Unleashing the Entrepreneurial Leadership in Women

Women in rural India have traditionally been marginalized in the economy. 80% of the agriculture labor work is done by women. Their economic contributions are focused more for a living than taking risks for growth and prosperity. At best, some of them end up becoming a need-based entrepreneur (vendors or shopkeepers) and researches have shown that these ventures are often not profitable.

The Self Help Group (SHGs) movement has mobilised many women to form collectives and further strengthen their livelihoods ambitions. However, in recent years, there has been a growing movement of female entrepreneurship in rural areas. And to fuel the ambition and action, a number of factors, including government initiatives are supporting women's businesses with a hope to increasing access to family welfare and women's agency.

Despite political and philanthropic thrust, the challenges faced by female rural entrepreneurs in India, still remain unchanged. The key knowns issues we explore from a feminist point of view include:

• Lack of access to financial resources: There are number of financial instruments, grants and subsidies for enterprise promotion and these all are laudable initiatives. However, the type, shape and form of these financial assistance, determine the primarily motivation and confidence of women aspiring to set up or scaling their enterprises. Often the delay in deployment is cited as number one problem. Aside from this, the frequency of financial top up is completely overlooked, leaving the first generation entrepreneur in limbo after a period.

• Lack of education and training: While there are number of players and institutes providing the training, often the enterprise training is not tailor made, hardly is grounded in field realities and seldom is longitudinal to build the entrepreneurial motivation and achievement in women.

• Social and cultural barriers: Female entrepreneurship in India requires a different definition and decoding. The intersectionality of women and feminist approach to their being is a key factor in understanding the internalised beliefs and thus mounting expectation (from the self and the enterprise). A nuanced and contextual approach is needed in enabling women's entrepreneurship, to facilitate these leaders to focus on their domestic duties as well as their businesses.

• Lack of market access: There are two key problems - a) way too much focus is on production without understanding the market and b) no or little effort in supporting women entrepreneurs in access to markets. The markets are ever evolving and to capture the larger markets, one has to focus on micro to macro perspectives, strengthening the supply chains ecosystem.

• Entrepreneur Leadership: The number one problem is that the players enabling the women's entrepreneurship are biased against women's ability to lead their businesses. This is often seen in excessive handholding from an infantilisation point of view, leaving the women entrepreneurs as beneficiaries of the intervention, rather than an entrepreneur leader. The entrepreneurship is a journey and the women need to be sitting in the driving seat for their own enterprises.

The growth of female rural entrepreneurship is essential for the economic development of India. Women are the backbone of the rural economy, and they have the potential to create jobs, boost incomes, and reduce poverty. By supporting female rural entrepreneurship, we can help to create a more prosperous and equitable future for all.

At Naari Capital, we are creating an empowering experience for both our investors and the Naari (woman) entrepreneur (our Partner), wherein -

1) the deployment of funds to women entrepreneurs are made in transparent and quickest manner.

2) the woman entrepreneur decides when she needs the access to funds and how she will return it.

3) the investor is able to track the progress of each Naari entrepreneur on our tech platform

4) the returns on the investments (social, economical and individual) are 100 times more for each penny invested.

5) each penny returned is reinvested in another Naari Entrepreneur and all our Partners and Investors are kept informed.

6) each Naari Entrepreneur and the Investor are a life-time NaariCap community member to strength the supply chain ecosystem, driving growth, prosperity and empathy for our next generations.

7) each Naari supported is an evidence of our recalibration for collective growth, learning and solidarity.

We are not just another micro-equity company. We are a change maker, driving growth and empowerment through our investments - in women and investors, their dreams and aspirations to create a better tomorrow.