Manisha is very happy and contented today. When she had dreamt of providing financial security and prosperity to her family, and doing her bit for the wellbeing of her family, her dreams and wishes were waived of by the very members of her family, who depend on her decisions today concerning all matters. Well, achieving this position in a family with a very orthodox and rigid outlook was not an easy game. As per the family traditions, she had to learn the intricate patterns with needles, and thread and acquired expertise at a very early age due to her creative bent of mind. Well, girls in their community had to know all these work as a part of their natural grooming and training in the society. But taking it up as a business, and competing in the market with men? POOOH!! “This girl must be crazy!” “ She’s building castles in the air! Search for a groom for her.” These were the comments she always heard whenever she thought of nurturing her dream and giving it a shape in reality.
One day she was sharing her thoughts with Renuka, her friend who was happily married to a businessman .She talked of opening her own business of doing Jardousi work in dress materials and sarees. She admitted that she possessed all the necessary skills, but lacked support from the family, both financially and morally. Renuka gave her two of her own sarees and asked her to do jardousi patterns on them. Manisha was too happy to find a way to vent out her creative urge. She eagerly took up the work and prepared a wonderful demonstration of exquisite jardousi art on the sarees. When she presented the work to her friend Renuka after a short while, she was amazed at the talent of her friend . Renuka decided to back up her friend Manisha both morally and financially. Her husband Vinod lend her full cooperation in this motive , and within a very shortwhile Manisha,s dream got culminated into reality. The two friends opened up a business on boutique work and within a short span of time their products became very popular in the locality. There was no looking back after that, and their partnership firm RM ENTERPRISES is moving ahead at an unbelievable pace with an annual turnover of $174,000!
This is an example of woman entrepreneurship in India, where two women belonging to two different strata of the society join hands to walk towards the path of woman’s emancipation. Economic development in any society advances hand-in-hand with the liberation of the womenfolk from every kind of repression There is strong emergence of women entrepreneurship in India and they have an immense contribution to the national economy of India. Women entrepreneurship should be encouraged for their increased utilization of modern technology, increased investments, finding a niche in the export market, creating a sizable employment for others and setting the trend for other women entrepreneurs in the organized sector.
Although the potentiality in women entrepreneurs have been demonstrated, they are yet to achieve that capability of contributing much more than what they already are. To harness their potential and initiate continued growth and development, necessary and appropriate strategies should be formulated for stimulating, supporting and sustaining their efforts in this direction. Such strategies should be congruent with field realities, and should especially take into account the problems women entrepreneurs face within the current system.
Women entrepreneurs presently comprise about 10% of the total entrepreneurships in India. This percentage is growing every year. With the continuing trends it is most likely that in another five years, 20% of the entrepreneurial force in India will comprise of women. Hence international agencies like ILO are taking initiatives to understand the context of women entrepreneurs in India and evolve appropriate developmental strategies to suit their needs. With appropriate capital and other support through Grameen Bank and other microcredit institutions women , their families and communities flourish.
For the past several centuries, the combination of entrepreneurial culture and Economic Freedom have repeatedly created tremendous wealth, lifted millions of people out of poverty, and fostered profound innovation and evolution of technology, culture, and human capacity for the past several centuries. FLOW launched an ongoing outreach, education, and engagement program called EMPOWERING WOMEN ENTREPRENEURS in 2007 to celebrate the role women entrepreneurs play in economic and social development, call attention to the emerging global, women’s economic empowerment system, and facilitate broad-based engagement with the system. In March 2008, the campaign assumed the name Accelerating Women Entrepreneurs.
We envision a world overflowing with peace and prosperity, co-generated through the entrepreneurial energy of women in developing countries, the marketplace, and a conscious culture of communication and collaboration embodied by women and men around the world.
This entry was posted on Monday, May 26th, 2008 at 5:40 am and is filed under Business Tips, Internet Marketing, Making Money on the Internet, Small Business, Uncategorized, Woman Entrepreneur. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
Posted by Tanya M on June 16th, 2008 at 5:37 pm:
Hey there!
I think women are vital to the workforce. Nowadays more women are graduating from college than men, and are now attaining high level jobs on par with their male counterparts. It’s always been a priority of mine to make sure that I am extending any sort of help that I can to ensure that my fellow female entrepreneurs are thriving in this floundering economy.
Currently, I’m an official Microsoft ambassador and right now we’re really trying to scale up our connections with influential bloggers like yourself. I’d love to share with you some of the stuff we’ve been doing in the last couple months to help women entrepreneurs; we’re really committed to providing all the necessary resources to help women start, grow and expand their business.
We just wrapped up a women’s entrepreneurial tour across the US called “Vision To Venture;” the response and turn-out was great!
I’d really love your take on these offerings we have right now; I would have contacted you via email but I didn’t know which was the best way to reach you.
Thank you so much, I hope I didn’t overstep my bounds by directly contacting you. Definitely get back to me if I’ve piqued your interest– I’d love to share more info with you.
Best,
Tanya M.
Official Microsoft Ambassador
t-middleton@live.com