The UPA government is striving to play up its gender empowerment credentials in the hope of getting women voters to back their return to power. After all, its largest constituent, the Congress party, is headed by a woman and it was instrumental in appointing the first woman President of the country. But for the few thousands of women entrepreneurs in the country, this Women?s Day may not be much to celebrate about ? yet again.
Nearly two years after commerce and industry minister Kamal Nath set up a task force on women entrepreneurs with the intent of making it simpler for them to set up and run their own businesses, the government is yet to get any recommendations, much less start working on them.
The panel, chaired by secretary, department of industrial policy and promotion in the ministry of commerce and industry, was set up in early 2007 to work out measures to encourage women to enter the manufacturing sector, look into their financial issues and boost skill development and incubation.
?The aim of the task force was to help women from merely being service providers or small and medium scale entrepreneurs to scale up and actively enter the manufacturing space, especially as there was a boom in the sector at the time,? an official involved in setting up the task force told FE.
The task force members included luminaries such as Piramal Healthcare director Swati Piramal, VLCC founder and mentor Vandana Luthra, and former president of the Bengal National Chamber of Commerce Nayantara Pal Choudhury.
?While we did discuss a few issues, with all of us being in different parts of the country, it gets difficult to coordinate and hold meetings. Things have been quiet for some time now,? a member of the task force said.
Interestingly, there is no government data on the number of women entrepreneurs in the country either. Expert bodies such as the Asian Centre for Entrepreneurial Initiative have been lamenting that there has been no collection of data or detailed survey by any governmental agency on women entrepreneurs. Without such information, it would be difficult to frame policies or implement them effectively, they note.
The ministry of micro small and medium enterprises did start a few schemes to encourage skill development and entrepreneurship in non-farming activities amongst women. However, these also have had only a limited impact.