilized this scheme and inspired others by successfully running enterprises.
Dena Shakti Scheme
- Loans will be provided to women running agriculture, manufacturing, micro-credit, retail stores and similar enterprises.
- Loans up to Rs. 50,000 will be provided with a concession of 0.25% on rate of interest under micro-credit category.
- Under categories of education, housing and retail trading loans up to Rs. 20 lakhs can be availed.
Cent Kalyani Scheme
- Women business workers involved in agriculture or retail trading can avail this scheme.
- Loans up to Rs. 1 crore can be sanctioned at lower interest rates depending on market.
- No collateral or guarantors needed.
- No processing fees on loans taken.
Udyogini scheme
- In fields of agriculture, retail and similar small businessesloans up to Rs.1 lakh at lesser interest rates will be provided to women entrepreneurs aged 18-45, whose family annual income is less than Rs.45,000.
- There is no income limit for widowed, destitute, differently disabled and SC/ST women and a subsidy of 30% of loan or Rs.10,000 will be provided.
- A general category woman gets subsidy of 20% of loan or Rs. 7,500.
MSME SAMBANDH
- Modi government launched MSME SAMBANDH-Public Procurement Portal for MSMEs in December 2017.
- It mandates Government organizations, ministries, departments, Central Public Sector Enterprises to procure from MSEs and sets annual goal.
- The aim being minimum 25% of total annual purchases of products and services must be from MSEs. Out of 25% target ,3% is procurement must be done from women entrepreneurs owned MSEs.
Impact and Progress
Several schemes were utilized by women and significant progress was made with respect to women owned enterprises.
- Women are the biggest beneficiaries of two important schemes of Modi government to promote micro enterprises -Stand-Up India and MUDRA.
- In 5-year-old Stand Up India Scheme, 81% of account holders are women as of febraury,2021. A total of 91,109 accounts with Rs. 20,749 crores were sanctioned to women entrepreneurs. Bank loans of Rs. 1 lakh to Rs. 1 crore were given to one woman per branch of scheduled commercial banks.
- PM MUDRA was launched in April 2015. As of febraury,2021 women received 68% of loans disbursed under the scheme. Women received 70% of Mudra loans & 80% of Shishu loans. A whopping amount of Rs. 6.36 lakh crore were sanctioned to women entrepreneurs through 19.04 crore accounts.
- Credit Guarantee fund Trust for Micro and Small Enterprises (CGTMSE) has sanctioned credit guarantee approval for an amount of Rs. 3366.63 crores to 67171 loan accounts of women entrepreneurs by December 12,2020.
- In financial year 2019 -2020, CGTMSE accorded credit of Rs.5367.38 crores to 1,24,984 accounts of women entrepreneurs for business expansion.
- As per Google- Bain report ownership of women in all enterprises in India improved from 13.76% in 2013-14 to 20% in 2019 with women running 13.5-15.7 million enterprises. A per 2019-20 annual report of MSME ministry, in India of total 63.3 million MSMEs, 60.8 million (96%) were proprietary enterprises and out of these men ran 79.6% of firms and women ran 20.4%.
- As a part of MSME SAMBANDH, procurement by Government departments, organizations & ministries from women owned micro and small enterprises touched an all-time record high in 2021.
- Government purchased Rs. 563.88 crore worth goods and services from 3622 women-owned MSEs by March 8, 2021. In 2020, procurement was 393.43 crores from 3655 women- run MSEs.
Change has begun and will continue
The efforts of Modi government to empower women are fruitful. The most important phenomenon is improved and easy financial assistance to women entrepreneurs. Women getting a greater number of loans than men in schemes was unimaginable, which is a reality now. Procurement from women owned enterprises has also significantly increased. All this progress happened when the entire world was having economic recession due to COVID19 pandemic.
Lockdown had some negative impact on MSMEs. But Atma Nirbhar Bharath Abhiyan scheme brought by Modi government, with the goal of turning crisis into opportunity, has revived MSMEs sooner than expected. More progress can be seen by increasing awareness in women about the available schemes and increasing procurement from women owned MSMEs. Women will come forward, break stereo types and utilize the opportunities to live up to their dreams and do what they really want to do. Definitely future looks better and optimistic.
The optimism is because of the fact that the mission to empower women is spear headed by none other than the most dedicated, honest, successful, hardworking and inspiring Prime Minister India has ever got – Sri. Narendra Modi ji.
