AN EMPIRICAL INVESTIGATION OF WOMEN ENTREPRENEURSHIP DEVELOPMENT: A CASE STUDY IN BAGALKOT DISTRICT, KARNATAKA

Author Name: Dr. Kiran Kumar P

Volume/Issue: 01/12

Country: India

DOI NO.: 08.2020-25662434 DOI Link: http://www.doi-ds.org/doilink/06.2021-94187413/UIJIR

Affiliation:

1.  Assistant Professor , Department of Studies and Research in Economics Rani Channamma University, Belagavi, Karnataka, India

ABSTRACT

The process of women entrepreneurship development is a recent phenomenon in India which came into prominence after 1970s. Emergence of women entrepreneurs as a visible income generating category is on rise. Their contribution to the national economy is also become visible now in India. The number of women entrepreneurs has grown over a period of time, especially after the 1990s. Concept of women entrepreneurship is basically defined as a process where a woman initiates a business idea, gathers resources, creates an enterprise by providing leadership to make it a commercial success and aspired to achieve a dramatical height. Women entrepreneurs have been defined by Oxford Dictionary as, “one who undertakes an enterprise, especially a contractor acting as intermediary between capital and labour” (Vinze, 1987). Women entrepreneurs represent that bulk of womenfolk, who are full of potentials and skills with a high degree of achievement motivation, fully utilize modern technologies, have set them on public investments, generate employment for others specifically women and set examples as trend setter (Chattopadhyay, 2005). Potentials found among the women entrepreneurs proved that they are capable of contributing much more than expected. With this realization women entrepreneurship has been provided with a huge scope of expansion in the last 45 years resulted in a successive growth rate in women’s business and entrepreneurial participation to a growing rate of 14 percent in 2010 (Sixth Economic Census, 2013-14). Global Entrepreneurship Monitor Report on women provides a detail knowledge database of women doing businesses around the world. GEM shows that entrepreneurship is of varied importance in different regions of India. The liberalization of the economy in the 1990s has paved the way for a huge number of people to become entrepreneurs in India. Women constitute significant part of total population as well as labour force in India, i.e. 25.5 percent (Census 2011). Women’s Work Participation Rate (WWPR) determines significantly their economic participation in any society and also their position in developmental processes. They produce not merely goods and services but are regarded as a prime source for generating human resources as well as gender development. Thus, from the point of view of any development process of any society, women’s active and direct participation in the economic process cannot be overlooked. But throughout the world, it is seen that contribution of women’s work has been underestimated and unrecognized in the overall development process for a long time. This is mainly because of the male centric attitude and practices in the society which have always neglect and ignore women’s proper contribution in the economy (Mathu and Shukla, 2005).

Key words: Women, entrepreneurship, development, etc