Given the patriarchal setup that we live in, it is not quite often that women get to hear positive things about their professional aspirations. Comprising of approximately 48% of Indian population, women still have to face multiple barriers to chase their dreams. However, over the past few years, women entrepreneurs in India have changed the face of the business industry. Just like the CEO of our company, Priyanka Gill, a lot of other women in business have been generating employment across the country.
According to a joint report released by Bain and Co. and Google titled Women Entrepreneurship in India—Powering the economy with her, women entrepreneurs in India are capable of generating between 150-170 million jobs by 2030. Now, isn’t that a happy surprise?
Accelerate Quantity & Quality Of Entrepreneurship: Report
In order to formulate this study, the responses from more than 60 female entrepreneurs have been studied by Bain and Google. Multiple focus group discussions with over a thousand women across rural, semi-urban and urban India were conducted to come up with findings.
The figure of over 150 million jobs is more than 25% of what is required for the entire working-age population. Now, wouldn’t that alone solve a majority chunk of our unemployment crisis?
As per the report, the need of the hour lies in accelerating both quantity as well as quality of entrepreneurship to create over 30 million women-owned enterprises. The report suggests that out of these, 12 million enterprises will be such that will be able to generate jobs on a large scale.
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One of the lead authors of the report, Megha Chawla talked about how women’s participation in the labour force has declined and is “expected to be under pressure due to labour trends, technological disruption and constraining social barriers. Also, while unlocking entrepreneurship among women in India continues to remain complex, it definitely is worth the effort.
How Can Women Boost Employment By 2030?
While the report has stressed on many positives, the key question is: how can we make this happen? We’ve simplified that for you!
Key Opportunity Areas
Here’s how: the study outlines four opportunity areas across different segments. These are:
- Level the playing field for entrepreneurs who can generate employment
- Enable ambitious solopreneurs as well as small business owners
- Expand the funnel, enabling more women to kick-start enterprises
- Strengthen productive rural agripreneurs.
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Target Segments
Now, comes the question: What are the segments that need to be targeted? These are: farm-based business owners at 18%, small business owners at 14%, split across urban (6%) and rural (8%). Then the scalers, who employ more than 10 people and also account for less than 1%. As of now, these segments provide employment to approximately 22-27 million people.
Other than all of this, the report also points out that one of the major ways by which the job creation target can be achieved is via giving women an equal access to finance – through broad-based gender responsiveness within the finance sector.
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Now, isn’t this what we call a ray of hope? Well, I’m glad that this study has brought the obvious to the fore. It has highlighted the opportunity to change the economic and social trajectory of the country by enhancing opportunities for women and hell yeah, we deserve every bit of it!
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