Women entrepreneurship: The cornerstone of sustainable development Ranguwal Sangeet*, Kaur Gaganpreet Department of Economics and Sociology, Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana, Punjab, India *Corresponding author email: sangeet@pau.edu
Online Published on 26 February, 2024. Abstract Entrepreneurship promotes the essential innovation required not only to exploit new opportunities, promote productivity and create employment, but to also address some of society’s greatest challenges. In the Sustainable Development Goals India Index 2020-21, though the composite index score of Punjab has shown considerable six point improvement viz-e-viz 2019-20 but for SDG 5 (Gender equality) composite score declined by one point and ranking declined from four to twenty and for SDG 8 (Decent Work and Economic Growth) it declined by eight points with same ranking. In this backdrop, the present study was carried out to study the present status and challenges of women entrepreneurship in India with special reference to Punjab state. The study revealed that at national level, the women owned establishments formed 13.76 per cent of the total enterprises while for Punjab, it was only 7.33 per cent of total enterprises at the state level and about merely 1.38 per cent of total women establishments at the national level. The Sangrur district had the highest number of rural establishments (11.3%) while Jalandhar had the highest (18.9%) urban enterprises. More than three-fourth establishments were operated without hired workers. Self-finance emerged out to be the major source of finance in both Punjab (85%) and India (79%) which falsified the stereotype that women are low risk-takers and hence would not be able to attain the desired success for their venture. Women faced different socio-cultural, production related challenges amongst which finance from institutional sources and marketing competitiveness emerged out to the major ones. Renaissance of entrepreneurship is the need of the hour and this is possible only by taking effective steps to provide institutional financial support, entrepreneurial awareness, orientation and skill development programmes along with creation of nurturing environment with family support that motivates and supports women entrepreneurs in expanding their business and compete more effectively in the market. Top Keywords SDGs, Challenges, Entrepreneur, Motivation, Women. Top |