Research Article

Problem and Constraints Faced by Rural Scheduled Caste Women for Entrepreneurship

Divya Sachan and Nishi Sethi

  • Page No:  306 - 311
  • Published online: 03 Jul 2019
  • DOI : HTTPS://DOI.ORG/10.23910/IJBSM/2019.10.3.1977

  • Abstract
  •  divya.sachan708@gmail.com

Entrepreneur is a key factor of entrepreneurship. It is responsible for shaping the economy and they help in creation of new wealth and new jobs by inventing new products, process and services. In present time, female entrepreneurship is gaining attention and importance in light of the evidence of the importance of new business creation for economic growth and development. This paper attempts to the constraints encountered by scheduled caste women to start cutting and tailoring as an enterprise and decision-making pattern of scheduled caste women to start cutting and tailoring as an enterprise. The study was conducted in Hisar District of Haryana state, India during the year 2016. The sample comprised of interested 120 SCs rural women from purposively selected ten villages of four blocks (Hisar I, Hisar II, Barwala, Hansi rural) of Hisar district, Haryana state. Six days training through experts was imparted to the women on garment construction. To assess the problem and constraints faced by the SC women for entrepreneurship, a well structured interview scheduled was subjected after imparting training to respondents. It was found that the main constraints of the respondents were economic dependency and marketing challenges, as far as decision making is concern, decisions regarding technical aspect were mainly taken by the respondent but other major decisions were male dominated.

Keywords :   Entrepreneurship, woman, economy, economic development, problem and constraints.

  • Introduction

    India has the second largest population in the world with 1.37billion people (census, 2011). This constitutes 17.3% of the world’s population. Out of roughly 3000 ‘Castes’ estimated to exist in India, as many as 779 have been designated scheduled, as per Article 341 of the Constitution of India. The scheduled castes comprise about 16.63% of India’s population  out of which 16.61% male and 16.65% female (Census of India, 2011). In India, Haryana stands at fifth position from the top in having scheduled castes population. The total Scheduled castes population in Haryana is approximately 4.09 millions which comprise 19.35% of the state population, of which about 78% live in rural areas. It is strange but true that despite various governmental efforts made for the welfare of SC population, the socio-economic status yet to be improved to a satisfactory extent. Hence, they need to be motivated and require capacity building support which will improve and manage their ability to manage their own resources. The Central and State Government has implemented various welfare programmes and schemes like Annapurna schemes, Stree Shakti package for women Entrepreneurs, Bhartiya Mahila Bank Budiness Loan, Dena Shakti Scheme, Udyogini Scheme and Mahila Udyam Nidhi Scheme etc.  aim to encourage women entrepreneurs to start their new ventures and achieve by providing income-generating assets including working capital.  Govt. started several programmes for the training of women entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurship is a process through which individuals identify opportunities, allocate resource, and create value (Hughes et al., 2012). Women entrepreneur is any women who organized as well as managed on any enterprise, especially a business or commercialized level. Women have owned and operated business for decades, but they were not always recognized or given credit for their efforts (Hughes and Jennings, 2012). They  can create new jobs for themselves and others and also provide society with different solution to management, organization and business problems (Hisrich, and Brush, (1978) and Hisrich, 1984.

    Despite the fact, the programmes involving women are very rare, now the time has come to recognize the role for women in agriculture and allied fields. Therefore, there is an urgent need to motivate and inspire rural women and specifically SC women bring them into the main stream to achieve the objectives of all round balanced development. Training is the first and foremost strategy suggested to improve the quality of life of women, because it is cost effective capacity building tool.Further training helped to change the knowledge, attitude and abilities of women and motivated those to mentally adopt the technology and also motivate them to actively participate in every household decision because decision- making is a stage when an individual engaged in activities that lead to a choice to adopt or reject the innovation/ practice. Haryana government has started a project “Capacity building of schedule caste through developmental messages” under which it was planned to provide training to the rural women belonging to schedule caste of the state which aims at developing skills in the beneficiaries group. Besides this, merely providing training cannot be assumed as fulfillment of the duty, but their impact should also be studied in order to witness the level of difference created on the living standard of beneficiaries. Keeping these points in mind, the present study had been designed to analyze the constraints encountered by scheduled caste women to start cutting and tailoring as an enterprise and decision-making pattern of scheduled caste women to start cutting and tailoring as an enterprise.


