Gender and Livelihood: Needed Women Entrepreneurship in Jharkhand

Dr. Vijay Prakash Sharma, Adjunct Faculty,  NIRD&PR, Hyderabad.

e.mail-drvijayprakash@yahoo.co.uk , .

Introduction:

Jharkhand is the second largest state inhabited by Tribal in India. They constitute nearly 26.7% of the population. Majority of tribal women do not undertake entrepreneurial ventures. Entrepreneurship is a key to economic development of a country.

Rapid growth of women’s self-employment through SHGs and entrepreneurship confirms that this is an important avenue to improve women’s employability. Fostering women’s self-employment and entrepreneurship was also acknowledged as a policy priority by the regional Beijing +5 meeting 2000.

Majority of tribal women do not undertake entrepreneurial ventures. Entrepreneurship is a key to economic development of a country. The government programme for women development began as early as 1954 in India but the actual participation began only in 1974. At present, the Government of India has over 27 schemes for women operated by different departments and ministries. The schemes for training and skill development, and provision for credit, infrastructure, marketing which are critical to women’s economic independence and autonomy has very little share.

A general lack of consistent data and research on self-employment, and in particular gender disaggregated data, means that we know little about women’s entrepreneurship. Although women face common challenges related to starting and building up their businesses, their experiences vary.  Women want better access to education, training, and counseling.  Access to capital is a very important issue for many women business owners, who often lack formal education in financial matters and who may face gender-based barriers to accessing financing. Women want full access to business networks such as industry-specific and general business associations. Women want to be treated seriously as business owners.

Methods-

This paper examines the problems of Gender Livelihood in Jharkhand and Constraints of SHG promotion in most tribal dominated backward regions.  The primary data collected from Left wing extremist area of Chaibasa, palamu and Ranchi district and secondary data collected from Jharkhand government socio- economic survey report 2014, internet files and libraries.