Women entrepreneurs can generate 150-170 mn jobs in India: Report

Women in entrepreneurship can generate transformational employment in India and generate 150–170 million jobs, which is more than 25 percent of the new jobs required for the entire working-age population by 2030, a joint report by Bain & Company and Google said on Tuesday. India has 13.5–15.7 million women-owned enterprises, representing 20 percent of all enterprises in the country, the report titled 'Women Entrepreneurship in India – Powering the economy with her' said.

The report said several enterprises reported as women-owned are not controlled or run by women and a combination of financial and administrative reasons leads to women being "on paper" owners with a little role to play. Accelerating quantity and quality of entrepreneurship towards benchmarks from high-performing countries and Indian states can create over 30 million women-owned enterprises, of which 40 percent (12 million) can generate employment, the report said.

"This can generate potentially transformational employment in India, of 150–170 million jobs, which is more than 25 percent of the new jobs required for the entire working-age population, from now until 2030," it added. Of all women-owned enterprises, a majority are single-person enterprises with the largest group represented by rural non-farm home-based business owners at 38 percent, followed by urban self-employed women "solo-preneurs" at 31 percent who usually work from home.

The other dominant segments include rural "agri-preneurs" who are farm-based business owners (18 percent) and small business owners at 14 percent — split across urban (6 percent) and rural (8 percent). In total, these women entrepreneurs provide direct employment to an estimated 22 to 27 million people currently, the report said.

Despite India's economic progress in the last decade, women's participation in the labor force has declined and is expected to be under pressure due to labor trends, technological disruption and constraining social barriers, Megha Chawla, Partner at Bain & Company, and the lead author of the report said. "Unlocking entrepreneurship among women in India is a complex effort but it provides an unprecedented opportunity to change the economic and social trajectory of India and its women for generations to come," she added.

This will drive tremendous job creation and also deliver transformational social and personal outcomes for women, Chawla said. Google India and Southeast Asia Senior Country Marketing Director Sapna Chadha said the company has been investing in skilling efforts across small and medium businesses, start-ups and overcoming the digital gender gap in the country through its Internet Saathi program.

"Across all our programs, we have seen that women are hungry for opportunities to grow their household incomes. Hundreds of women in rural India want to learn more about doing business and many have already made the start to enhance their livelihoods," she said. The report outlined opportunity areas to unlock women entrepreneurship in India. It suggested that level-playing field for high-impact, employment-creating entrepreneurs be provided and expanding the funnel to get more women to start enterprises.

It also recommended that steps be taken to build, strengthen and scale productive rural "agri-preneurs". "Implementing these interventions to accelerate prospective and current women entrepreneurs will need a deep recognition of the urgency, and a multi-year coordinated scaled effort between various ecosystem participants," Sri Rajan, partner at Bain & Company, and co-author of the report, said.

These participants include national and state governments, grassroots organizations, investment and banking communities, other private enterprises, educational institutions, and media. The report said that of the about 432 million working-age women in India, about 343 million are not in paid formal work.

An estimated 324 million of these women are not in the labor force and another 19 million are in the labor force but not employed, it said. By 2030, India's working-age population will surpass an unprecedented 1 billion, and up to 400 million women's economic potential may be left unaddressed, it added.

"India needs to take a non-traditional approach. In addition to job creation by private and government sectors, entrepreneurship is a powerful, and largely untapped, the opportunity for working-age women in India," the report said. By creating jobs, fuelling innovation and furthering investment in health and education, entrepreneurship among women could transform India's economy and society, it said.