  • Materials and Methods

    The study was conducted in Hisar District of Haryana state, India during the year 2016. This work was the part of the project “Capacity building of scheduled caste women through developmental messages” of Department of Extension Education and Communication Management, CCSHAU, Hisar.  As per mandate of project ten villages of four blocks (Hisar I, Hisar II, (29.151861 latitude and 75.721123 longitude) Barwala,(29.364075 latitude and 75.906776 longitude)  Hansi rural (29.102377 latitude, 75.965996 longitude ) having predominately large number of Scheduled Caste population were selected from the Hisar district randomly. From each selected village, 10-15 respondents were selected randomly, thus making total sample of 120 respondents. For data collection well structured interview schedule was constructed. List of all 230 SCs women of selected villages was procured from Department of Extension Education and Communication Management, CCSHAU, Hisar. Out of that list 10-15 SCs rural women were selected randomly from each village to constitute a sample size of 120. Six days training was organized in Department of Extension Education and Communication Management.  Lectures /demonstration by resource persons as per scheduled planning were conducted and simultaneously required information gathered from respondents related to their decision-making pattern regarding garment construction. The data collected was tabulated and analysed by using frequencies percentages and weighted mean score.


  • Results and Discussion

    3.1.  Constraints of respondents faced during training

    The constraints of the respondents for garment construction were computed by W.M.S. and ranks were assigned as presented in Table 1. Among social constraints, family problem was ranked Ist followed bylack of time for attending village functions. In technical constraints lack of technical know-how ranked Ist followed by difficulty in maintaining and repairing of machine ranked.  In personal constraints lack of leisure time ranked Ist followed by lack of awareness.


    3.2.  Constraints of respondents faced after training

    Under economic constraints, garment construction as an enterprise will be unprofitable due to limited income was ranked Ist followed by lack of money. As far as constraints regarding marketing were consumed, no help by Govt. in marketing the product was ranked Ist followed by inability to compete with readymade products. The findings of the study are also in line with the findins of Thangamani and Balan (2004) , Malik (2014) and Martindale (2017) who found that most of respondents perceived economic constraints at priority with first rank, marketing constraints at second rank followed by personal constraints, educational and communication constraints, and social constraints at third, fourth and fifth rank respectively (Table 2).


    3.3.  Overall constraints of respondents faced during and after training

    The table regarding overall constraints faced by respondents indicated that majority of the respondents faced economic constraints ranked Ist followed by marketing constraints, personal constraints, technical constraints and social constraints (Table 3).


    3.4.  Decision making pattern for starting garment construction as an enterprise

    The Table 4 revealed that in Hisar I, Hisar II and Hansi rural block most of the decisions regarding opening and name of boutique were taken by the family (51.21%, 54.54%, 36.36%) of the respondents but in Barwala block most of the decisions were taken by the husband (50%) of the respondent followed by family (35%). More than half of the decisions regarding finance in Hisar I and Hansi rural block were taken by the family (60.97%, 68.18%, and 75.67%) of the respondents but in Barwala block most of the decisions were taken by the husband (65%) of the respondents. In all four blocks (Hisar I, Hisar I, Barwala and Hansi rural) decision regarding purchase and storage of raw material and decision of rate list, display and layout of boutique were taken by the respondents.  In Hisar I, Hisar II and Barwala block decision regarding account maintenance were taken by the husband (53.65%, 59.09% and 70%) but in Hansi rural block decisions were taken by the family (54.05%) of the respondents.  In Hisar I, Hisar II and Barwala block decision regarding marketing/ sale of garments were taken by the husband (48.78%, 54.54%, and 65%) but in Hansi rural block decisions were taken by the family (51.35%) of the respondents. Decisions regarding repairing and maintenance of the machine were taken by the responded in all four blocks. In Hisar I and Hansi rural block decision regarding management and household responsibilities were taken by the family (51.21% and 54.05%) but in Hisar II and Barwala block decisions were taken by the  husband (59.09% and 70%) of the respondents.


    3.5.  Overall decision making pattern for starting garment construction as an enterprise

    The analysis of decision- making pattern revealed about garment construction that most of the decision regarding  display/ layout of the boutique (56.66%), purchase and storage of raw material (45.00%), decision of rate list (52.50%) and repairing and maintenance of machine (55.83% were taken by the respondents. Table further revealed that opening and name of boutique (53.33%) and decision related to finance (62.50%) were taken by the family of the respondent. Decisions regarding account maintenance (55.00%), marketing and sale of garments (51.66%) and management and household responsibility (53.33%) were taken by the husband of the respondent. Thus it was clearly evident that decisions regarding technical aspect were mainly taken by the respondent but other decisions were male dominated. Findings are in tune with the findings of Yadav (2009)  and Bala and Jain (2016) (Table 5).


  • Conclusion

    Economic constraint was perceived as major constraint faced by the respondents followed by marketing and personal. For starting an enterprise, most of the decisions regarding opening and name of boutique and finance were taken by the family. Decisions regarding account maintenance and  marketing were taken by the husband of the respondents and  purchase and storage of raw material, rate list display and lay out of the boutique were taken by the respondents. So, women did not use to take decisions independently.


  • Further Research

    A wider study may be planned by taking into consideration groups of other villages of Hisar. An effort should be made to study the impact of new trainings conducted under the project.


  • Reference
  • Bala , K., Jain, V., 2016. Decision making pattern of scheduled caste women to take cutting and tailoring as an enterprise. International Journal of Home Science  2(2), 271-276

    Census of India, 2011. Data Highlights: The Scheduled Castes. www.censusindia.net/scstmain/dh_sc_haryana.pdf

    Hughes, K.D., Jennings, J.E., Brush, C.G., Carter, S.,  Welter, F., 2012. Extending women‘s entrepreneurship research in new directions. Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice 36(2), 429–442.

    Hughes, K.D., Jennings, J.E., 2012. Global women‘s entrepreneurship research: Diverse settings, questions and approaches. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar.

    Hisrich, R.D., 1984. Women entrepreneurs: Problems and prescriptions for success in the future. In: O. Hagan, C. Rivchun, and  Sexton (Eds.), Women-owned businesses New York: Praeger, 3–33.

    Hisrich, R.D., Brush, C., 1978. The woman entrepreneur: Starting, financing and Managing a successful new business. Lexington, MA: DC Heath.

    Malik, P., 2014.  Feasibility of value added products of pearl millet as an enterprise for rural women. M.Sc. thesis, CCS Haryana Agricultural university, Hisar.

    Martindale, A.K.,  2017. Women ’s motivations to sew clothing for themselves PhD. Thesis. Iowa State University Ames, Iowa

    Sainath, P., 2000. Dalits in India: The Scheduled Castes More than a Half Century after Independence. Available on www.asiasource.org/asip/dalits.cfm - 63k.

    Thangamani,  K., Balan. C.F., Tyagi, S., 2006. Empowerment of rural women through self-help groups working under government and non-government organizations of Udaipur district (Rajasthan). Ph.D. Thesis, MPUAT, Udaipur.

    Yadav, M., 2009. Capacity Building of Scheduled Caste Rural Women Through Processing of Milk and Milk Products. M.Sc. Thesis, CCS Haryana Agricultural University, Hisar.


Cite

1.
Sachan D, Sethi N. Problem and Constraints Faced by Rural Scheduled Caste Women for Entrepreneurship IJBSM [Internet]. 03Jul.2019[cited 8Feb.2022];10(1):306-311. Available from: http://www.pphouse.org/ijbsm-article-details.php?article=1270

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